From green graffiti to guerrilla gardening!

At a time when the term "Sustainable Development" is on everyone's lips and Green is in fashion... Graffiti is also getting a green makeover! When graffitists adopt eco-friendly methods, it's a far cry from using highly chemical spray cans, and it even extends to guerrilla-style actions!

A closer look at the pioneers in this field…

Edina Tokodi is a pioneer in "green graffiti." This Hungarian artist is a trailblazer in natural graffiti, creating eco-friendly works in urban landscapes using turf or moss... Personally, I think it's a great and original idea! It confirms that beautiful things can be made simply with the environment around us!

This artist has truly embraced an art form in total harmony with nature! And since pictures speak louder than words, I'll let you admire her creations…

Where to find her works? Unfortunately not yet here! You'll have to go to the streets of Williamsburg in Brooklyn to see concrete and greenery artistically side-by-side in the form of animals, objects, etc.

An ephemeral art? Certainly, plants wither, but what's better? A graffiti that will naturally fade or a graffiti that will be removed by municipal services with a power washer? In terms of lifespan… it’s about the same!!

A movement that goes much further than the art of green graffiti, "guerrilla gardening." But what is this barbaric term? It's a pacifist activism movement that uses gardening as a means of action for the environment. If everyone who had something to claim used gardening, the world would be a much more beautiful place, wouldn't it?? :)

The pioneer of this movement: Richard Reynolds, a British activist who founded GuerillaGardening.org in 2004, and he has recently even dedicated a book entirely to this urban green movement!

“In some cases, it’s a snub to the 'all-concrete' of our cities, but elsewhere it’s a claim for food crops, like the Landless Workers’ Movement in Brazil, people deprived of land. Sometimes, this leads to shared or community gardens.”

Origin of a movement coming from the 4 corners of the US, UK, but also Germany… And which is starting to grow and germinate in the neglected areas of large French cities!

And good news on this Earth Day! It's breathing much better following the halt of air travel in recent days, due to the volcano (even if, as a result, many more cars were on the road... still less polluting than planes...)

++ Guerilla Gardening Source and Source Séverine