Murmurs – La Verneda and El Castell mural
Photo: Vinido Blanco
In the video, the MURMURS project in Malgrat de Mar: a mural created using a participatory method in the La Verneda and El Castell neighbourhoods. Rebobinart and the town council talk about giving spaces dignity, the sense of belonging, and their wish for the work to be a tribute to the people who built the neighbourhood.
Video transcript (translated from Catalan)1 min 54 s
RebobinartWorking with Malgrat de Mar and with this participatory method has been a challenge, but at the same time a confirmation that these projects work and that people have to be listened to and brought into the artistic creation too — in this case, of a mural.
The town councilThe purpose of launching this project is to give dignity to the spaces and to the town's different neighbourhoods. What that shows us is the sense of belonging the neighbourhoods have, and for us it is a source of pride.
Because, like it or not, it will be one more element, and it may even become an iconic element that enriches this heritage: it is a piece we have considered to be contemporary art. We want it to be a tribute to all the people who built the neighbourhood, a reminder for everyone.
So that those who pass by —not only tourists, but the rest of the neighbourhood and above all young people— can learn a little about this place's past. Because the people of this neighbourhood marked a before and an after here in Malgrat: they arrived and built where we are now.
Video transcript, edited for reading: repetitions and verbal fillers have been removed, the text has been punctuated and speakers are identified.
Video: Gloryafterpeace
Malgrat de Mar
03.03.2023
On this occasion, in which we close the first edition of Murmurs located in Malgrat de Mar and in which we have dealt with different themes on historical memory, we have coordinated and produced a last mural intervention following this participatory methodology in which a collective, the artist and the City Council have been organized to work in the same line.
Thus, the last intervention is a large format mural by the artist Núria Riba from Igualada based on a composition of three archival images that aim to accompany the values and stories shared in a participatory session. The work of Joan Piña, local historian, the artist and the association of neighbors.
Under the title ‘La Verneda i El Castell. El barri era com una escudella barrejada’, Riba wants to enhance the history of two working class neighborhoods very marked by the arrival of new citizens during the 50s and 60s that were involved together in its construction and evolution, as well as also refers to the existing socio-cultural diversity. That is why this work wants to unite them in a memory to the neighbors and the historical landscape.
The mural is in Lleida Street 20. A space that is not by chance but becomes the boundary between the two neighborhoods and is also located next to the Civic Center, a fundamental space for its revitalization and meeting point between neighbors.
Murmurs
This initiative, named Murmurs, values the particularities of each of the places where it works and reflects on the different topics of social and cultural interest of the citizenship.
The dynamics of Murmurs approaches urban art as a loudspeaker of vindication or change through the work between organized groups, artists and municipal councils.
For this first pilot test carried out in Malgrat de Mar, Rebobinart has partnered with the City Council for the creation of different artistic murals scattered throughout the municipality. Last November the mural on women and peasantry by Mohamed L’Ghacham was inaugurated in the old farmers’ union to make visible and recognize his work. Previously, the project was inaugurated with two murals on the figure of Neus Català by the artist Núria Toll and the artist Miquel Wert.
Artist
Núria Riba is a painter and muralist from Igualada (Barcelona). Her figurative and realistic pictorial technique, inspired by photographs, captures scenes full of history and memory. Her works are intended to pay tribute to and represent traditions and customs of different places and groups to put them in value while they want to accompany and give meaning to the environments where they have happened.
