The mural by ROA, a Belgian artist reputed among international urban art, painted in August in a building in Lagos, has now been completely covered by a outdoor from the campaign of Nuno Serafim and José Valentim, PSD candidates for the Council and the Municipal Assembly of Lagos, respectively.
The mural, representing a flamingo, was painted in front of the firefighters, as part of the ARTURb IN MY WALL, a project organized by LAC – Creative Activities Laboratory. But now no one can appreciate this work by the international artist, hidden by the poster of the social democrats' municipal campaign.
LAC, which denounced this situation in its Facebook page, commented: “it is not enough to declare electorally support for culture and the arts, it is necessary to demonstrate it in practice”.
Nuno Serafim, the social-democrat candidate for the Chamber of Lagos, contacted by Sul Informação, clarified that he had not "realized the situation", since "the places for placing the posters and banners were previously defined with the company with which we contracted the advertising".
Taking into account the alert and the controversy, Nuno Serafim said that "right now" he tried to contact that company, to ask them to "change the band to another side where it won't cause inconvenience". This should happen, he assured, "as soon as possible", in principle still this Thursday.
The PSD candidate also made a point of stressing that his candidacy was not intended to «offend or disrespect anyone, let alone an artist». And he even commented that, with this controversy, "more people will pay attention to these artworks."
ROA is an urban artist of Belgian nationality, who has already left his work scattered on the streets of the main cities around the world, such as London, New York, Stockholm, Mexico City, Buenos Aires, Vienna, just to name a few…and now Lagos .
This was the first time the artist was in Portugal, having left two works in Lagos: some snails in love, on the busiest street in the city, and the flamingo that appears to need help in front of the fire department, now covered by the PSD campaign poster.
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