Tinc una Idea TV2 — Rebobinart on Spanish national television
Barcelona
10.09.2015
In September 2015, Rebobinart took part in RTVE’s «Tinc una idea» programme to talk about winning first prize in Barcelona Activa’s entrepreneurship programme, ahead of projects such as Lazzum and RealFunding. The photo shows an artist painting a portrait on a shop shutter in front of a camera, an image from the «Dóna la Cara pel barri» project used to illustrate the feature.
Barcelona Activa supports projects with a positive social impact through advice, mentoring and access to funding. Appearing on public television to explain why quality urban art is a professional field is part of our work; you’ll find more in the projects. More about the city programme at Barcelona Activa.
In the video, the TVE Catalonia programme Tinc una idea on social entrepreneurship. Rebobinart appears as the first-prize winner of Barcelona Activa's programme. The text covers their section: the 2006 civic bylaw, the years of fines «until the council saw that our actions were agreed with local residents», and why in Dóna la cara per la ciutat the protagonist is neither the artist nor the work, but the person being painted.
The video in text (abridged) (translated from Catalan)23 min 7 s
The programmeThe cities of the future will be sustainable or they will not exist. That is why today we are looking at initiatives by entrepreneurs seeking solutions to the shortage of land, of green space, or of places to develop their creativity.
Barcelona ActivaThe social entrepreneurship programme sets out, first of all, to spread the idea of social entrepreneurship: those entrepreneurs who, as well as wanting to run an economic activity, want that activity to have a social impact. At Barcelona Activa we want to recognise these people and these projects; and since they want impact and they are businesses, what we can do is help them.
The prizes were 12,000 euros for the winner, 6,000 for the first runner-up and 3,000 for the second. In the winner's case, with the collaboration of Impact Hub, a space in Plaça Reial —an incubator for social innovation projects— they also get six months there free of charge. Besides the prize, the programme includes advice, information and mentoring.
The programmeLast year's first prize went to Rebobinart, which works in urban art.
RebobinartWe came out of a campaign, because there is a regulation —the civic bylaw, which came in in 2006— that bans painting in the street. We come from the graffiti side, from campaigning for it to be legal and for painting in public space to be possible, and we have developed that over time.
We started out being fined by the council for many years, because we were carrying out actions in public space; until the council saw that our actions were coordinated and agreed with local residents.
What we are trying to do is reclaim public space for citizens and for artists, so that they can act in it. We have different lines of work: one is Murs Lliures, through which we try to make it possible for any artist and any person to paint in public space, and you can request the permit through a mobile app.
An artistThe intention behind my piece is to make people aware that they can move around Barcelona, or whatever city they are in, without using private transport: on foot or by any public or non-motorised means.
RebobinartThe Dóna la cara per la ciutat project tries to give residents —in this case in Poblenou— a tool so they can have a voice and be the protagonists. By painting their faces along a whole street, we make the protagonist neither the artist nor the work, but the person we paint.
The drawing technique is the same; the only thing that changes is the painting medium. At home, on a canvas, you use oils, acrylics or watercolours on paper; on a shutter you use spray cans or paint.
Five years ago we set ourselves up as Rebobinart, bringing together all the projects we had been doing illegally for so long and developing them. From there we have built up a momentum: being allowed this legality lets us establish ourselves as an organisation, do many more projects and have people working with us.
Video by TVE Catalunya. Abridged version: direct quotes are kept; repetitions, overlapping speech and passages unrelated to the project are left out.
