On the Horizon

The first of two, three-way mural collaborations by Onur, James Bullough and Li-Hill.

In this collaborative work, we wanted to create something the viewer had to participate in and something that spoke directly to the settling of Boulogne-sur-Mer. Known as a major fishing port, the city’s past and future are intertwined with the sea.

The images we chose embody a concept of time. A fisherman throws their net into a desolate, dried-out landscape, which becomes a vision of a not-so-distant future landscape. On the second wall, the sun beams over a shoal of fish, showing a relatively stable and healthy period of the Earth’s ecosystems over the previous millennia. The viewer finds themselves on the literal road, caught between these two possibilities and a horizon line connecting these two paths. By combining the walls with their eyes, one can glimpse a way forward in our current ecological crisis that is potentially harmonious with our surroundings.

Thank you to Amziane of @streetart_boulognesurmer for the very rare opportunity to paint these mirrored walls and for trusting our vision.