BROOKLYN STREET ART LOVES YOU MORE EVERY DAY
Lapiztola & Said Dokins. Del Barrio / Mi Merced Mexico City. 2017. (photo © Leonardo Luna)
The writing is on the wall. Can you read what it says?
Lapiztola & Said Dokins. Del Barrio / Mi Merced Mexico City. 2017. (photo © Leonardo Luna)
“Social Cleansing” is a term used by Said Dokins and Lapiztola when describing the process of a gentrifying neighborhood in Mexico City where the enormous and historical public market called La Merced Market is now gradually disappearing, taking the people who made it possible with it.
Lapiztola & Said Dokins. Del Barrio / Mi Merced Mexico City. 2017. (photo © Leonardo Luna)
Their new piece looks at the destroying of a native culture by the forces of development that feed on its unique energy and character to sell real estate and investment opportunity but in the process negate its very authorship, its right to its formidable historical place in community.
Their new wall contains the messages from Said Dokins within his particular calligraffiti style that is both communication and ornamentation. The composition also features a stencil from Lapiztola of the face of a girl, perhaps from Oaxaca, where her dress would be typical.
Lapiztola & Said Dokins. Del Barrio / Mi Merced Mexico City. 2017. (photo © Leonardo Luna)
The states of Oaxaca and Chiapis have provided the life of La Merced for many decades – the market itself a jewel and historical institution in this neighborhood that has hosted commercial activities for more than five centuries.
“This mural was made within the project called WallDialogue2, which took place in a parking lot where several vendors from La Merced Market pass through everyday,” say the organizers of the program that took place January 20-22.
“The intentions of this project were to generate a discussion site focused on the relation between urban art and gentrification processes.”
Lapiztola & Said Dokins. Del Barrio / Mi Merced Mexico City. 2017. (photo © Leonardo Luna)
Appropriately, we have a poem written by Natalia Saucedo when she was 12 and a girl from this community of the market.
My MERCED (Fragment)
Alert in my heart the market that saw me grow up
Cruelly falls little by little
My life runs here
I can’t let it go.
From here I hear the noise of machines
Little by little
My market destroyed
Ladies and gentlemen, without a job have been left
Be strong
Those who love the market crying inside,
Smiling outside
Withered heart
Traveling hope.
~ Natalia Saucedo
Lapiztola & Said Dokins. Del Barrio / Mi Merced Mexico City. 2017. (photo © Leonardo Luna)
Lapiztola & Said Dokins. Del Barrio / Mi Merced Mexico City. 2017. (photo © Leonardo Luna)
WALL DIALOGUE 2 – Nuestro Barrio Wall Painting Jam
ATEA Topacio 25, Centro Histórico, Mexico City
January 20 – 22
Featured Artists: Billy, Blo, Johannes Mundinger, La Piztola, Libre, Mernywernz, Nelio, Pao Delfin, Said Dokins
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