From the capital city of Venezuela, a country with a strong political and social problem that dates back some years, a call to conscience from all over the world, through an ingenious mural.
The author of this work that is exhibited in a square in Caracas is Óscar Olivares, a young Venezuelan dedicated to illustration who designed this beautiful work using the pointillism technique. The image would become a call to action for people from every corner of the world to come together to reduce their negative impact on nature.
However, Olivares did not make this historic mural alone. The idea arose within the organization OkoSpiri and the Movement in Architecture for the Future. But this project would not have been possible without the help of the community, which helped collect more than 200,000 bottle caps and containers of all kinds of products. Also, many were the volunteers who joined this important cause.
This project started in the middle of 2018 and ended happily at the beginning of 2020. In the mural, you can see a group of macaws, but also another set of natural elements representative of the country: the araguaney, the Ávila and more.
Importance of the OkoMural
The work, which was baptized as OkoMural, has several factors that make it of great importance. First of all, it is proof erected that objects can be reused that are about to be scrapped; thus encouraging the concrete activation of recycling.
Second, it is a lcall of conscience to reflectr about the amount of plastic we use all the time. All through the representation of nature through this material. In addition, Olivares has indicated that it is the first ecological mural in Venezuela.
And, finally, the recovery of a social space that was abandoned and that had lost relevance in the Hatillo community. This square was being used as a garbage dump and has now been transformed into a place of artistic attraction. Thus, plastic and recycling have become a true alternative for creating artquality of life and social encounter.
The wall in numbers
The OkoMural was made with more than 200,000 plastic caps of various containers. It cost only $2,000 and was completed in two months of manual labor. The extension of this mural is 43 meters long, with a height that oscillates between 3 and 7 meters. This mural is the first of its kind in the country and the largest in Latin America.
But the most important thing is that he had the collaboration of thousands of hands who came together to capture in this square in Caracas an artistic and transcendental message for raising awareness in relation to the environment.
If this initiative were replicated in each country, in each city, in each square; no doubt that all communities would be truly integrated into recycling.