Avaaz and the Citizen's Initiative

World Record Attempt with Avaaz, Greenpeace, Kurt Wenner & Pyramid Visuals

This single image broke 2 world records, one for the largest image of its kind drawn by a single person and the 2nd to the largest image ever printed on an eco friendly canvas.

Avaaz and Greenpeace International together with world renowned 3D street artist, Kurt Wenner and UK based digital print specialists Pyramid Visuals collaborate to create the world's largest anamorphic art image as part of a Greenpeace campaign and Citizen's Charter. In April 2010, Avaaz (an international civic organisation) in conjunction with Greenpeace started collecting signatures for the first ever EU-wide Citizens' Initiative expressly directed at the European Commission calling for a moratorium on genetically modified crops until safety testing has been improved.

This particular petition is the first of its kind to be presented as a "Citizen's Initiative" - a principle enshrined in the EU Lisbon Treaty dating back to December 2009 - allowing one million European citizens to formally request that the Commission take legislative steps to address their demands.

This sizeable artwork for this project produced by Wenner measures 22 meters by 22 meters and is believed to be the largest of its kind in the world. Each section was individually printed onto a specially sourced eco-friendly substrate by the Weybridge based printers and bonded together before being delivered to Brussels.

Pyramid Visuals Director, Justin Murray was quoted as saying, "we've had a lot of experience producing large scale projects before, such as when we wrapped the Monument in London for its restoration, but this took on a whole new dimension not only having to coordinate a client in Europe, an artist in America and ourselves situated just outside London but also making sure that we adhered to the environmentally friendly requirements that Greenpeace had specified from the outset and that we delivered the end product on time, but as ever, we relish a challenge."

Murray went on to say, "it's been a great privilege for Pyramid Visuals to have been involved in such a high profile and essentially ground breaking initiative. As a company we're always looking to build on our achievements and this is another example that we can add to our long list of successes."

The world record breaking banner was unveiled to the European Commission in Brussels on the 9th of December 2010 as part of the first ever Citizens' Charter against genetically modified crops.

Kurt Wenner

Kurt Wenner is an American artist who has redefined anamorphic art with his 3D pavement art, grand illusion drawings and chalk murals. Wenner, who is well known for his life-like anamorphic street art, previously worked for NASA as a conceptual artist before relocating to Italy where he spent the next few years studying art and focusing on masterpieces and sculptures in Italian museums.

When Pope John Paul II paid a visit to Mantua in 1991, Wenner was commissioned to create a piece of art to honour the Pope's visit. In addition to his art, Wenner is also a renowned Architect and painter, making a name for himself within the art world for his oil paintings.

Until now, one of Wenner's largest pieces of work has been a 6 meter square mural which hangs on Wilshire Boulevard in California, with other pieces being displayed in city halls and museums around the world. In October 2010, Wenner was commissioned by Greenpeace to help achieve a world record by drawing a large scale piece of anamorphic street art with an overall dimension of 22 square metres containing a million signatures as part of a Greenpeace initiative promoting an EU citizens charter.

The large piece of artwork was drawn by Wenner and subsequently printed onto a specially sourced eco-friendly substrate by UK based digital print specialists, Pyramid Visuals.

The printed banner was then to be presented and unravelled on the streets of Brussels in front of the European Commission. Given the size and scale of the finished article, Wenner's artwork could not be printed as a whole but instead had to be printed in various sections and subsequently bonded together to create the world's largest piece of anamorphic art.

This is not the first time that Pyramid Visuals have been involved in such large scale printed works. Previously, they have produced a printed building wrap that totally encapsulated the Monument in the heart of London whilst it was being cleaned and restored and also assisted Channel 5's, The Gadget Show demonstrate the differences between digital and transparency photography by printing identical images of the hosts taken in both formats and hanging them off the side of the Millenium Building for the show.

Eco Friendly Printing