Leave no one behind (6 photos)

November 7, 2021

By Vidar

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Street Art by Spear

“Leave no one behind” by Spear in Bayonne, France for Festival Points de Vue.

Spear: “The wall is situated in “Cam de prats”, a neighbourhood just outside the centre of Bayonne. Cam de Prats was first created as a refuge for homeless people. After, it became a retirement house, and now the site has been a psychiatric hospital since 1975. After reflection, I thought “this site has always had a social function, yes, but it has also been used to put aside people that society doesn’t want to see”. I wanted to share a message of help and mutual aid. The composition I made represents someone strong (powerful) helping someone weaker (in need, more vulnerable) or in a bad situation because no one should be left behind or put aside. Society should be built with the inclusion of everyone no matter their situation.

Lately, I’ve been working on social insurrection and the role of citizens. I have absolutely no faith in the political system as it is today, so the only solution rests on the (the willingness of the) people. Citizens should be at the centre of it and involve themselves to change and heal our society. Being an activist, educating children (and adults), going to protests, growing vegetables. I represented this active citizen with a t-shirt on his face, it’s an image that had been really connotated with violence so I wanted to mark an opposition to that and use it more positively. It is the engagement and the actions of the people that will lift up our society.

The last point and maybe the most important is that it was important to me to ask someone from a minority group, here a black man, to be featured as the main character, looking at the future while the other is looking at the past. In that way, it sends the message that only a society based on inclusion will be able to swipe off the archaic mentalities that too many people still live in.”