Black Lives Matter by Elxupetnegre
Barcelona
5.06.2020
This Friday, June 5th, the urban artist Elxupetnegre organised an action that joins the #BlackLivesMatter movement. This has been developed in several walls of the Wallspot platform that are located in the park of Tres Xemeneies. Elxupetnegre, an internationally renowned artist, has collaborated with Rebobinart on various projects such as Big Waalls.
A total of fifteen artists based in Barcelona took part in this action, and were responsible for painting all the walls black and performing various interventions on this background. Much of the work has been done through collaborations between artists, and they all share dark tones, creating a very striking visual effect that has managed to leave no viewer indifferent.
From its beginnings, urban art has been used as a channel of social claim. This time the artists have taken to the streets to highlight the racism that unfortunately is still present in our society today. As Tim Marsh, one of the artists who took part in this initiative, explains, “We are not born racists, we are educated as racists,” so we need to be aware of this fact and gradually radicalize it.
This action is intended to reach other cities and achieve international reach. We can say that once again, art has been used to try to change the mentality of people, or at least give visibility to a social injustice, such as racism.
In the video, the voices of the artists behind the Black Lives Matter action: «our job as artists is to act from the space we inhabit». They insist that «there is only one race, the human one» and that the action is explicitly anti-fascist. «The answer is on the walls: you have to go out, you have to paint.»
The video in text (abridged) (translated from Spanish)3 min 6 s
Anyone walking past who sees a drawing, an image, is bound to be made to think. A small blow, even if it is only a message on a wall: with the means we have, what we can do is that, reflect it in the streets, on the walls, in our actions.
This thing we did today was a way of saying: fine, we also know what is happening, and now the question is actually changing things. Because of all the injustice and the racism there is and has been throughout history. We have to fight for a future with no inequality of any kind.
Our job as artists is to act from the space we inhabit, pointing out that these circumstances also happen a few kilometres or a few metres from where we are. What people have to be made to understand is that there is only one race, the human one. We were not born racist: we are brought up racist. The answer is on the walls: you have to go out, you have to paint, you have to keep going.
Being able to put in there everything you cannot express and, somehow, have it reach people and maybe flip some mental switch. The action is obviously anti-fascist: anything to do with that, count me in. Police would turn up and do as they pleased, and that is what has to be eradicated: the abuse of power.
What we want is to make people aware of the real problem of racism all over the world. And I think that if all the artists in the world keep doing this too, showing support, not staying silent… That is the way to change things, the only way.
Abridged version: direct quotes are kept; repetitions, overlapping speech and passages unrelated to the project are left out.
In the video, the Black Lives Matter action: five artists each paint one letter in their own style. They drew on the aesthetics of the Black Panthers and painted a panther and a Black woman shouting that racism kills. «We were not born racist: we are brought up racist, and that has to change.»
Video transcript (translated from Catalan)1 min 24 s
As artists, we have the ability to go out into the street, to carry out actions of this kind —protest actions, entirely artistic— and to make something creative in order to shift people's mentality a little.
We drew somewhat on the aesthetics of the Black Panthers; and since I usually draw characters and she draws animals, she painted a panther and I painted a person, a Black woman, shouting that racism kills.
—We decided to write «BLACKOUT», and each artist —there are five of us— is doing a different letter, and we are combining them, each in our own style. «Blackout» is about awareness, about reality; everyone can read it their own way. Shouting. We were not born racist: we are brought up racist, and that has to change.
Video transcript, edited for reading: repetitions and verbal fillers have been removed, the text has been punctuated and speakers are identified.
