A vintage advertising image of the world’s most famous soft drink
reappeared almost a hundred years after being released in the USA on a central
building in Arad, a city in Romania.
According the aradculture.ro,
the portrait of the young, blonde actress holding a glass of Coca Cola was painted
on the side of the building from the eastern end of the Meţianu Street in the 1990’s,
a couple of years after the company started business in Romania.
Marion
Davies was one the most famous silent film stars and appeared in the ad
campaign featured in newspapers
and items like tin serving trays, boxed playing cards or jewelry boxes, sold
now as collectibles the internet.
The only pedestrian street in Arad was modernized four years
ago by the city, but the shape of the wall painting, which became an unofficial
landmark of the city center, worsened every year until not much of it has left.
In May last year the cultural website started an online
petition joined by 669 people. The subject was picked up by the local media and
a month later the Marketing Department of the American beverage company
contacted the initiators of the campaign and offered to restore the painting.
Art collector Laurenţiu Cladovan, who owns half of the
building, filled all the paperwork needed for implementation of the project and
in December last year the City Hall issued the certificate of urbanism,
allowing it.
He, and all those who worked to make this dream come true,
couldn’t wait for the summer to start the restoration. One last important task
was to find the artists who could reproduce the image and create a painting
that hopefully will last more than the original one.
Sabin Chintoan is known in Arad as a teacher at the local school
of art who decorated several public spaces in the city, along with his
students.
Together
with his partner, Cătălina Oproiu, they realized many projects in the
country, including 3D floor paintings, wall and canvas paintings, art
reproductions and urban paintings.
Their work was featured in exhibitions in New York and Los
Angeles and at the end of the year will be exposed at the Spectrum contemporary
art show in Miami.
The artists managed to remake entirely the vintage ad in only
three days at the end of July, working at a height of several meters, under the
summer sun and being watched most of the time by passerby.
“This ad is beautiful and it’s a nice addition to the image
of Arad” a local woman said, most of the residents being proud of the wall
painting.
Picture 1: Making of…
Credit: www.newsar.ro
Picture 2: The wall
painting before restoration. Credit: www.photoblog.com
Picture 3: The artists
with the finished painting. Credit: Sabin si Catalina
Art Facebook page
Pictures 4 & 5:
Marion Davies Coca Cola memorabilia Credit:
www.pinterest.com, www.ebay.com
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