French artist Mateo aka MTO was recently in the US invited to paint a mural for the GNV URBAN ART project curated by Iryna Kanischeva.
Titled “On lâche rien” (French for “We Loose Nothing”), the mural expresses, according to the artist, his feelings about the French yellow vests movement. The grassroots political movement that began in France last year as a way to fight against economic injustice in the country.
The movement was initially motivated by rising fuel prices, a high cost of living and an overall discomfort related to the government’s tax reforms that affect the working and middle classes, especially in rural and peri-urban areas.
Since, have protesters called for lower fuel taxes, a reintroduction of the solidarity tax on wealth, a minimum-wage increase, the implementation of Citizens’ initiative referendums, as well as the resignations of President Emmanuel Macron and the Second Philippe government.
The yellow high-visibility vests were chosen in a time when a fuel prices increased considerably and a new law demanded that every driver should have a yellow vest in the car so i could be worn in emergency situations, and chosen by the protestants as “a unifying thread and call to arms”. This because of their convenience, visibility, ubiquity, and association with working-class industries.
Showing one of MTO’s hyperrealistic, large-scale, black and white portraits, “On lâche rien” depicts the image of a man wearing one of those yellow vests and a red shirt, gloves and socks, as he tries to remove a dark and dirty sky, revealing in this way a blue and clean one. The future is there, you just need to get rid of all that dirt first. The government? probably.
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.
