Pseudomero, Trees of the World, 2010.

Wall under the bridge at the Juan Antonio “Chi Chi” Rodríguez road. Graffiti based on the poem “Árboles”, from Puerto Rican poet Clemente Soto Vélez.

Tress of the World

Yearly Open Call

As a way to reach new artist’s both local and internationally, in 2010 arte_FITS decided to establish Yearly Open Call. The approach involves a placid competition in which the winning proposal has the opportunity to be conceived. The location where the artistic intervention will be most likely to occur is in the bridge on Road 693 at Dorado, Puerto Rico. Open Call shifts the Foundation’s gears from traditional Earth Art to urban interventions such as graffiti and street art.

“The Graffiti is an Art Form in its Own Right”

The establishment of new art forms usually emerge from artists who crave innovative ways of expression. One of the most radical urban manifestations that’s been recently considered a form of art is Graffiti. The term graffiti derives from the Italian word graffiato, which means scratched. This concept has in fact existed since ancient times in places such as Greece and Egypt.
Originally [speaking in the contemporary, late 20  & 21
st century, time frame] graffiti was a visual representation of political activism and gang territoriality that involved vandalism and defacement of public and sometimes even private spaces. Nonetheless, artists in New York’s downtown 70’s and 80’s scene, such as Keith Haring and Jean-Michel Basquiat, were able to prove that graffiti is in fact an art form in its own right. And why should it not be considered as such? Since it has been capable of traveling from its natal place (the streets), to the gallery, and ultimately art institutions, finding in the end, a permanent niche in contemporary art and one’s natural surroundings.

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The Trees

The winner and inaugural artist of Yearly Open Call 2010 was the Puerto Rican urban artist, Pseudomero. His artistic intervention, Trees of the World, involved the creation of two murals on the bridge at Road 693 were the inspiration was derived from Puerto Rican writer and activist Clemente Soto’s poem Estos árboles. The murals contained a combination of visual imagery, portraying in a vibrant way the most emblematic trees in Puerto Rico: the Palm Tree, the Flamboyán, and the Ceiba. It also contained excerpts [stanza’s 2 & 4] from Soto’s poem, which allowed the exploration of the written word as an image.

Estos árboles
que aprenden con la lluvia
a no mojarse los pies,
aún cuando el agua les suba
a la cintura… [stanza #2]

Esos árboles
le dan albergue
a la opinión desamparada
que tan elocuentemente cultiva la anonimia.
Donde la madera
verde de la lluvia
le brota en llamaradas
por los dedos… [stanza #4]

Clemente Soto

Text by Carla Acevedo Yates for Trees of The World brochure

Edited by Del Mar for website