Here we present the mural that the artist Rubicon1, with the collaboration of the Plataforma per la Qualitat de l’Aire, made last May 14th on a wall in the Poble Nou neighborhood of Barcelona. The occasion was Pantomacona 2016; the Criticona or critical mass of bicycles that takes place once a year in a Spanish city which was hosted this year in the city of Barcelona.
Coinciding with the Pantomacona, we organized this mural on a wall near Hangar.org (carrer de Emilia Coranty n.16) which is where where the bikers ended their tour of the city. In the painting, which welcomed the riders, we can observe the stereotypical gray man who is brazenly smoking a car as if it were a cigar and drinking a nuclear waste cocktail. While he smugly celebrates his growing wealth two riders observe, with growing concern, the disastrous effects of this expansion in the form of an ominous grey smoke cloud. The piece asks the question: ¨Who benefits from city development, and what are the hidden costs?¨
We hope that the piece has a visual impact and causes people to question the status quo. Some day maybe this will be one more chapter in the the story of our progression to a pollution-free city. Thanks Rubicon1!