🖼 Public art is to clean the air in cities

In Warsaw, Poland, local artists painted a giant mural that eats up smog and purifies the air equal to 720 trees. This public art project was organized by the sportswear company Converse as part of their City-Forests campaign.

There are 13 cities planned to take part in the campaign. Amongst them are Jakarta, São Paulo, Melbourne and Lima.

Warsaw is the second to finish a mural, just after Bangkok in Thailand. This particular mural is made of special, sun-activated, smog-cleaning pigments. It’s composed using photocatalytic paint with titanium dioxide that captivates airborne pollutants. Thereafter converting them into harmless nitrates through a chemical process involving sunlight.

Thanks to this process, the mural purifies the air surrounding it equal to 720 trees. When the City-Forests campaign is over and done, all the murals together should be doing the job of 3000 trees.

The Warsaw mural features a collection of smiling flowers intertwined with high rise buildings. The image is designed by polish artists Maciek Polak and Dawid Ryski and executed by the local artist hub Good Looking Studio, involving expert muralists. Amongst the flowers it says “create together for tomorrow”. Converse officials feel a positive message to inspire change will help welcome people back to their daily commutes after CONVID-19 isolations.

“…for the time being everything has slowed down. At Converse we saw this as an opportunity to speak up and help produce fresh air through painting murals,” said a spokesman.

Converse really sease the moment with this campaign which both helps people's mental health and contributes to a better environment. Hopefully more cities will catch on the trend and think about how they can contribute to positive change and make the future a little brighter.

Photo: Converse City Forests