Urban art shooting

Barcelona is one of the world’s great tourist destinations, receiving millions of visitors throughout the year. That appeal also makes it a magnet for advertising agencies and for local and international film and television producers: the number of shoots in the city’s streets doubled between 2010 and 2015. According to Montse Guiu, coordinator of the Barcelona Film Commission, the office that manages filming permits on public streets, the Sant Martí District is the second most requested district for shoots, after Ciutat Vella.

Sant Martí’s main attractions are its architectural character and its high concentration of urban art, spread across many streets and often chosen as a backdrop for TV adverts, series and films. Yet despite this interest, the audiovisual industry often forgets that murals painted in the street are the work of an artist and therefore carry copyright, just like a painting hanging in a gallery. Being in public space, available for anyone to admire, does not exempt urban art from the rights inherent to any artistic work, public or private.

That is why Rebobinart promotes projects in which artists’ authorship is recognised in practice, not just as an aspiration. With that aim, the artists Bubblegum and ONCE were commissioned to paint a mural in the Parc de les Tres Xemeneies for one of the leading television production companies.