The 6th F students at the EB 2,3 School Dr. Garcia Domingues, in Silves, after having spent two hours at cleaning the herbs and dust at the Cork Museum, on Friday, they still had the strength and desire to clean up the graffiti that had been crumbling for months on the tile panel by artist Maria Keil in a downtown square.
The panel, which represents Silves, with the castle and the cathedral, the steep streets, the orange groves and the river, was offered in 2000 by the artist Maria Keil do Amaral, Silvense by birth, now 98 years old.
Armed with buckets of water, detergent and mops, in less than 20 minutes the 15 students, the two teachers and another volunteer, quickly managed to erase the paint that covered part of the tiles.
The panel, offered to the city by the largest XNUMXth century tile artist, boasted an ugly phrase in English, without, however, the Chamber of Silves, owner of the public artwork, had even thought of cleaning it up. This despite the fact that the panel is on one of the routes most used by tourists between the riverside and the castle.
Not long ago, someone had already started to clean the ink, but had not finished the job.
"That's how it was, since September 2011, after being vandalized by someone who decided to dump their bitterness on the wrong object!" explained Professor Manuel Castelo Ramos, responsible for the civic initiative of his students, which took place on 18th May, on International Museum Day.
Showing that whoever wants to do more than who can, in 20 minutes, armed only with water, mops and detergent, the volunteers put the tile panel almost like new! "Since nobody cares about this, we are worried," commented one of the young people involved in the action.
To make it perfect, the panel only lacks four tiles, which Manuel Ramos says are relatively easy to replace. It may be that, after seeing the work done by the students at the school, the City Council decides to return the public artwork in its original state.
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