After 13 years and $3.9 billion USD, the One World Trade Center in Manhattan finally opened to the public this week, and greeting the first visitors as they stepped into the lobby was a massive 90-foot mural by Brooklyn artist José Parlá. Titled ONE: Union of the Senses, the mural is a cacophony of colors overlaid with Parlá’s signature graffiti script, requiring eight months of studio work with an additional two weeks on location. Symbolizing the diversity of the city and country, the art piece will hopefully liven up the mornings of the 20,000 inhabitants of the tower as they come in each day. It is the largest part in a collection of seven pieces chosen for the building by New York gallery Edelman Arts as part of a strategy to exhibit art that is “unifying, instead of divisive.” Said Parlá, ”It was very important to me that this painting would reflect a massive respect to the situation and the event and the families, and a massive respect for the site.” Only time will tell the mural’s success in capturing the heavy history of the location, mingled with a celebration of New York and optimism for the future.
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