Tijuana.- Visions of this city and the rest of the state now adorn the beach promenade, floating among the sea smells, the metallic steel fence that divides two countries in the background.
They were painted by 50 artists who worked in the last three months in the public art project called Paseo del Arte por el Malecón Playas de Tijuana or "Art Walk by the Tijuana Beaches Promenade."
It consists of 25 murals, the last 15 of which were unveiled Sunday.
Some of the multi-colored images on the walls are metaphors of life in this region, others capture paradoxes or conflicting realities, while still others present urban and natural landscapes.
They include a revolutionary man eating pizza standing like the Statue of Liberty, surfers taming waves, enormous migrating fish, nomadic indigenous people and feathered serpents.
"The murals had to be about Baja California, that was the only condition. I chose the migration of the gray whales that metaphorically I believe illuminates those of us who live in this region," said Eduardo Cooley, one of the participating painters, who last Friday finished his wall Siguiendo la Luna (Following the Moon),
like the song from The Fabulosos Cadillacs.
The group of painters was commissioned by a non-profit organization called Festiarte, which in the last four years has organized one of the most important art festivals in the region at the beach community.
"We're interested in having this area be seen as a cultural space, that it has that feel. When we knew the promenade was being remodeled, we proposed this mural project, which also includes benches and streets," said Claudia Alamina, the organization's coordinator.
In addition to the 50 artists who painted the walls, 12 design students worked on wooden fences on the verge of collapsing.
The 25 murals are just the first phase of the project, Alamina noted. The second, planned for the next four months, calls for replanting gardens and remodeling stairs and walkways.
The last phase involves the rest of the city.
The organization plans to commission another series of murals in the Río zone, and in the La Mesa and downtown districts.
The administration of the previous mayor, Jorge Ramos, invested about $3.4 million on remodeling the promenade, which covers nearly a mile of walkway. But the area remained colorless, pale.
The art project literally has breathed color into the promenade, color best experienced while strolling along the walkway, under the palm trees, and, at the end, enjoying a seafood cocktail, paired with a cold beer or perhaps a good wine from the region.
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Omar.millan@sandiegored.com
