When an image becomes monumental its meaning also grows and it is then that we, tiny passers-by, are dominated; we forget about the rush and even our thoughts to allow the deliberate flow of imagination proposed by these "space interveners," who are secretly not only taking over streets and walls but also intending, with relentless pace and on different scales, to transform the massified and consumerist minds of the world's citizens .
Today, we have the privilege of witnessing the work of these artists who incorporate the forgotten aspects of domestic life in the working-class communities, alongside traditional crafts. It is remarkable to find, in the middle of a street intersection, an elderly indigenous woman diligently spinning, while children observe in awe. The presence of familiar figures from the community serves as a reminder that we are interconnected within a social fabric, one that should never overlook its roots as they define our very existence.
The revaluation brought about by the new Latin American muralism, with exponents such as Inti Castro and Jade Rivera, among others, stems from the imagery of the Altiplanic cultures. It serves as a poignant reminder of the immense richness found within the popular religious universe, the infinite mystical imagination surrounding rituals and carnivals, and, of course, the ever-present potential for social revolutions that lay dormant within the hearts of americans.
Artists such as Francisco Maturana and Javier Barriga have performed the task of turning streets into living museums. They display an academic naturalism that makes us stop in the beauty of the everyday, reviving objects of domestic use lost in time, broadening our view to take us to the small things, to what we do not look at so much, to the recognition that life also shows its value in the gesture of domestic and silent action.
To this flow of beauty, the brushstroke of STFI! added up walls and cities of the world, creating exultant gardens of deities coming from the matrix of the continent, bursting the colours adopted from the Chilean popular brigades of the seventies, and capturing the feel of mother earth and the resistance of the indigenous women of the continent. But above all , we are immersed in her world, where forces of deep feminine power emerge.
Urban art opened the visual frontiers from where the surroundings "should be seen" and although there are indisputable bonds with the history of latin american muralism, today the creators unframe themselves from rulings that were once symbols of freedom, to deeply announce that the latin american roots are still intact in the ancestral heritage of its people, in the popular trades, in those that make us proudly latin because it is there where the seed of the true revolution is kept secret but latent like a constant buzzing, the seed of a true revolution.
"They are not just walls, they are objects that absorb history and speak of how our society is based on consumption and how everything has become disposable".
VHils