Composed of plastic lids of multiple colors and sizes, the famous Mona Lisa by Leonardo da Vinci now has a Latin American version: a 13-meter-high ecological mural that was erected in El Salvador by the Venezuelan artist Óscar Olivares.
The work stands on the façade of a multi-family building in Colonia Zacamil, in the Mexican neighborhooda popular area of San Salvador that for years was under the control of violent gangs and that in recent times has undergone a strong transformation after the security policy promoted by the president Nayib Bukele.
The mural represents a woman of Latin features, black hair, colorful dress, earrings and necklacewith a penetrating gaze and a slightly profile pose. “I wanted to represent a Latin American Mona Lisa”explains Olivares in dialogue with AFP. At 29 years old, the artist has already created murals in Venezuela, Mexico, Italy, Saudi Arabia and other countries.
Unlike the original work – painted with a sober palette and dark tones – this version is inspired by the pointillism of the French painter Paul Signac and was made with more than 100,000 recycled plastic bottle caps, collected by the neighborhood residents themselves.
«The Mona Lisa is an ordinary woman, but also an icon of the Italian Renaissance. Today we are experiencing a new renaissance, both in El Salvador and worldwide,» says Olivares, who defines the work as a symbol of cultural and social change.
The mural was completed in three weeks, although the previous process took several months. Neighbors in the area collected, cleaned and separated the lids, many of them rescued directly from the trash.
“This was done practically by collecting lids that were going to end up discarded,” says Angélica Esmeralda, 56, one of the neighbors who collaborated with the initiative. Even, remember, the kids were offered “something” in exchange for the tapas they found.
For Olivares, the central value of the work is not only in the visual. “The most important thing is the impact it generates on those who see it and on those who participated, because it completely changes the way we look at plastic waste,” he says.
And he adds: «Before, gangs used graffiti to mark territory. Today urban art has another meaning and is experienced in a community, not in a museum.»
According to the artist himself, the mural – seven meters wide – It is the highest in the world for talking tapasand pays tribute to Salvadoran and Latin American women.
Colonia Zacamil, with more than half a century of history, was one of the areas hardest hit by the final offensive of the civil war in 1989 and then by gang violence.
«I had total creative freedom and I felt that this place needed its own Mona Lisa. Renaissance art spoke of transformation, and I feel the same thing is happening here,» reflects Olivares, who defines the work as a personal and collective milestone.
The project is part of an initiative promoted by the Italian organization Custom Made Stories Foundation, which from 2023 seeks to intervene in 50 buildings in Colonia Zacamil with large-format murals until 2029. Neighbors, recyclers, environmental groups and the artistic group Full Painting, which has already intervened in twenty facades in the area, participated in the process.
“This place is becoming an open-air museum that redefines its history,” explains the artist. Each lid was placed one by one, without additional painting or removing trademarks. “The idea is to show the waste as it ends up in the trash or the ocean, transformed into art,” he says.
Olivares assures that the experience in El Salvador will be replicated in other countries in the region. “It is evidence that our cities can be transformed when art becomes the protagonist,” he says. Trained in France in the technique of pointillism, the Venezuelan found in plastic covers a contemporary translation of that aesthetic.
In total, Olivares has created 46 murals with recycled lids, 30 of them in Venezuela and the rest in 11 countries. «When I make a mural, I know the place in a different way, not as a tourist. This mural is what I wanted to tell about El Salvador,» he concludes.
With information from AFP and EFE
