A figure designed to survive repetition
La So0mbra removes almost everything associated with a conventional figure. There is no mouth, no hands and almost no descriptive detail: what remains is a black silhouette and two green eyes.
That compact grammar lets the figure change in size, technique or setting without losing its identity. Many appearances sit close to the pavement, a placement that independent reporting has connected with spontaneous interaction, including by children.
Green, black and the missing mouth
In the project’s own account, black represents the shadow or darker side that accompanies individual and collective life. Green refers both to mental-health awareness and to poison or the social toxicity of looking away.
The eyes can see what happens, while the missing mouth and hands suggest silence and an inability to speak or act. These are the project’s stated meanings, but the deliberately spare image leaves room for each encounter to remain personal.
Mental health is the stated purpose
The project presents mental-health awareness as its central purpose rather than a theme added after the fact. Its figures occupy ordinary routes and compete for attention in a way that resembles advertising, but redirect that visibility towards reflection rather than consumption.
The message connects public responsibility with personal attention: recognising distress, making it speakable and refusing indifference. The street matters because the encounter does not require entering a gallery or already knowing the project.
From awareness to material support
La So0mbra states that income linked to the project is directed to mental-health causes. One independently documented example from 2024 was support for art-therapy workshops at Valencia’s Unidad Educativa Terapéutica, delivered with teachers connected to the Universitat Politècnica de València’s art-therapy master’s programme.
That distinction matters editorially: a broad social message can be evaluated alongside a specific, dated action. Future initiatives should be checked individually rather than inferred from the project’s general purpose.
Repetition creates a movement
La So0mbra is better understood as a recurring presence than as one monumental image. Independent reporting counted more than 500 figures by April 2024; that is a dated milestone, not a claim about the number visible today.
The project began in Valencia in August 2023 and the city remains essential to its public language. Seeing the figure again turns memory and recognition into part of the work, even as walls are painted over and individual interventions disappear.
Anonymity changes the centre of attention
Authorship is deliberately obscured and the number of people behind the project is left undefined. The phrase ‘La sombra somos todos’—‘the shadow is all of us’—moves attention away from a private biography and towards the shared questions raised by the image.
This profile respects that choice. It does not speculate about identity and treats anonymity as part of the work’s structure: a way to keep the message ahead of personality, status or market value.
Green Eyed turns recognition into a game
The official Green Eyed app extends the project into a participatory layer: people can locate and capture green-eyed figures and follow the project beyond a single encounter in the street.
Its Google Play listing showed more than 1,000 Android downloads when this profile was verified on 6 October 2026. That figure describes app adoption on one platform, not the current number of works or participants.
The street keeps the final word
The project accepts that a work changes once it enters public space. Weather, alteration, removal and the responses of passers-by become part of its life rather than exceptions to a fixed object.
La So0mbra has also stated that urban art should respect protected heritage. For that reason, this guide documents the visual language and its relationship with Valencia without publishing live coordinates or promising that a particular figure survives unchanged.
Official links
Sources
- La So0mbra: La So0mbra, official project statement (opens in a new tab)
- elDiario.es: La So0mbra profile, April 2024 (opens in a new tab)
- UP Magazine: La So0mbra interview, August 2025 (opens in a new tab)
- València Extra: La So0mbra: urban art, anonymity and mental-health purpose (opens in a new tab)
- La So0mbra: Green Eyed: official La So0mbra app (opens in a new tab)
- Google Play: Green Eyed app listing (opens in a new tab)
- Valencia Street Art: Valencia Street Art editorial policy
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