Seven years after being closed due to the appearance of enormous cracks and the instability of the terrain, the IES La Victoria de Acentejo fields are already finished and will be inaugurated shortly.
And not only that, but its wall has been decorated by luxury artists: the users of the municipality’s Occupational Center directed by the artist and teacher Roberto Rodríguez RoRo.
This space was free and the City Council wanted to give it life. After speaking with RoRo and presenting a drawing project, the artist was delighted to incorporate the Center’s users and have each one participate with their abilities from wherever they could and finding their place so that art and sport come together for inclusion.
That is his philosophy of art and education and he tries to capture it in his works and projects, increasingly focused on working with young people.
The initiative was part of the institution’s Christmas program, which includes activities more aimed at leisure and free time “and this was perfect because it complemented the artistic part that they have incorporated into their daily learning,” said its director, Jessica Quintero Morales.
Although they had a little prior experience with inclusive murals because they participated in a workshop organized by the Youth area at the La Vera cultural center, it was the first time they had painted a large one and used spray.
On this occasion the group was smaller since users had the option of staying at home with their family during these two weeks of celebration.
RoRo made them his accomplices from day one. As in previous projects, he designed it relatively quickly since he had the resources to make a mural of those characteristics and sent it to the center so that his future collaborators knew what they were going to do and provided their suggestions in order to add them to his drawing.
“I like that the person who hires me knows what they are going to find once finished,” said the artist. For this reason he prepares everything in advance, he can change “something” but “the essence” is preserved.
The users of the center enjoyed a different day on Wednesday painting the inclusive wall of the IES. / Sergio Mendez
The users of the center enjoyed a different day on Wednesday painting the inclusive wall of the IES. / Sergio Mendez
The users of the center enjoyed a different day on Wednesday painting the inclusive wall of the IES. / Sergio Mendez
The users of the center enjoyed a different day on Wednesday painting the inclusive wall of the IES. / Sergio Mendez
The users of the center enjoyed a different day on Wednesday painting the inclusive wall of the IES. / Sergio Mendez
The users of the center enjoyed a different day on Wednesday painting the inclusive wall of the IES. / Sergio Mendez
The first step was anchoring the wall and drawing by hand on it, “which is the most cumbersome part,” he noted, and when the users arrived on the first day they began to change some things. Once their ideas were included and a consensus was reached, they began painting.
Thus, images of football, basketball and athletics are mixed with faces in which gender is not identified, and gestures such as the V for victory, widely used in sports, or symbols such as joined hands.
The work began coinciding with the holidays and on Thursday, after the final touches, RoRo and Carlos, his assistant for three years, completed it. “It was a very complicated mural due to the dimensions and the type of drawing. The boys and girls helped, but I have also left them freedom and together we have discovered that there are very good people doing things and they are very involved,” said the artist.
Wednesday was the last day they went to the field and there was a day of celebration. Equipped with gloves and masks to avoid inhaling the strong smell of the sprays and getting stained, one part of the group dedicated themselves to anchoring the entire lower part of the mural in green while another took care of the upper part, in black.
The people who made up this last group were the most daring and those who dared to get on a crane in order to achieve the objective, an experience that they lived for the first time and that they will surely not forget.
The first to do so was Kiko. He did not hesitate, put on his helmet and with great enthusiasm climbed in with Roberto, who quickly explained to him what his task consisted of.
He was followed by Joana, who greeted her companions when she got on and although she couldn’t explain her experience because she doesn’t communicate, when she got down and saw her face, everyone confirmed that she liked it.
Meanwhile, Macu, Mary and Airam concentrated on carefully painting the lower part of the wall green, supervised at all times by Renato, Dany, Claudia, Idaira, Jony, Leo, “cartu” and Nazaret, their monitors.
“I love to paint, I was a painter in the center but I left it to dedicate myself to gardening, which I also love,” confessed Mary, who also stressed that “in her town, La Orotava, there are very beautiful gardens.”
Jessica and RoRo highlighted the involvement the group has had with the mural. “We work on the awareness part because they know that their work is something that will remain, they will pass by the institute and they will see that they are there and that they have participated in that work,” said the director.
“I like to work as if I were a child and they are adults but they have the ease to say everything that comes to mind and they got involved from the first moment, to the point that they made it their own and I love that” , added the artist.
In his case, it is not the first time he has worked on an inclusive mural. Almost all of their projects have an educational or social part and leave a message that, directly or indirectly, forces you to think a little.
“They are fun, they have witticisms, it has been a very enriching experience. I believe that art has to educate and teach and I am of the idea that everyone can dedicate themselves to art and city councils can opt for inclusion, because in the end projects come out and if the people in the area are involved, the mural It will last longer, they will take better care of it and they will make it their own because they feel proud to have been participants,” Roberto said finally.
Students will no longer have to go to the soccer field
The mayor of La Victoria de Acentejo, Juan Antonio García Abreu, hopes that soon the IES fields can be made available to students, so that they can do physical activity there and not have to travel to the attached soccer field, as they have done. done in the last seven years, “especially because of the danger involved in crossing a street that is the entrance and exit to the municipality,” he points out. The “positive side” of this delay was that it made it possible to paint an inclusive mural and to count on Roberto Rodríguez RoRo and the users of the Occupational Center to do so.
