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#Blu #capitalism #murals #public art #social commentary #street art

Blu’s Refreshed Mural in Barcelona Bites into Ravenous Capitalism and Nature’s Brute Force

March 15, 2023

Grace Ebert

A detail photo of Blu's recent mural in Barcelona featuring ravenous sharks

All images © Blu, shared with permission

An updated mural from the anonymous Italian street artist Blu (previously) sinks its teeth into capitalistic greed and nature’s unparalleled capability for destruction.

Originally painted in 2009 following the Spanish financial crisis of 2008, the first mural likened the insatiable capitalist appetite to that of the aggressive fish, which stretched across a 25-meter section of wall at the intersection of Barcelona’s Carrer del Santuari and Carrer de la Gran Vista. Crews painted over the work in 2021 as part of a city project, and after hearing that neighbors wanted the piece back, Blu painted a second iteration earlier this year.

Retaining the bank-note shark of the 2009 work, the 2023 version adds an arsenal of nuclear missiles and warplanes to the central creature. The expansive mural continues to unfold like an exquisite corpse of global maladies with raging forest fires and floods encroaching on civilization, leaving mass chaos and ruin in their wake.

See the full mural here, and follow Blu’s latest projects on Instagram.

 

A detail photo of Blu's recent mural in Barcelona featuring ravenous sharks and military planes

A detail photo of Blu's recent mural in Barcelona featuring a ravenous shark made of bank notes

A detail photo of Blu's recent mural in Barcelona featuring a ravenous shark eating a plane

A detail photo of Blu's recent mural in Barcelona featuring a ravenous shark made of bank notes

A detail photo of Blu's recent mural in Barcelona featuring a city being overwhelmed by a forest fire

A detail photo of Blu's recent mural in Barcelona featuring a city being flooded

A detail photo of Blu's recent mural in Barcelona featuring a polar bear stranded on a melting iceberg

#Blu #capitalism #murals #public art #social commentary #street art

 

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