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A nurse, in a blue uniform and mask, fights the coronavirus with a stick. This is the image painted on a wall in Vila Nova de Gaia by the Portuguese artist Mr. Dheo, representing the fight of health professionals against the covid-19 pandemic. A way to “honor” them, but also a warning about the “problem” of their working conditions and wages.
The image emerged strongly on social networks. It was posted on Mr. Dheo’s Instagram page on Monday night and in less than 24 hours it already had more than 12,000 “likes” and hundreds of comments and shares. “Anjos na terra” is the name of the mural that the artist paints in Gaia and with the photographs of the final result of the work comes a story and an alert.
The woman represented in the mural is “Nurse Sofia”, who works at the Hospital de S. João, in Porto. In the text accompanying the Instagram post, Dheo says that Sofia “was infected with covid-19 in March, not in a restaurant or bar, not when socializing with friends or at a cultural or sporting event, but while performing. of its functions. “. Without being “lucky enough to be asymptomatic, she was infected for two months and faced long and hard weeks of recovering all her abilities,” adds the street artist.
Today, Sofia is “in the covid-19 and medical units, but dressed in a blue uniform, again on the side of those who care and help others so often on the verge of exhaustion, so often without basic things that we – on this side – take it every day as guaranteed. Nurse Sofía, like so many other Sofías, will do – just this month and among others – seven 18-hour shifts. She earns € 7 per hour “, criticized Mr. Dheo , ending the message with a “sincere tribute” to health professionals: “Thank you nurse Sofía, thank you all Sofías”.
In an interview with JN, the artist revealed a little more about the work, that more than a tribute it should also serve as a “reflection” on the current situation of doctors and nurses in the face of the pandemic. “I treat health professionals closely and that gives me a clearer perspective both of the reality that we all live and of what they experience on a daily basis at various levels. I thought it would make sense to honor them, in an extremely complicated stage in which many of us end up depending on them directly or indirectly, “explained Mr. Dheo, warning that it is” necessary “to reflect on” their working conditions, the way in which they are usually treated, their salaries, their real importance “.
“This work was my way of trying to give them the recognition they deserve, but also to alert them to this problem. It was my “thank you” in the best way I know how to do it, “revealed the” graffiti artist.
Regarding the location of the work, the artist only said that it is in an “abandoned space” in Gaia, for “lack of a legal space to carry it out.” “In this particular case, it is completely indifferent. As a street artist I feel that I must transmit my message in a genuine and independent way, without having to wait for a hospital or some other entity to hire me to do it,” he said.
Regarding the impact of this type of artistic interventions to portray the problems of reality, Mr. Dheo recalls the importance of “raising awareness” and “giving a voice” to those who do not have it. “I think that street artists inevitably have visibility and communication power. We reach out to anyone, of any social origin, of any age, of any religion, since our work is on the street and it does not have (nor must it follow certain rules that are imposed on us. And that obviously means that we have to be careful with the the way we communicate, but also with the awareness that we can raise awareness and give voice to a part of society that often does not have it, report on issues that are so often overlooked or put in the background “, he concluded .
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