Although the newly formed green zones through the Urban Nature project originally represented only 3-7% of the metropolitan region, the principal objective was to create a visual discourse that promotes the idea that a city once known for its plethora of ads can be revitalized as a green city and that there is continuity in pursuit of a cleaner, greener and healthier urban environment beyond the initial effects of the "Clean City" law.
José Subero and Grupo BijaRi collaborated in the idea and execution of the project. Funding support in part came from the Prince Claus Fund, the Netherlands.
The artwork is visually powerful in that it simultaneously uses and subverts conventional marketing systems to promote an environment, a greener one, that is the antithesis of these very systems. It is also powerful in that the highly visible living plants incorporated into the structures are viable and do serve to physically change the environment. This projects and many others that come out of the "Clean City" initiative in São Paulo create a dynamic forward looking cultural environment that promotes and inspires other social agents to take on the challenge of transforming the environment to one that is healthier for us, the flora, the fauna and the planet.
I believe the project has succeeded in termso of the artist's intention in that it has inspired many others to come up with ways of growing vertical gardens, ambulant gardens, the idea of what a garden is or could be has been exploded by this initial idea.
It should be considered because of its clear, simple yet profound visual and practical approach to creating an aesthetic experience that can change the way the public thinks and acts around the issue of the environment.
All copyright belongs to Shanghai Academy of Fine Arts, Shanghai University.
