Murmurs – Women and peasantry mural
In the video, the Dona i pagesia (Women and farming) mural from the MURMURS project. It sets out to give value to two things «that have perhaps not been very visible: women's role in farming and the importance of the land that feeds us». And a thought: mural painting, unlike other arts, «has an element that transforms public space, going beyond a decorative piece».
The video in text (abridged) (translated from Catalan)2 min 12 s
RebobinartMURMURS is a Rebobinart project looking for a method for working on and building a mural in the towns and cities of Catalonia. Different generations and different points of view are being brought together.
I think mural painting, unlike other arts, has an element that transforms public space and goes beyond a decorative piece, and that in some way it is a dialogue with the local context.
The town councilI'm really looking forward to seeing the result, because it can give a lot of visibility to the town's women farmers and to the rural world in general. We back this kind of mural basically because it is part of our history and because it gives value to two very important things that have perhaps not been very visible: women's role in farming and the importance of the land that feeds us.
We chose women and farming because I think we have to draw on our roots. These were women who were never made visible and who deserve their place, because history has not given it to them.
The artistI think it is also a remembrance of the mothers and grandmothers who worked here, perhaps more than we do and in harsher conditions.
Abridged version: direct quotes are kept; repetitions, overlapping speech and passages unrelated to the project are left out.
Malgrat de Mar
24.11.2022
During the month of November Malgrat de Mar has been the perfect scenario to start an original initiative of Rebobinart called Murmurs.
This is not the first time that the production company and the Town hall of Malgrat de Mar join forces to intervene in the public space, this time we have worked to make the large format mural “Woman and peasantry” located on the walls of the old Peasantry Syndicate and made by the artist Mohamed L’Ghacham.
L’Ghacham’s design shows a middle-aged woman picking olives in a field, in the highest part of the wall, next to a greenhouse cultivation plot, in the landscape area of the wall. Olive-growing and greenhouse cultivation are two of the most widespread forms of peasantry in Catalonia. Olives and olive oil are internationally recognised products that form part of the acclaimed Mediterranean diet. As are other fruits such as tomatoes, beans and lettuces, which are grown in a much more sustainable and controlled way in greenhouses, creating microclimates that do not need as much water in a dry territory such as Catalonia.
This mural was inspired by a participatory process that consisted of a talk and workshop between the artist, the journalist Laura Saula, author of ‘Terra de mujeres. Pageses de Catalunya’; six women farmers of Malgrat de Mar, two municipal archivists and up to 12 students of the Agrarian Cycle of the Institut Ramon Turró i Darder. In this session appeared concepts like ‘courage’, ‘effort’, ‘equality’, ‘essence’, ‘fight’ and ‘freedom’, which are represented by this woman of almost 10 metres high in a medium shot.
Murmurs
Murmurs highlights the particularities of each of the places where it works and reflects on the different issues of social and cultural interest to citizens.
The dynamics of Murmurs brings urban art as a loudspeaker of vindication or change through the work between organised collectives, artists and municipal councils.
Artist
Mohamed L’Ghacham (1993) is a painter and muralist based in Mataró (Barcelona) and born in Tangiers (Morocco). Since his first contact with the plastic arts through graffiti, the artist has been moving towards a classicist style of painting inspired by the great masters of history. Using the brown and earthy tones of the Spanish Golden Age and traditional compositions, Ghacham resignifies these forms from the gesture of the most contemporary muralism, in a hybridisation of techniques that is not at all common in large-format urban art. His visual imagery focused on everyday life and detail has made him an artist of international renown, with work present in countries such as the United States, Italy and France.
