The Bread of the Rich
A ubiquitous location for Mexican citizens is the location of Ben Eine’s artwork, ‘The Bread of the Rich’. fluoro spoke to Ben about the story behind the art and its meaning to him and to the people of Mexico.
When asked about his work, here’s what Ben had to say:
I wanted to write something meaningful to the people of Mexico City, as well as something thought provoking. Where I painted is one of the busiest commuter junctions in the whole of the city. People from the suburbs travel by bus, bicycle and foot to this station where they then catch the metro in to the city itself. Nearly 400,000 people make this journey to work in the morning and then home again in the evening.
This station was built in the 1960s, along with much of Mexico’s infrastructure, when they hosted the Olympic games; and, like a lot of the transport system in Mexico, the funding hasn’t been there to maintain it and it is in desperate need of upgrading.
A Mexican businessman offered to build a new station and in return he would be allowed to develop Mexico City’s largest shopping mall. This is what is happening now. I painted the inside wall of the building site where the foundations are currently being laid to this gigantic celebration of consumerism.
The irony is that most people using this transport terminus can’t afford to buy the luxury goods that these stores will be selling. From what I saw, in the three days that I was painting, it looked as if the struggle of the poor was most certainly lining the pockets of the rich.
There is a footbridge that crosses the entire width of the building site from the temporary bus depot to the platforms of the station. I painted the message in two halves, half on one side of the footbridge and half on the other so on your way to work you read “The Bread of the Rich” and crossing back over the bridge, after a hard day’s work on your way home, you read “Is the Struggle of the Poor”. – Ben Eine, creator.
