APP Murslliures — Free Walls’ permit app for street art
Barcelona
10.10.2014
The launch of the new app coincides with the opening of three new spaces to paint in Barcelona — the biggest expansion Murs Lliures has ever made, doubling the space available from 2,500 to 5,000 m².
Next Saturday 18 October, Murs Lliures is launching the first app to manage painting permits for public space in Barcelona. An app that will let users manage the walls and spaces set aside for urban art, where they can select a space and request a permit to paint in a simple, fast and immediate way.
This app will also be a platform to showcase each user’s art. It will let artists create a profile where they can update and upload photos of their finished work (which will also help enforce the minimum time each piece has to stay up), and they’ll be able to see the work other artists have done through the platform.
Pioneering worldwide, this app aims to democratise urban art in the city so that everyone can find their own space to express themselves.
The launch of this new app coincides with the handover of three new spaces to paint in Barcelona — the biggest expansion Murs Lliures has ever made in the city, doubling the space it had available from 2,500 to 5,000 m². A perfect moment to launch the new app.
To request a permit to paint in these three new spaces (one in Selva de Mar and two in Poblenou), it will be possible through the new app. On Saturday the 18th, the app will be available for Android from 10:30am, and the wall will then be inaugurated with the first permits granted through the app. (Apple users will have to wait until 30 October.) To request a permit for these three spaces before that date, it can be done through the Murs Lliures website (www.murslliures.com).
To kick off this innovative project, the Murs Lliures team will hold a presentation on Saturday the 18th at 11:00 at Nau Art Espai de Creació (open to the public), where artists and anyone interested can find out about the new app and be among the first to request a permit. After the presentation, one of the Poblenou walls will be inaugurated with the first registered users — an intervention also open to the public, with urban art workshops for schools and children (a free activity open to everyone). Later that same day, the other two walls, in Poblenou and Selva de Mar, will open.
Murs Lliures is a platform for managing public spaces in cities for artistic intervention, created by the Rebobinart association. The spaces managed by the platform are conceived as spaces of free expression where artists and citizens can explore their creativity and artistic technique. Since November 2012, when the first permits were granted, more than 1,000 interventions have taken place in public space, managing permits and spaces for over 600 urban artists, both national and international. Murs Lliures currently has 4 spaces in the city of Barcelona, spread across the Sants-Montjuïc and Sant Martí districts. This new opening will bring the total to 7 spaces, with 1,500 linear metres of wall and a total of 5,000 m².
In the video, a report on the Murs Lliures app: artist Enric Font requests the permit at the wall itself, checks what has been painted there before and can start a second later. They explain the idea of democratising art, each artist's profile of works, and the plan to reach Lisbon and Paris.
Video transcript (translated from Catalan)3 min 7 s
Enric Font is a visual artist and one of the first to use the Murs Lliures mobile app. Like most artists, he already has a rough idea of which walls are available, and today he has come to see whether the drawing in his head would work on this one. Since everything fits, he can request the permit right here: first he checks the most recent works painted on this wall, so as not to cover anything too new, and a second later he is authorised to paint. The hard work begins.
The app is the final step in a long process to legalise street art, started five years ago by the Rebobinart association. They are the inventors of Murs Lliures, which is also a website. The city council has handed them the spaces so they can manage permits with artists.
«The idea is to democratise art. What we want is for anyone to be equal before the walls of any city. It doesn't matter whether you are an artist, a neighbour or an illustrator: the point is that you can go out onto the street in your own city, in certain spaces managed by this system, and paint.»
The reassurance of holding a permit has led some artists who had never painted in the street to give it a try.
«I had never painted in the street until I started using the app, but the most important thing was that it got me a permit. I have spent many years painting in the studio, and going out into the street is already a change of situation: working in a place anyone can walk through. If on top of that I have to worry about being somewhere that is technically illegal… this makes it so much easier.»
The app also lets you build a profile with finished works. That way we can see all of an artist's murals, or how a wall has been transformed through the works painted on it. In future they also want it to be a social network where users can follow each other and even arrange to create pieces together.
«The next step and the challenge now is to start moving into other cities. We are talking to Lisbon, to Paris, to various cities. And we have to understand that the Murs Lliures system, in each Hospitalet and so on, will need an association or a body to run that space. We can provide the technical support, but the running of it has to be done by someone local, because they are the ones who know the artists and know the area.»
You have surely been impressed by the piece Enric has made. Well, you should know that you don't have to be a professional artist to paint on a wall in the city: anyone can use this app and put forward their own proposal.
Video transcript, edited for reading: repetitions and verbal fillers have been removed, the text has been punctuated and speakers are identified.
Video without narration: a visual presentation of the Murs Lliures app — choosing the wall, requesting the permit and starting to paint.
In the video, the app launch party with El Xupet Negre, 25 years after he became a landmark of graffiti: three new walls offering a kilometre of surface, and why painting in Barcelona still isn't easy.
Video transcript (translated from Catalan)1 min 36 s
Twenty-five years ago El Xupet Negre became a real landmark of graffiti here, and today he didn't want to miss the Murs Lliures celebration. To start with, they all have three new walls offering them a kilometre of surface to let their art loose on.
On top of that comes the launch of a new smartphone app. Until now, if they wanted to paint, everything had to be arranged through the website; now artists like Núria are one click away from getting a permit and starting to paint almost instantly.
«One advantage for every artist is being able to turn up with your cans and paint straight away, without having to search, go to a website, register… It is all instant, you can do it on the spot.»
Although this is a world-first initiative, painting in Barcelona is not easy: urban planning rules have to be respected and the spaces for practising urban art are limited.
«No, it isn't an easy city. It is a city with a lot of older people, with a view of urban art as it was many years ago. Of course, no politician has taken a space and had it painted. So there are much younger cities, with much younger politicians, far more open to these initiatives. But it is all a process.»
The app can already be downloaded for Android phones and in 40 days' time it will be available for Apple users. The organisers hope that, once the app is up and running, the number of artists —currently around 600— will grow and revitalise the city's urban art scene.
Video transcript, edited for reading: repetitions and verbal fillers have been removed, the text has been punctuated and speakers are identified.
