14 March 2023 , 09:23
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When street art collective Boa Mistura was born out of Madrid in late 2001, they aimed to use their work to transform their city and create links between people.
Over the years since, they have travelled the world creating art to highlight a range of social causes and taken their unique style to cities around the globe. Wherever they go, however, there is one constant: Football.
“We spend our whole year travelling abroad, painting in the streets, and everywhere we go, the first thing to talk about is football,” explains Boa Mistura spokesperson Pablo Puron. “Being from Madrid, everyone asks us about Real Madrid or Barcelona.
“Football is a social glue everywhere, so it’s important to throw these messages out through football, because it has a big, unique voice in the world.”
The group now have the chance to transmit their unique messaging through football at the centre of LaLiga Week Against Racism. They have put together a colourful and vibrant campaign based around the word ‘Unity’ which will be prominent at LaLiga matches over the next week, including the El Clasico showdown between Barcelona and Real Madrid on Sunday.
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The campaign begins today (Tuesday, March 14) and concludes on the World Day for the Elimination of Racial Discrimination on March 21. The second LaLiga Week Against Racism is another step in LaLiga's ongoing fight against racism, discrimination and intolerance in football, an issue which has been in the spotlight this season.
Real Madrid star Vinicius Jr has continued to be targeted by rival fans on a number of occasions, with the incidents shining an uncomfortable light on racism in football. LaLiga has filed charges related to racist abuse of Vinicius on numerous occasions and is continually striving to prove it is serious about tackling the problem.
“Putting an end to racism is one of the objectives of LaLiga,” LaLiga president Javier Tebas explains. “We already condemn racist comments that are heard on the pitch and we have just created channels for fans to help us identify and report offenders. This second Week Against Racism helps us to raise awareness in society and to take further steps against racism.”
LaLiga held their first LaLiga Week Against Racism this time last year (Alex Caparros/Getty Images)Boa Mistura's artwork will be prominent across the week. LaLiga players will wear special T-shirts displaying the message whilst visual materials such as captain’s armbands and video scoreboard messaging will be displayed at games across match day 26, including El Clasico.
LaLiga clubs have also joined the campaign with players such as Jose Maria Gimenez of Atletico de Madrid, Yunus Musah of Valencia and Martin Braithwaite of Espanyol amongst those involved in a special video campaign. Players of EA Sports FIFA 23 will also be able to wear the UNITY kit in-game from March 16.
Boa Mistura spokesperson Purón explained to Mirror Football why they were thrilled to be involved as he outlined the thought process behind their latest art, which will be broadcast to millions around the world over the coming week of fixtures.
Puron explains: “When LaLiga and EA Sports asked us to design a graphic and conceptual campaign to raise awareness of the fight against racism in football. I think they reached out to us because we are a collective of urban artists, we are used to working the streets and through our works we always want to throw messages and bring awareness to people.
“We are very aligned with the fight against racism, so I think that’s why they reached out to us and, of course, we said yes because we believe it’s important to join forces against this fight.
“Football is one of the main voices for the people and for society. Football players, they are leaders and kids always want to act like football players act. The sport can be a big speaker, one of the biggest speakers to voice a message.
Madrid-based art group Boa Mistura came up with the artwork around the word 'Unity' (LaLiga)“We usually work with a word as the main element, and in this case we worked with the word ‘UNITY’. For us, it’s the epicentre of the story we wanted to tell.
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“It’s talking about diversity, breaking stigmas, and it talks about the collectivity. We have overlapped the word four times with the same typography, same body, and that talks about what makes us equal.
“Each of these words are with different colours, talking about what makes us different, but the overlapping is talking about the fact that when they are mixed together we can create something bigger. Not separate but together.
“This is one of the concepts of the work, the other is that as the words are overlapping, the colours are getting stronger. We want to show that the only way to fight against racism is joining together.
“When we join together for a cause, like the fight against racism, getting together makes us stronger so that’s why as the words overlap, the colours get stronger.
“We’ve made different pieces for the LaLiga games that are kind of abstract, but they all come from this way of representing the word ‘Unity’ and the messages we want to give.”