The Arganil Mural
O Mural de Arganil
Arquivo Municipal de Arganil
Largo Ribeiro Campos 19, Arganil 3304-954, Portugal
ONCE UPON A TIME...
THERE'S A LONG, BUT A LONG TIME,
WHEN THE EARTH WAS FLORIDA GREEN,
IN THE TREES SANG BIRDS
IN THE MOUNTAINS GRAZED LITTLE LAMBS
AND IN THE VILLAGES OUTDOORS PLAYED CHILDREN
THE BABY JESUS APPEARED,
AND SOON SURPRISED!
He TOLD THE CHILDREN, HOW BEAUTIFUL THEY WERE,
THE LITTLE SHEPHERDS, THE DUCKLINGS, THE FISH;
SHOWED THEM THE SKY, THE SEA
AND THE STARS OF ENCHANT
ALL TOGETHER THEY SANG,
JUMPED... THEY FRATERNIZED..
IMAGINED WHAT THEY WOULD DO
WHEN THEY WERE GROWN UP
EVERYONE DREAMED
THEY PLAYED WITH THE ADULTS
EVERYONE WANTED TO DOMINATE
NATURE AND THE WORLD
BUT THE LAND OF THE CHILDREN, OF THE BIRDS AND OF THE
LITTLE LAMBS, DISAPPEARED!...
BABY JESUS NO LONGER FOUND
THE MANGER, THE DONKEY, THE KITTY...
NEITHER SHEPHERDS, NOR FARMERS
WHAT DID YOU FIND THEN?
A GREY, DUSTY PLACE, WHERE
SAD CHILDREN STEPPED ON, NO ONE PLAYED
WITH CHOPSTICKS , WEEDS, PEEPS!..
BUT WITH ROCKETS.
WITH NEUTRON BOMBS
THE CHILDREN WERE ROBOTS
THAT DESTROYED ITSELF AND NATURE
FRATERNIZING
ONCE AGAIN I WANTED TO
BUT WHAT ARE YOU GOING TO FIND?
A DIALOGUE OF DEAF MUTES!
ACUTE AND MONOTONOUS SOUNDS
THEY CROSSED PATHS IN DISHEVELMENT
AN EUPHORIC CHILD SAID:
- WHEN I'M BIG I WANT TO BE A ROBOT
- WHAT ABOUT YOU?
- I A COMPUTER
THE CHILDREN PLAYED
WITH ARMORED TANKS
WITH BARBED WIRE
THEY SPOKE, MAKING GESTURES WITHOUT TONE OR SOUND...
MACHINE GUNS
ROCKETS
NAPALM
COMPUTERS
UFOS
MACHINES AND ONLY MACHINES
I came across the Arganil Mural while visiting this small and pleasant town in the summer of 2021. Ever since I have been fascinated by “writings on the wall”. They tell a story and often one of resistance and defiance. At least that is how it used to be. Nowadays “tags”, cryptic signs only understood by insiders, have replaced the cries for a better world. I guess with CCTV surveillance having become so common quickly painted “tags” might be in itself a form of instant resistance.
The Arganil Mural is very different. It’s not a tag and neither is a political slogan or at least not a recognizable contemporary slogan. The message of the Arganil Mural is, when giving it enough thought, clear and shocking. Oddly weird and strange too.
The meters long message is not really a mural and neither is it a mosaic. It’s a ‘tableau’, a wood framed horizontal rectangle of kitchen-styled tiles. White tiles with black writing and - like old porcelain cups - scenes in a variety of blue tones. Nine scenes are portrayed - and what for scenes! - each one accompanied with a text that tells or maybe rather foretells the future of humanity in a post-modernist dystopian Christian perspective.
The Arganil Mural surely isn’t, or I don’t see it as such and I am a religious person, by any means critical of religion. Rather it is desperately critical of humanity. A humanity seemly incapability to embrace and care for what befalls them. A humanity driven and overtaken by strive and technology.
The Arganil Mural very much is a modern and dystopian version of the Loss of Paradise narrative. A loss not ordered by God for not obeying a Command but one fully achieved by a humanity that has lost its ways and seems incapable to find the way back.
Maybe there is a significance that the mural appeared on the garden wall of the “Arquivo Municipal de Arganil”? Human history is made before it is archived so those that come behind can learn from the past.
I hope many find their way to Arganil to discover this pleasant town and sit on a nearby bench pondering over the message behind the Arganil Mural.
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