Lula Goce and the Poetic Power of Nature at KROMATIC

Lula GoceI'm a visual artist and my work is fundamentally based on mural intervention.

What does painting in public spaces mean to you?

Lula GoceI think it is wonderful on every level. Beyond people being able to see how a work is created and how it comes from nothing, we move into the field of urban planning and sociology: we are not just painting an image, we are intervening in a public space with everything that entails.

And then there are the synergies that build in the neighbourhood. A space that was nondescript and of no interest becomes a hot spot in the city, where everyone stops, looks and stays to talk. That also brings a sense of dignity to the businesses and to caring for the space: the wish to have more pleasant surroundings.

What inspires you?

Lula GoceNature, basically, but there is also an ecological message: rethinking those urban spaces where everything is concrete. The need to improve public space and create places with more greenery, where people can connect with themselves. My characters, too, are always reflecting on themselves, connected to nature.

In this digital world, where gentrification is doing so much harm and we transform natural spaces so much, it is important to rethink ecology on every level, both internal and external.

The work you have painted in Sant Andreu de la Barca has a very Mona Lisa gaze: wherever we go, she is still looking at us.

Lula GoceShe has a gesture that is, in inverted commas, defiant — self-sufficient, empowered. I look for that quality of strength in my figures. In terms of upbringing, women are always expected to be a little quieter, a little more submissive —not extremely so, fortunately, here—, but to keep that low profile.

So this woman with that power, commanding nature the way she does, struck me as a very strong message, since I am a woman too. And I think one of the first ways to teach equality is to do it: not just to say it, but for other children to see that it can be done, that your sex makes no difference.

You say painting is a very intimate process, yet the public watches you the whole time. How do you shut it out?

Lula GoceMaking murals this big is a learning process too: you keep coming across bigger spaces and, if you feel comfortable, you go for it. It is many hours of painting and people aren't talking to you the whole time: there are many hours of solitude up there, looking at the wall, in which you enter into communion with the space.

Then you come down and people talk to you, and that is also very pleasant: after three hours straight up there alone, having someone express their surprise or their emotion is rewarding.

How do you experience being a woman in the world of muralism?

Lula GoceThere are more and more women, but not enough. Here in Sant Andreu de la Barca Irene López is also painting her mural. Urban art, unlike the gallery and contemporary art, is more democratic in that respect: whoever likes your work calls you, and it makes no difference whether you are a woman or a man.

By contrast, once urban art enters the gallery there is still a degree of invisibility around women: the exhibitions are almost all by men. There we still have a glass ceiling to break, and that is what festivals like Kromatic are for.

The fact that this art is ephemeral, that the mural changes with the weather, is part of muralism.

Lula GoceIt is part of the process of creation and disappearance. A very important part of urban art is the moment it appears and its context; when that context starts to change and some urban restructuring happens, the mural tends to disappear, because its mission was also to act on that ugliness, on that space that had somehow been written off.

I don't mind: it matters more to whoever commissions the project that it lasts. You always aim for a minimum durability, around ten years, but they are out in the street and they decay. That process of degradation is also part of the work's charm: it remains a work in constant change, like the rest of the space.

Video by Ràdio Sant Andreu. Abridged version: direct quotes are kept; repetitions, overlapping speech and passages unrelated to the project are left out.