Carlos FresnedaLondon Correspondent

London Correspondent

Updated Monday, March 25, 2024-01:47

  • Patio Global Macron's last fight a la Rocky Balboa

The tree,

a 50-year-old cherry tree pollarded in the middle of a barren lot

and in front of a white-painted party wall, was crying out for intervention. And then

Banksy

arrived , with nocturnality and treachery, and

poured cans of green paint on the white wall to create the miracle

of a splendid frond suddenly covering the bare branches.

The interpretations poured in. There were those who saw it as a nod to Saint Patrick or as an ode to the incipient spring. Others deciphered it as a denunciation of wild pruning, a metaphor for the conflictive relationship between cities and trees. Former Labor leader Jeremy Corbyn, who lives near Hornsey Road, did not hesitate to see it: "What a wonderful work of art! It is proof that there is hope for the natural world everywhere."

Banksy confirmed his authorship on Instagram, and as proof he left us on the construction site the

stencil

(template) of a woman with a paint sprayer, as if she herself had painted the

green I love you

. It took them two days to vandalize the mural with white paint, but the frond is still clearly visible from all angles.

The wall has increased its value incalculably overnight, and the owner of the neighboring building, Alex Georgiou, has decided to protect the work with fences and plexiglass screens. The district of Islington, which has its own anti-graffiti brigade, has said it has no intention of returning the wall to its original white, especially now that the tree mural has become a magnet for urban art fans and tourists such as Axel and Antonia, who came from Sweden.

"We are going to spend five days in London and it is the first thing we wanted to see. We were afraid we wouldn't arrive on time, but we were surprised to see it more or less as we imagined it from the photos. Luckily, they didn't manage to ruin it when it was vandalized. The effect It is prodigious, and the message is obvious."

The message has been interpreted in such a way by James Peak, author of the BBC radio series

The Banksy Story

, who was one of the first to respond to the claim: "Nature is fighting and we can help it recover the lost ground. In Banksy, "Everything is context. That's why he chose the place consciously, with an easy-to-understand motive and the appropriate technique."

"Don't be obsessed with Banksy, look at the tree," warns Gio Iozzi, founder of Haringey Tree Protection, the local group that made headlines for its campaign to save a century-old tree in Stroud Green from felling, around the corner. "The 50-year-old cherry tree has survived in that place and now looks like a dying hand with bare branches and without the flowers that should be coming out at this time," emphasizes Gio Iozzi. "The Borough of Islington justified the savage pruning on the grounds that it is a sick and declining tree. Do we treat human illnesses with such brutality?"

The owner of the property, Alex Georgiou, has assured the tenants that he has no intention of raising the rent, but he has also acknowledged to the BBC that he is willing to sell "if someone offers me millions." The district of Islington has for the moment stepped up to the plate by protecting the work and the surrounding area to prevent vandalism and ensure that people can admire Banksy's pollarded tree in all its splendor.