Pelé kissing Maradona. Pelé kissing the Mona Lisa. Pelé kissing Gardel. Pelé kissing Amy Winehouse. Pelé kissing Batman. Pelé kissing Paul McCartney. Pelé kissing David Bowie. Pelé kissing Dalí. Pelé kissing Bob Marley. Pelé kissing Gabo. It seems like an endless page, a parade of celebrities who ingratiate themselves with the glory of Brazilian football in a loving gesture. And although the genesis is the same and the pattern of the work does not change, the kissing Pelé (Pelé Beijoqueiro) is always refreshing and innovative.
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The last Book Fair was the stage where Colombians came to see – and others saw for the first time – this sticker (which sticks to murals, facades or walls) that later began to appear in different parts of Bogotá. This time, the ‘King of Soccer’ gave his affectionate kiss to our Nobel Prize winner in Literature, Gabriel García Márquez. It was the ideal image of a literary event in which Colombia embraced Brazil as the guest of honor.
Pele’s kiss to the Mona Lisa was the first art designed by Luis Bueno.
Photo: Courtesy of Luis Bueno
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The brain behind Pelé’s kisses is Luis Bueno, a Brazilian artist, muralist and graphic designer, who started in 2010 with the footballer’s first kiss to the Mona Lisa. “I have a very special relationship with that first version because I really like the history of art and that is a very fantastic encounter, isn’t it? Between Pelé and a woman, it is the presentation of a woman, because it is a painting that is like 500 years old, so for me it is very special,” he commented in a chat with EL TIEMPO.
A week ago, Bueno opened an exhibition of his series at the Pelé Museum in Santos, the city where he lives and which is very significant for the history of Brazil and for the footballer’s fans, as it was the most representative club in his career. And there are many kissing Pelés, because when Luis started he would do up to 6 per year; now, he only prepares one or a maximum of two in the same period, according to the circumstances or requests; for example, the kiss between Gabo and Pelé for the Filbo.
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Two glories of football: Maradona and Pelé.
Photo: Courtesy of Luis Bueno
“Last year, I was in Buenos Aires and the embassy invited me to make a picture at their headquarters, so I thought of doing it with Gardel because he is a very important Argentine cultural symbol. The same thing happened to me with Gabo, when I heard about the fair and the subject of Brazil as a guest, to which I added the ten years since the death of García Márquez, I was clear that he was the character of the kiss, because he is a world-renowned Colombian.”
Football and art
Luis Bueno loves football. Since he was a child, his father taught him to love this sport, which in Brazil is as important and representative in the world as cachaça or samba. Although he has never been a fan of Santos – but of Sao Paulo – he always recognized Pelé as an icon of his country. “In the 60s, Pelé was beyond the limits of a team, he was a very admirable person (…) When you see the images of Pelé playing it is something very nice; as a teenager, I saw many old games, which were shown on television, of the Brazilian National Team with Pelé. I was never able to meet him, but from the interviews you can see that he was a very nice person, with a lot of human warmth, that is very important for me. For years, Pelé has been the most famous Brazilian and yet he was a very calm person, kind to everyone and that is admirable.”
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The visual artist Luis Bueno with his most emblematic work.
Photo: Courtesy of Luis Bueno
From that admiration, and at the suggestion of a friend, was born what would become his emblematic work. The original photo of Edson Arantes do Nascimento (Pelé) corresponds to the last game he played with the New York Cosmos, when he was playing in the United States. Pelé is hugging and kissing the boxer Mohamed Ali. “The next day I did a first experiment on the computer, I took Pelé out of the photo, changed his shirt for a Santos one and completed his figure, so that he could be seen from behind. I imagined Pelé hugging and kissing other famous people,” he recalls.
Pelé, who passed away in December 2022, knew about his work. They never had the opportunity to talk, something he has done with one of his daughters, Kelly Cristina, who was key to materializing the exhibition of his ‘kisser’ in Santos, after three years. “My main focus is the production of murals,” he says. “Now I’m working on the façade of a theater in Sao Paulo, which is being remodeled, and I will make a work on that wall with characters from Brazilian theater.”
But he will always have time for his next kissing Pelé. “Fifteen years ago I thought the idea of creating this series was a great one because hugs and kisses are very Brazilian and Latin American things, we are people who have that human warmth, that contact that is different from Americans or Europeans. I thought it was a good characterization of our culture, of our hospitality, of affection through a figure that is very emblematic for us like Pelé.”
The kissy Pelé in Bogotá.
Photo: Courtesy of Luis Bueno
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Kissy furry in Bogotá
After its appearance at the Bogotá Book Fair, one of the images of Pelé kissing Gabo was placed near the headquarters of Ibraco, the Brazilian Institute of Culture, where you can also take Portuguese classes and learn about the different cultural aspects of the neighboring country. It is located on Calle 104 and Carrera 15 and you can take photos with the mural.
Last May, Ibraco opened a new office in the center of the capital (Calle 19#2A-49). All information can be found at www.ibraco.org.co
2024-07-04 10:55:59
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