By Chema Noriega.
We arrive to March 2018 and the spring already begins to feel in Queretaro, with high temperatures and suns worthy of the warmest summer afternoon. A very different reality from Montreal, Canada where, to this day, the snowfall leaves layers of 20 centimeters of water in the process of melting. The most basic reading would say that climate change is a myth and that the fact that snow continues to fall and accumulate on cars, sidewalks and roads today is only a symptom that temperatures are stable and that the Earth does not suffer the ravages of human activity.
The truth is that the Earth is a dynamic entity and its more than 4.5 billion years of history have shown that our planet is in a changing state and that everything that happens on it directly affects that process. Our era has given us different utopias regarding life on Earth in the coming years, but the ability to understand that fatalistic discourses about the environment can be eradicated if we change our mentality is a constant challenge for the societies of the world.
Back in Montreal, the city that is eagerly awaiting the end of an outdated winter, is Jason Botkin, an artist and producer whose work explores the possibilities of unconventional art to inspire society to radically change its way of thinking,”by stimulating greater awareness of relevant cultural, environmental, sociological and political issues. Throughout his career, Jason has collaborated in the production of more than 200 murals around the world since 2009, and has participated in solo and group exhibitions in Canada, the United States and various European countries. In addition to Botkin’s extensive portfolio, he co-created and directed the EN MASSE project, which aims to explore the spontaneous creation of large format black and white drawings and public installations.
Within his international collaborations, Jason also serves as regional project coordinator for the Pangeaseed Foundation in Canada. The issues directly involved in global warming, especially those that affect the Earth’s water bodies, are often too complex, limiting the actions that people can take to help reduce them. Pangeaseed, through its public art program SeaWalls: Artists for Oceans, aims to raise awareness about ocean conservation by creating large-format visual stories that interact with society and change people’s mindsets about the vital liquid and its ecosystems.
Jason Botkin will be present at the SeaWalls: Water Is One international festival, a new edition of the PangeaSeed program to be held at the Manuel Gomez Morin Educational and Cultural Center of the State of Queretaro, from March 27 to April 15, 2018. Botkin, together with a multicultural group of artists committed to water conservation, will accompany Queretaro’s spring with pints that, rather than beautifying the city’s urban landscape, aim to create visual metaphors that will impact the mentality of the spectators, in the hope that these messages will be translated into actions that will allow them to recover the balance between the Earth’s blue ecosystems.
You can learn more about Jason’s work at:
https://www.instagram.com/robotkin/?hl=es-la
https://www.pangeaseed.foundation/artists/jason-botkin/