France is consumed by a ferocious and sustained outpouring of social unrest. The tumultuous, intermittently violent protests of the so-called Yellow Vests Movement have shaken the country since they began in November 2018, intensifying in recent weeks.
The Yellow Vests reverberate as a primal scream from working-class France at the tax-avoiding, wealth-hogging Parisian glitterati enabled by a government now headed by one of its own, Mr Macron, a former investment banker. Protesters have called for lower fuel taxes, a reintroduction of the solidarity tax on wealth and a minimum-wage increase.
Driven by his desire to support the Yellow Vest movement, French artist Mateo aka MTO has painted a new mural titled “On Lâche Rien” (“We Lose Nothing”) for the GNV URBAN ART PROJECT, curated by Iryna Kanischeva.
“On Lâche Rien” is an expression of MTO’s stand against France’s traditionally generous social welfare system and its increasing neglect for key slices of the populace: the working classes, those living in remote rural areas, young people and refugees. This neglect is tripping deep-seated notions about fairness that date back to The French Revolution.
The anger drawing people to the barricades has been spurred by a sense that the national interest has long been undermined by Mr Macron’s own economic class, the globe-trotting financiers who have turned France into a sanctuary for the rich.
“The government promotes equality very strongly,” says Louis Maurin, director of French Inequality Watch, a research institution in the city of Tours. “In every school in France, it’s written on the walls: liberté, égalité, fraternité. Yet everyone thinks people are gaming the tax system. The feeling of being cheated can make you really angry.”
MTO’s massive hyperrealistic portrait, “On Lâche Rien” depicts a yellow vested worker attempting to remove a dark and dirty sky, making way for a clean blue one: reaching for a brighter future, one free from Macron’s political pollution.
The mural is fittingly located on Diesels Parts Sales Service Inc. on West Adams Street, Jacksonville, US.
Images by Iryna Kanishcheva.
MTO: facebook | instagram | vimeo
Iryna Kanishcheva: website | facebook | instagram
