- Title: From pain to tiled art: Argentines honour soccer star Maradona with mosaics
- Date: 26th February 2021
- Summary: BUENOS AIRES, ARGENTINA (FEBRUARY 25, 2021) (REUTERS) VARIOUS OF PEOPLE CARRYING MOSAIC WITH IMAGE OF DIEGO MARADONA IMAGE OF MARADONA ON MOSAIC CEMENT BEING PREPARED CEMENT GOING ON WALL VARIOUS OF MOSAIC BEING PUT UP ON WALL LOGO FROM GROUP THAT READS (Spanish) 'COMANDO MARADONA' (SOUNDBITE) (Spanish) VISUAL ARTIST BEHIND MARADONA MOSAICS, GONZALO LOPEZ LAUCH, SAYING: "Maradona is a sample of Argentina, an imprint of our nation, part of our DNA, part of our blood. All the pain (at his death) has been transformed into a mural, we have transformed this pain into something for public spaces. That is how Comando Maradona was born." LOCALS GATHERED AROUND MOSAIC (MUTE) LOCALS POSING WITH MOSAIC (SOUNDBITE) (Spanish) LOCAL RESIDENT, JORGE OTTONE, SAYING: "I think this is a manifestation of love, just like the altars to Evita (former first lady). I was making this comparison just for myself, and what a wonderful thing that the people manifest their love in such a way." BUENOS AIRES, ARGENTINA (FEBRUARY 24, 2021) (REUTERS) VARIOUS OF PEOPLE MAKING MOSAIC OF MARADONA TATTOO ON PERSON'S ARM THAT READS "DIOS" ("GOD" IN ENGLISH), WITH THE NUMBER 10 REPLACING LETTERS I AND O TO REFERENCE MARADONA'S SOCCER NUMBER VARIOUS OF PEOPLE WORKING ON MOSAIC (SOUNDBITE) (Spanish) VISUAL ARTIST BEHIND MARADONA MOSAICS, GONZALO LOPEZ LAUCH, SAYING: "The day that Maradona died was very hard emotionally and with all the feelings, obviously not understanding it and letting Maradona's death sink in. We decided to create Comando Maradona, with an objective to creating every 25th of the month a mural to pay homage to Diego Armando Maradona, for the largest number of public places possible." BUENOS AIRES, ARGENTINA (FEBRUARY 25, 2021) (REUTERS) CAR ON STREET NEAR BUILDING THAT HAS A MOSAIC OF MARADONA VARIOUS OF MARADONA MOSAIC ON BUILDING VARIOUS OF PERSON TAKING PHOTO OF MOSAIC
- Embargoed: 12th March 2021 00:28
- Keywords: Argentina Buenos Aires Maradona homage mozaic soccer tiled art
- Location: BUENOS AIRES, ARGENTINA
- City: BUENOS AIRES, ARGENTINA
- Country: Mexico
- Topics: South America / Central America,Soccer,Sport
- Reuters ID: LVA001E157IVB
- Aspect Ratio: 16:9
- Story Text: Gonzalo Lopez Lauch is helping bring soccer star Diego Maradona back to life, one mosaic tile at a time.
The visual artist, part of a group called Comando Maradona, unveiled on Thursday (February 25) a colourful mural of the Argentine player and legend who died on Nov. 25 last year, sparking an outpouring of grief from Buenos Aires to Naples, Italy.
The work, in front of the Argentinos Juniors stadium where Maradona played the early years of his career, is part of a series of mosaics the group has produced for the last three months, to honour the day of his death.
The mosaics, made up of small tiles to ensure they are durable and easy to fix in case of vandalism, show Maradona in a jersey of one of the teams he played for, looking at the horizon.
Residents from the community are invited to add the final pieces to the mosaics, a reflection of how Maradona was a national hero despite well-documented issues of addiction.
Maradona, a world champion with the Argentine team at the 1986 World Cup, died in November after battling illness and drug and alcohol addiction. He was honoured with a period of lying in state with thousands of people coming to pay their last respects.
(Production: Miguel Lo Bianco, Claudia Martini, Paul Vieira) - Copyright Holder: REUTERS
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