Venezuelan artist Oscar Olivares, age 23, joined together with OkoSpiri and Movement in Architecture for the Future to create a massive eco-mural made from 200,000 recycled bottle caps and lids.
Olivares explained:
Besides the techniques, I have always used my art to be happy and to express what I feel and think. I am deeply happy when I am drawing or painting, and I want the people that look at my work to feel the same happiness that I feel during the creative process. To be honest, at the end, I didn’t make the decision to become a visual artist—it is just what I am, and if I wouldn’t have become an artist, I would have been a totally different person.
The mural, which extends 45m in length, 7.25m at its highest point and 3.5m at its shortest end, took two and a half months to complete. It’s on a wall of a small square, Plaza Escalona, in El Hatillo Municipality, Caracas. Olivares elaborated:
The initiative came from ONG OkoSpiri—they invited me to participate as the artist of the project of creating the first eco-mural of Venezuela using just bottle caps. At first, it sounds impossible, but I did some research and dove deep into pointillism and color. It helped me understand that it was not only possible to make a good mural using caps, but also something hard yet impressive and thus worth it
Over three months, the team made the mural step by step. First, they applied a coat of white paint, which was donated by OkoSpiri AC and Pinturas Pineco, CA. Then, they placed a grid for the design, collected the recycled plastic bottle caps (with Multirecicla CA’s help), and cleaned them. They prepared the mixture, put the caps on the wall, and finally added the finishing touches (smoothing, etc.).
The final result is a beautiful colorful composition of macaws in their natural habitat, with giant sunflowers, mountains, starlit skies, and UFOs.
Olivares explained the symbolism behind the mural:
The mural begins with the city of Caracas (where the mural is) at night with an arepa moon. The arepa is the most typical food of Venezuela and something that connects all of the people of the country—the rich and the poor. In the sky inspired by Van Gogh, you can see two Ovnis (UFOs) that represents our connection with the outer space. Then, we have some sunflowers and, in the most important part of the mural, the four macaws in different sizes and perspectives flying around. You can witness these birds flying around Caracas all the time; they are always in a couple or groups. At the end of the mural, you will see an Araguaney—that is the national tree of Venezuela with the name of the mural “Oko-mural” inspired by ONG OkoSpiri.
This mural is one of the most massive known ecological murals in South America and the first in Venezuela. The goal behind the artwork is to inspire and raise awareness among locals of Caracas about the environmental problems that Venezuela faces.
Olivares points out:
To be honest, the most challenging part was something that you don’t really see in the mural—the preparation. Specifically, it was to collect the caps of the necessary colors, especially the yellow ones. As I say, this is not art made by an artist, but art made by the simple people completely by pure awareness.
Olivares has some projects planned in the future, including another mural in Caracas but using only paint. However, he hopes to make more eco-friendly murals in Venezuela or around the world, and he also wants to make an art exhibition featuring only eco-art.
If you want to see more of Olivares’ art, you can visit his website, Instagram, Facebook, or Twitter.
