The heart created by the renowned Mexican muralist Seher One in the south of Mexico City is a passionate plea for soccer enthusiasm. In his characteristic style with slightly psychedelic touches, the artist documents one of the defining aspects of the city: the love of the game on the street.
In the evenings and on weekends, Mexico's street corners, parks, and soccer fields are filled with children, teenagers, and adults who come together in their free time to play with a ball, a crushed plastic bottle, or even the lid that comes with it. The goals are not necessarily nets between metal posts: sometimes they are buckets, backpacks or doorways. The important thing is to kick the ball together.Based on the idea that the game of soccer belongs not only to the professionals, but to all those who are passionate about the sport, artist David Piñón (better known as Seher One) created the mural "El Detonante" in a residential area in the south of Mexico City, with a flaming soccer heart in the center.
And "flaming" is not an exaggeration, as it looks as if the football heart has just been kicked into the goal with full force to ignite the colors of football passion: wild sparks flying in all directions. The mural is a powerful combination of geometric elements (the heart and the figures in the background that seem to disintegrate and jump out of the picture) and abstract elements, such as the large neon dots and the pastel colors that splash and scatter when the ball hits the ground.
“The Detonante” with a heart-balloon approach. | © Arturo Zepeda
The 45-meter-long, 8-meter-high mural is part of the "Atrévete a crear" (Dare to Create) campaign, which Nike launched for the 2015 Copa América and ran throughout Latin America in collaboration with artists such as Argentinean Carlos Tévez (and the company Comex in Mexico). As part of this initiative, young soccer talents were identified in the cities and various urban artists were invited to capture the passion for the sport on the soccer fields in the neighborhoods - like this one.
About Seher One
Artbits has previously reported on David Piñón (Seher One), a young man who was born in the Iztapalapa district and has been known internationally for his murals for some time. In his works, he usually includes elements of pre-Hispanic cultural iconography, such as skulls and feathered serpents, but also motifs that are supposed to embody Mexican diversity, such as ocelots, corn cobs, cacti, or eagles, which he often presents in fragments, distorted and interwoven with other elements. In this way, he creates new images and dynamic compositions that simulate movement. Seher has left his mark on the streets of several Mexican states such as Guerrero, Tamaulipas, Baja California and Estado de México, as well as in other countries such as France, Morocco, Austria and the United States.Today, along with Dan SiIva (alias Pólvora), Edgar Flores (alias Saner), Paola Delfín, and Leo Monzoy, the artist is considered one of the leading representatives of contemporary muralism, as the academic Cynthia Arvide Sousa points out in her book Muros Somos: 33 murales con historia ("We are walls: 33 murals with history").
In the same book, the author and journalist points out that Mexican muralism is currently experiencing a renaissance, one hundred years after the works of the first generation, which included renowned representatives such as Aurora Reyes, David Alfaro Siqueiros, Diego Rivera, and José Clemente Orozco. According to the author, while some contemporary artists acknowledge the influence of these muralists in their work, many others try to distance themselves from them. They seek a new approach, with new themes, techniques, and emotions that reflect the peculiarities of this century. Seher One is certainly one of them.