Italian street art legend BLU is now in Chile where he painted this new mural for the Hecho en Casa Festival.
Not unlike the rest of his work, BLU managed to immerse himself in the Chilean reality and create this mural about the Chilean dilemma regarding the construction of HidroAysén, a proposed $8 billion mega-hydroelectric dam project that would provide the country’s central electrical grid with 2,750 megawatts of power over the the next 12 years.
According to Policymic the main problem with the HidroAysén plan is that it would build five dams, significantly altering 14,000 acres of the pristine Patagonian region, a diverse ecosystem shared by Chile and Argentina that’s known for its glaciers, islands, mountains, and fjords.
In addition to the dams, the project would require the construction of a transmission line spanning almost 1,200 miles — making it the largest in the world — as well as access roads through Andean glaciers. Furthermore, the project could flood the Pascua and Baker Rivers, across which the dams would be built.
Flooding could lead to ecological damage in Chile, but the hydroelectric plant could have environmental consequences for the rest of the world, significantly contributing to clime change.
The mural intends to depict this exposing the problem in a visual way. An interesting and worrying issue these days.
The mural is located at Rivera Norte del Mapocho (between the Patronato and Recoleta neighbourhoods).
Images © Tomás Echiburú
Author: Fran
Founder and editor of Urbanite. Street Art lover who after the finishing her MA thesis on the Mexican and Norwegian muralist movement in the 1920-50s, developed a fascination for street art and graffiti that eventually led to collaborations with different art blogs, including the creation of this one.
