CHATARRERO

LOCATION: Barcelona, Spain

The mural was created during the Open Day Festival for the Poblenou Urban District in Barcelona with the support of La Plataforma and curated by Arcadi Poch of Kognitif.

I created this mural to give homage to the scrap metal foragers in Barcelona, the majority of them African, that meek out a living on the margins of social indifference. The collection of scrap metal, cardboard and other objects that are discarded daily, a consequence of the out-of-control consumerist society that we have constructed, becomes a means to better their lives and the lives of their families. Harassed by the police without cause, without rights although they are human, this mural shows a gaze that joins in screaming: No human being is illegal.