What is the function of community murals?
The production of community murals brings down to earth the communities' capacity to transform their environment and exercise their right to the city, said the General Director of Regional Development of Sedatu, Magdalena Aguilar Rodríguez.
Local communities have the capacity to transform their environment and exercise their right to the city through the production of community murals, said Magdalena Aguilar Rodríguez, Sedatu's General Director of Regional Development.
The Ministry of Agrarian, Territorial, Urban Development (Sedatu), through the Urban Improvement Program (PMU) has promoted the production of community murals in public spaces, with the aim of promoting social participation, artistic education and the appropriation of spaces.
"A couple of decades ago, this type of art was persecuted; today the federal government links the professional experience of Mexican urban artists to one of the priority public policies of this administration, which is why it is important to disseminate the valuable work that unites artists, community, community committees and different orders of government," Aguilar Rodríguez stressed during one of the workshops held at the exhibition 'Social Architecture, axis for transformation'.
The official informed that through the 'Urban Mexican Muralism' strategy, 35 murals have been created in 26 PMU projects, with the participation of more than 700 people, and the plan involves similar initiatives from other instances, such as some local governments through the intervention and improvement of public space.
In the panel discussion of the workshop 'Community murals: appropriation and transformation of public space with community participation in PMU spaces', urban artists presented the participatory methodology in the production of their works and agreed that these practices motivate more people to get involved through art and increase their capacity to transform their environment.
They stated that architecture must be linked to the participation of the people who live in the communities, so they celebrated the fact that the Mexican Government, through Sedatu, promotes mechanisms for the appropriation of public space that are activated by creativity, political will, and the community.
At the end of the workshop, the participants created a mural together with members of the PMU Community Committees of the municipalities of Nicolas Romero and Ecatepec, State of Mexico; a work that allowed them to recognize and consolidate the collaborative and community sense to promote more beautiful and inclusive cities.
Source: Alcaldes de México
