Argentina: They inaugurate and bless the largest mural in the world dedicated to Pope Francis

A few meters from the Immaculate Conception Cathedral, in the Argentine city of La Plata, the largest mural in the world dedicated to Pope Francis and painted by the renowned artist Martín Ron, a work that meant a great technical challenge and that aims to be a message of peace, of union “between earth and sky”, and – why not? – a place of prayer and pilgrimage.

Martín Ron’s trajectory is extensive in time and space, with more than two decades painting and works that embellish cities worldwide. In his native Argentina, soccer land par excellence, two of its most commented murals are those that represent Diego Maradona and Lionel Messi, only a sample of the hundreds that carry their signature.

This Saturday, with the presence of municipal authorities and the Archbishop of La Plata, Mons. Gustavo Carrara, a 50 -meter high mural was opened and blessed with the image of Pope Francis, one more of the “popular idols” that had to paint Ron.

Painting idols is increasing collective memory

“The muralists, beyond that we paint our works, we are permanently detecting those figures that have a lot of popular arrival”, because the muralism “is still popular art,” said the artist to Aci Press. “Paint them in these dimensions and contribute to increase the collective memory of these figures, especially in places where art does not reach, it is very important,” he said.

In the case of Francisco, “beyond that it is the Pope, who is the most important person in Argentina, and his figure in the Catholic Church, he does not stop having that imprint of popular idol – although the word idol is, in this case, in quotes – because he has that arrival, he is still healthy a popular idol,” he said, because there is some of these idols “that has to do with how it is incarnating in the culture.”

When referring to the characters he painted, and whose murals had so much arrival, said that “they are the maximum expressions of the Argentines, which came very far,” so the people themselves demand it.

Get rid of the work so that it becomes its own life

Martín Ron said that once it is made, “the work comes to life in places” and goes to the forefront, where “what matters most is the artistic legacy” and not who painted it. “You have to fight a little with the ego, no matter who was so, but why he did it, because the works speak of one, actually.”

“If I am lucky and the privilege of touring the world painting, it is because it is my own works that take me. And everything I have to say, I try to say it and tell them through them,” he said.

THE WALL: THE GREAT CHALLENGE

Located at the intersection of streets 54 and 14, the mural of Pope Francis completes the already imposing landscape of the Cathedral of La Plata. Painting it there was a request from the Municipality of La Plata, and it meant a great challenge in terms of the technical.

Although he had total freedom to choose an image that would represent the recently deceased Argentine pontiffthe limitations had to do with the “toughest issue of the work, which are the dimensions, the wall format, the angles from which it is going to be seen.”

“In this case the road was quite raided, because it is right next to the cathedral, it gives the square, it has a lot of centrality, but the only limitation it had, which is what sometimes you can filter you the best photos, it is the particular format of this building that, although it is high, is very narrow: it is 50 meters by 5 meters.”

This detail implied that “out there the best photo, the one that has the best story to tell, compositionally does not use the place.” The first requirement was, then, “generate a composition that gains height and progresses in verticality to read it from the bottom up, or from top to bottom.”

“It is the Pope. One can fall into the common place of saying: ‘Well, Pope Francis, any photo can apply, that comes out in the photo, photogenic, and we all recognize it.’ But he has to have something else, he has to tell a story,” he said.

Know that the work “will transcend”

The chosen image was a well -known of the first months of Francisco’s pontificate, where he can see him smiling and looking up, with a dove in his hand that begins to unfold the wings.

“It was a candidate photo, because understanding that she is the biggest mural of the Pope, also understanding that the building has no obstacles and it is as if it melt with the sky, and all the symbolism that the dove has, he who is happy, and there is as a connection between earth and heaven, I said: it is this photo,” he said.

“It is a very tender photo, I think it is one of the best, it is well known, and says a lot, because it is connecting with the sky, throughout the symbology of the dove within the Catholic faith,” he observed.

In addition, in terms of the technical, “I was solved by the theme of verticality, because it begins with the cassock, the cross of the good shepherd, then the neck, the portrait appears, and then there is the arm that leaves the painting and re -enters, and above crown with the pigeon and the sky, which melts with the real sky. It is already. In the jargon we say ‘nailed’.”

“When you have all those variables, you already know that the work will transcend, it will give what to talk about, and it becomes a new postcard of the city of La Plata,” he synthesized.

Martín anticipates that the mural will become a referential point of the city, “for the power of the image, because it is who it is, for being the first, for being just in the central place, in the Plaza Moreno, next to the cathedral,” he listed, and stressed that “when these things are happening you are contributing to generate new postcards. There is something else to see and discover in the silver.”

“It would be fabulous” to become a prayer

Believer but not practicing, Martín considered positive that his work “crowns with a blessing”, because he thinks that “beyond who paints it, the important thing is how people get to him.”

“I am the channel, the person responsible for a work, but when I sign it, the work already becomes the people,” he said. “All the artists who paint murals give off from the work,” he said, especially when one travels around the world, because “the place is appropriate, the people appropriate, the artist out there never sees her again,” he said. Therefore, each work “is like a gift, an opening.”

In this case, “that they begin to happen a lot of things around, related to this character, it is the best thing that can happen, not only for me but for people.”

“That the work is blessed and that, in the future, this becomes a place even of pilgrimage, that for some is an opportunity to be closer to the figure of Pope Francis, going to La Plata, going to the cathedral, making a prayer, asking for something there, it would be fabulous.”

Francisco transmits the peace that the world needs

Personally, Martín said that Pope Francis transmits Peace. “It is a popular figure that made a certain rupture from the symbolic, from the dispossession of absolutely all the material.”

“Beyond all her most political legacy, she is a person who you listen to her and transmits peace, beyond what she says, even from the physiognomy of her face,” he said.

Therefore, “I wanted to keep that image that, beyond the dove, is an image that represents peace, and we need it at this time in the world,” he concluded.

Massive inauguration

On Saturday afternoon, the mural was inaugurated with a massive act of the mayor of La Plata, Julio Alak, referents of the Catholic community, representatives of schools, members of political parties and other institutions. In addition to some artistic shows, the act included the blessing, by the local archbishop, Mons. Gustavo Carrara.

“The city has to be a meeting place, of integration, where neighbors help ourselves to walk together,” said the prelate, yearning “that Francisco’s figure makes us work in this city for the culture of the meeting and inspires us paths for fraternity and social friendship.”