Time Machine

Santa Cruz de Tenerife · Category: Art · Subcategory: Urban art · Year: 2023 · Authors: Rayco Pérez, Eliecer Marrero, Eugine Piratde, Estíbaliz Guanche

Time Machine is the title of a mural located on the exterior walls enclosing the Instituto de Enseñanza Secundaria (IES) María Rosa Alonso in the Añaza neighbourhood. It was created in June 2023 by the first-year Bachillerato students of the centre itself, as the culmination of an interesting social-educational project promoted by Emociones Eu, by Eliecer Marrero; Asociación Participación Oportunidad Desarrollo (POD), Eugine Piratde and Estíbaliz Guanche, and Rayco Pérez as social worker and urban artist. 

The work was conceived under the project called Bloc Party, which, taking as origin a handful of “Lego” and “Playmobil” figures, aimed, through the mural, to review the history of the Añaza neighbourhood; how, with struggle and sacrifice, the place has reached a worthy present to admire, and how the future is faced with hope.

After first making small models and later broader sketches, the exterior wall of the institute was worked on over three long sessions. 

Time Machine is the result of what the people of the neighbourhood themselves think about its evolution over the years. Created and conceived by people closely linked to the whole environment, the mural contains behind every drawing, word and colour, a feeling of social struggle to improve through effort and leave behind the most unpleasant aspects that the area once had and which are now almost residual.

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