The city of Buenos Aires talks, grumbles, celebrates and shouts from within its walls. Years ago, Mayor of the Argentine capital had detected 151,677 graffitied facades and they felt obliged to erase these traces every day. Efforts have been redoubled to keep these surfaces spotless. One of the legends that spread to different neighborhoods brought with it an unknown message: “I don’t take a bath“. It was as if Buenos Aires itself, in expressing itself, claimed to have a certain pollution. The message irritated the authorities, who always began to search fruitlessly for its authors. Only one picture emerges, unscathed from any attempt at suppression or vandalism, with suggestive messages: This Diego Maradona. Almost three years after his death, his figure proliferates in different neighborhoods. God observes life not only from the sky, but also from the walls.
A kind of Maradonist muralism He brought a new language to the city. In this case, the authorities are tolerant and even encourage it. “Maradona The most important cultural symbol in Argentine history of the last half century. For the popular world he was a genius, says sociologist Pablo Alabarces, a profound connoisseur of these expressions and idolatries, from Grupo Prensa Ibérica to El Periódico de Catalunya. Author of ‘Fútbol y patria’ In turn, this adds an element that defines emotionality: ordinary character Former captain of the 1986 world champion team.
“Although the figure of Diego causes controversy and hostility, he is widely respected. Murals persist over time. It is a very rare thing because most urban interventions deteriorate in the short or long term,” he told the newspaper. La Nación’ Nora Basilio is the author of some of these representations.
The capital of Argentina has an area of 203 square kilometers. social and urban asymmetrywith. a street, Rivadavya, divides it in two. On one side, the wealthiest neighborhoods rise towards the La Plata River. In the opposite direction, greater insecurity is detected. However, both halves can be linked together by a common emblem and code. Maradona’s face. The city took it upon itself iconographic worship interestingly not of Argentinian origin: Naples, Diego’s second country, and with the devotional drive created by the myth, it expanded through India, Lebanon, Kenya, France, Romania, Bosnia and Herzegovina, England, Armenia, Serbia, Spain, Iran, Bangladesh.
Nicolás Reyes and Máximo Randrup described this global emotional relationship as follows: murals of god, a book containing 300 of the most distinctive street images in the world. “Maradona continues to live among all of us, instead of becoming like us mortals. Sometimes, while walking on a street, we come across Maradona’s wall. Something always creates you“Randrup explained. Every time they discover a new “ghost,” they upload it to the @maradonamurales Instagram account.
All possible ‘Maradonas’
A biography with so many contradictory twists can never be compressed into a single official image. Therefore, Maradona is written on the walls as many times as the number of lives he lived: You can see him in regal form, screaming goals with his mouth open, but you can also see him sad or losing his natural weight; It is also possible to find him with a thin beard, hugging his daughters or his parents. Diego can smoke a cigar or Be a great kid againhas angel wings on his back, wears an Argentinos Juniors or Boca Juniors jersey, smiles with a ball on his head, carries a halo and staff, or inherit your reign Leo Messi giving him the ball
Perhaps one of the most unusual representations for its mixture of irreverent piety and connection with the greatest pictorial expressions,’The Creation of Adam by Michelangelo in the Sistine Chapel. Maradona and the former Barcelona player are present where the great Renaissance artist staged the moment when God created the first man with the touch of a finger. The stage covers the entire ceiling of the five-a-side football field. Sportivo PereyraIn another popular neighborhood to the south, Barracks.
alone in the neighborhood slaughterhouses35 murals were counted in the place located in the western part of the city and historically dedicated to cattle slaughter. Some of these were financed by residents of that popular neighborhood. In some cases, there is no shortage of votive offerings and candles. as if he were a popular saint.
Just like Diego has always invited extremism, also has what is taken into account world’s largest maradona mural: 45 meters of one of the images that most affect the memory: Lost final against Germany at the 1990 World CupThe one whose wrist the heroic captain destroyed while fighting. Plastic artist Martín Ron realized this in a 13-story building on San Juan Boulevard. Virreyes District, and sponsored by oil company YPF. When Ron was called, he said to himself: “Since Maradona belongs to the public, there must be something monumental on a big wall where there is a lot of traffic.“.
Last Tuesday the 30th, Diego He would have turned 63. He celebrated by recalling his bright moments.