PHILIPPINES, MAY 2011 – It has always been said that art will save the world, and Boysen sets out to prove it. The Philippine paint manufacturer of Boysen, with the support of the MMDA (Metro Manila Development Authority), has launched an urban renewal initiative with the use of Boysen’s KNOxOut paint.
Using light, Boysen’s KNOxOUT paint transforms airborne toxins into safe residues which are washed away by rains. The paint was tested on the Guadalupe MRT station last year and Boysen claims that it has helped reduce pollution of as much as 30,000 cars. Now, Boysen will expand their green initiative to the entire stretch of EDSA, by painting the avenue green, so to speak. Eight huge artworks by 11 artists will be executed on EDSA every 45 days making KNOxOut a medium of social change. Marian Roces of TAO INC heads a curatorial team of three.
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The first part of the project by Jose Tence Ruiz can already be seen on the wall along the Barangay San Lorenzo-Mantrade area of EDSA.
Meanwhile, graphic designers Baby Imperial and Coco Anne of Studio B+C are set to paint art pieces at the interchange pillars of EDSA-Ortigas. Painter and printmaker Virgilio Aviado provides images of "elsewhere" on EDSA walls near Rockwell and Ayala Avenue. Brisbane-based artists Alfredo and Isabel Aquilizan will make a community-based artwork between GMA-Kamuning and Quezon Avenue MRT stations. Japanese-American photographer Neal Oshima will bring his artwork to the tall pylons of LRT from Monumento to Balintawak. Dutch-Indonesian artist Erika Tan will work on the posts at the Taft MRT station, while Finnish architect Tapio Snellman will cover the walls extending from the Cubao-Aurora underpass. The art department of TBWA Santiago Mangada Puno will have free artistic rein on walls at Boni Avenue MRT station near the Guadalupe Bridge.
According to TBWA Santiago Mangada Puno’s Kara Filamor, who oversees the Boysen campaign, artists have free artistic reign on what to paint on their respective walls, as long as it fits into the concept of anti-pollution and the movement for clean air. “It is a public service with art as a medium,” Roces says of the project. She also says they are slowly building on the merchandising to go along the pace of the project, which is slated to finish by early 2012.
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