"The Lands in Monterey" Challenge

Four Artists Turning Waste Into Art in 20 Days To Inspire a Community to Focus on Sustainable Living

In the spirit of Walden Monterey, Nickolas Jekogian tasked 4 artists, Mundano, Bordallo, Orion, and the Skewville brothers, with creating art that would stay on Walden Monterey's open air museum for an entire year. These artists all hail from different parts of the world, but they share common fascinations with nature, art, and their interactions with each. As a part of this challenge, the artists will have 20 days to use any material on Walden Monterey that is no longer of use. The art will then be curated by Mundano himself, an Ashoka and TED Fellow who started the Pimp My Carroca movement to highlight the importance of garbage collectors.

Mundano

The artist and curator of this challenge, Mundano has a long and extensive history with using art to highlight sustainability. He originally started painting Carrocas, a vehicle for garbage collectors, in Brazil to make these ignored heroes visible to society. This movement soon caught on around the world and operates in over 43 cities around the world.  We are looking forward to Mundano bringing the same passion he brought to Pimp my Carroca to Walden Monterey. If you would like to learn more about Mundano, his TED talk is linked below.

Bordallo

The Portuguese street artist Artur Bordalo, aka Bordalo II, tackles the problem of urban rubbish through his fantastic street-art. By turning burnt aluminum cans, old tires, scrap wood and neglected appliances into colorful animals he diverts garbage from landfills while adding a splash of color to dull city corners.

Orion

Orion stood out from the movement of which he was part and began to interact with the city in a very unique way. In the artist's own words, "the city is full of meanings." It is precisely with these often subtle meanings that the artist works, researching techniques and exploring what the city hides, interacting with passers-by, creating clashes with the public power, making them part of his artistic work.

Skewville Brothers

The Skewville brothers were born in Queens, New York and grew up in a big family. The shoes they wore were hand-me-downs from their older siblings. After the twins became adults, they came up with “When Dogs fly”, a combination of worn texture, the fantasy of owning their own shoes and their free spirit. The twin artists started to make woodcut “dogs” and throw them into the air, leaving them hanging over telephone poles in the different cities they have been to since 1999. Though their art continues to evolve and move forward, “When Dogs Fly” is a classic project that is still going strong.