Sao Paulo (AFP)

The ashes flow through a sieve to the container full of paint.

It is with charred remains of the lush vegetation of the Amazon and other regions of Brazil that a giant fresco was created on the facade of a building in Sao Paulo.

Officially inaugurated on Tuesday, Mundano's work, "The Firefighter of the Forest", depicts a firefighter, both heroic and powerless in the face of a fire.

After collecting 200 kg of ashes in different biomes ravaged by flames, the artist created a huge 1,000 m2 fresco on a building very close to Avenida Paulista, artery in the heart of the Brazilian megalopolis.

The ashes come not only from the Amazon jungle, but also from the Pantanal, the "mata atlantica" - forest of the coastal areas of Brazil - and the Cerrado savannah.

"This idea came to me from a feeling of helplessness. For decades we have seen the forest burn, more and more in recent years, with record levels", confides this artist and activist to AFP. 36 years old.

In early 2020, Mundano (who wishes to be called by that name alone) painted another giant fresco, using toxic mud residue from the Brumadinho mining dam, whose tragic rupture in January 2019 left 270 people dead.

- Gray everywhere -

With the ashes, Mundano wishes to make the inhabitants of Sao Paulo aware of the fires that devastate every year remote regions of Brazil, a huge country with continental dimensions.

Brazilian artist Mundano sifting Amazonian ash for his fresco in Sao Paulo on October 13, 2021 Miguel SCHINCARIOL AFP

"The forest fires in the Amazon are too far away, no one really sees them. The idea is to bring the ashes here to create empathy," he explains.

In June and July, during his expeditions to collect ashes, he felt the extreme heat of the fire but also the distress of the firefighters who tirelessly fight against the fires ravaging the flora and fauna.

On his fresco, next to a firefighter, a black man with determined gaze, we see a caiman skeleton.

The black or gray palette varies according to the quantity of water used, but also according to the origin of the ashes, kept in large transparent boxes duly labeled.

The black and white fresco contrasts with the vivid colors of Sao Paulo's graffiti.

"The city is gray, with asphalt, pollution. We too are becoming gray," he laments.

Graffiti artist during his adolescence, Mundano became known in 2012, decorating carts of collectors of recyclable materials with colorful paints and messages such as "my vehicle does not pollute".

- The painter Portinari -

With the fresco made of ashes, this committed artist denounces the carelessness of successive governments, "negligent" and incapable according to him of preserving the environment.

Ashes from the Amazon used for the Mundano fresco in Sao Paulo, October 13, 2021 Miguel SCHINCARIOL AFP

And the situation has only worsened under the presidency of Jair Bolsonaro: since the start of his mandate, in 2019, nearly 10,000 km2 have been deforested per year on average in the Amazon, against 6,500 km2 during the previous decade.

Fires, which occur after deforestation, with burning to make way for agriculture and cattle ranching, have also reached alarming levels.

"The government is dismantling environmental policies and violating the rights of vulnerable populations," including indigenous people, insists Mundano.

The ash fresco is inspired by a famous painting by the Brazilian painter Candido Portinari (1903-1962), "O Lavrador de Café" (the plowman of the coffee field).

As in this 1934 work, Mundano's fresco shows a black man, his face turned to the side, with vegetation in the background.

Mundano's model is a very real man, Vinicius Curva de Vento, a volunteer firefighter whom he saw fighting the flames of Cerrado.

Aerial view of the fresco by artist Mundano "The firefighter of the forest" in Sao Paulo, October 13, 2021 Miguel SCHINCARIOL AFP

But if the plowman of Portinari is provided with a spade to turn the earth, the shovel of the "Fireman of the forest" is used to smother the flames.

And the lush vegetation of the painting gives way to a landscape charred on the fresco, with trucks carrying tree trunks.

© 2021 AFP