Anonymous artist 'decorates' bins in northern village
Sunday, August 16, 2015 @ 3:55 PM
A VILLAGE in La Rioja woke up one morning this week to find its 18 rubbish and recycling banks painted in abstract colours, shapes and pictures by an anonymous overnight artist.
Photos of the bins have gone viral since then and, although the regional refuse collection board wants to replace them and fine whoever did it, residents want them left as they are.
The mayor of Badarán, a hamlet of just 600 inhabitants some 35 kilometres from the region's capital city Logroño, is on their side.
Francisco Javier Ibáñez says residents gathered on the streets to physically prevent regional authorities from removing the bins, and have started printing and hanging banners to ensure they stay put.
The refuse collection consortium is adhering rigidly to the legal principle of 'wilful damage to public property' and says the author should be fined and forced to pay the cost of putting said property back into its original state, but Badarán's people say this is a 'jobsworth' attitude and that the painted rubbish banks have put their town on the map.
Until Tuesday, few people had heard of Badarán, but now the whole of Spain knows where it is and people from far and wide are beginning to pay it a visit.
Although the artist has not given his or her name, speculation is rife, because 'something like this requires planning', says Ibáñez.
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