Artist restores mural of Bad Bunny damaged by vandals

A mural dedicated to the music star Bad Bunny on the outside wall of a restaurant in his hometown, Baix Segura, damaged by vandals in mid-December, has begun to be restored this Wednesday by its creator, the artist Puerto Rican Eric Chacón.

“We are going to restore it and add to it the message I want to project, which is aimed at young people: that they do not lose their dream, that they maintain their focus as Benito and all these qualities of humble people and children who want to excel. “, Chacón highlighted to Efe about his piece dedicated to Benito Martínez, the stage name of the urban artist.

The mural was made by Chacón, of the company New Art Industry, in May 2019 and the author took 18 hours to complete it.

The painting features the face of Bad Bunny with lines of different colors such as white, red, blue, yellow, orange, green and black, showing his tongue, wearing his distinctive glasses, a third eye on his forehead and his two little fingers pointing to his face.

“The whole concept of lines, colors and shape will remain intact,” said Chacón, 40, on the piece located on the outside of the Costa Nord restaurant, in operation since 1980 and located in the Marbella sector , formerly known as “Port Nou Beach”.

The style that Chacón used for the mural is “Wedha’s Pop Art Portrait”, known as WPAP.

“It’s more laborious and you have to be precise,” Chacón said of the work, which will be restored using a ladder and possibly a scaffolding.

Bad Bunny, the most listened to artist on Spotify in 2020 with more than 8 billion views, was raised specifically in the South Admiral sector, an area close to the town of Vega Baixa, on the north coast of Puerto Rico.

Vandalism Day

It was last December 22 when several strangers, using aerosols, damaged the mural, according to a friend of a daughter of Rosa Vall, a member of the management of the restaurant Costa Nord.

As Vall told Efe at the time, he saw the suspects fleeing the scene in a vehicle.

Several residents of the place even took videos and photos of the moment when the strangers carried out the act of vandalism and withdrew from the area.

On the act of vandalism, Chacón said: “I felt the same as a child when he makes a beautiful drawing and another child comes and hurts him. I felt what any artist feels or would feel when they damage him. his art “.

Chacón, however, acknowledged that “these are the risks an artist takes into consideration when deciding to do street art as the audience that impacted is greater than the risks”.

As Chacón explained, the reason for depicting the image of Bad Bunny on a mural occurred when the urban performer appeared on the red carpet at the 2019 American Music Awards with a third eye painted on his forehead and pointing with two little fingers his face.

“This was a sign that his originality knows no bounds,” said Chacón de Bad Bunny, who before dedicating himself to music worked as a packer in a supermarket in his hometown and growing up.

According to Chacón, the complete project to create the mural took six months, in which he and his wife “explored” Baix Segura and went to the mayor’s office to find out on which walls they could paint the work, until who arrived in the Marbella sector and spoke with the owners of the North Coast.

“We chose to dedicate the piece to Bad Bunny for his values, successes and all the positive things he has done. I am a fan of his successes and what he has done for the people,” said Chacón in reference to the young artist who for a couple of years now he has also been giving away hundreds of Christmas gifts to children and young people in Puerto Rico.

“Bad Bunny, on the other hand, alludes to several of his subjects to his pride in being Puerto Rican, another of the main reasons why we chose to paint the artist,” stressed Chacón, a barber. of profession.

Chacón also highlighted the “bad rabbit” because in his songs he highlights “the problems we have, such as gender violence, the lack of identity of our youth for fear of being judged or marginalized or criticized.”

“Benet, through his character he reaches many generations, and in our opinion this artist is a key piece when we talk about creating awareness to generate changes in our country about the love of country, to appreciate our attributes as Puerto Ricans and give us the value we deserve in front of the world, ”he expounded.

“We want to take advantage of the artist’s reach to raise awareness among different generations about valuing children and young people who are already the future of the world. To support their creativity and imagination so that they are the new inventors. That each generation is a better version of the previous one, “he said.