The environmentalist street art of Banksy and Liquen
In recent years, street art has become increasingly popular and accepted, with many cities hosting festivals and events dedicated to this art form. Despite this public recognition, however, street artists have not lost their verve; on the contrary, they have continued to send messages on highly topical issues, often focusing on environmental awareness and climate change.
In 2009, for example, Banksy created a very simple but, at the same time, decidedly effective mural: I don’t believe in global warming is a red inscription that appears partly submerged in a London canal. The message is clear: if we continue to ignore the problem of global warming, we will soon find ourselves in deep water.
Liquen, on the other hand, is a Spanish street artist who has always dealt with climate and the environment: the mural El despertar de los tiempos (the awakening of time), painted in Guadalajara, Mexico, in 2017, sends a message of hope: in a world now corrupted by technology and machines, there is still the possibility of waking up and saving ourselves, if we follow the laws and rhythms of nature.
Hunting Pollution: the smog-eating mural
Another extremely significant example of environmentalist street art is the mural Hunting Pollution, created in Rome in 2018 by the artist Iena Cruz (born in Milan in 1981). The work, which portrays a tricolour heron (an endangered animal) trying to feed in a sea full of waste, aims to denounce the serious problem of pollution in our seas, which threatens biodiversity and environmental balance.
But this mural is not only an example of how street art can be used to raise people’s awareness of ecological issues, because it has a decidedly unusual feature: the paints used by Iena Cruz, of the Airlite type, are entirely ecological and, in contact with natural light, can absorb pollutants by up to 88.8%. The mural is therefore able to ‘eat’ smog and harmful substances, hunting pollution, as the title of the work says, and cleaning the air.
The idea is brilliant: if there is no room for trees, murals can step in! Hunting Pollution, given its enormous size, is moreover the largest work of environmentalist street art in Europe. Its impact on the city has been decidedly positive: with its bright colours, it has brought life and beauty to an anonymous Roman building, and has increased the appeal of the whole neighbourhood, which, thanks to the mural, has become a place of pilgrimage.
But above all, those who go to see it will be able to breathe cleaner air and, perhaps, even the most sceptical will realise that everyone, in their own small way, can do something significant to combat climate change.
Public art in the service of the environment
Environmentalist street art is, indeed, a powerful tool for promoting environmental awareness. Through creative and engaging works of art, street artists, sometimes true activists, can inspire positive change in society and help build a greener and more sustainable future.
Art, after all, has always been a means of reflecting on the present, of protesting against what was wrong, of social change. All that remains, therefore, is to hope that the example of Iena Cruz and other environmentalist street artists will be followed, and that our cities can become cleaner, more sustainable and more beautiful, thanks also to murals.
