Toulouse. La Negra fresco: we erase the insults
Last night at the Croix de Pierre, around thirty people gathered in front of the giant fresco created by Colombian artist Angela Atuesta, alias La Negra, as part of the Latino Graff festival (Editor’s note our article from September 29). . Responding to the invitation of this association, they came to cover with flowers the insulting inscriptions soiling the work of this politically committed artist. (“Collabos”, “Woke = degenerates” or even “no eternal excuses to Africa”). Daisy lives in the neighborhood and passes by the fresco every day. She sent a note of support to the artist who gave her an appointment here. “I saw in these insults a lot of racism. I was sad and angry,” she says. On this work completed on September 23 and which represents a black woman carrying a burden, one could read: “As long as someone carries the weight of our privilege no one will be truly free”. A message intended to make us think rather than to designate a culprit. For Daniel Virguez, festival coordinator “it’s a misunderstanding, a bad interpretation. By writing our privilege, Angela Atuesta shows that she includes herself among the privileged”, he points out.
The artist returns especially to Toulouse for the occasion, after an exhibition in Villerest near Roanne, is more than ever to continue his commitment. Before flying to Bogota she confesses. “I’m aware that it may have provoked this kind of reaction, it’s not the first time, but art is also used for that,” she says.
The Latino Graff festival will return in September 2023 with this time the theme: animal, plant, and ritual power. A theme no doubt more consensual, but, who knows, stupidity has no limits.