Murs Lliures in Sant Andreu
Barcelona
27.1.2017
On 27 January 2017, the Sant Andreu football club gave over the walls of the Narcís Sala stadium for artists to paint their work. The photo shows one of the murals: a one-eyed monster with horns, in green and cyan on a background of blue dots, while the artist works on it.
Football grounds have long stretches of bare wall; turning them into a canvas for urban art gives them life and identity. It is one of the murals for institutions we make with venues and organisations, here in the Sant Andreu district of Barcelona City Council.
In the video, a report on the walls at the Sant Andreu football ground handed over to Murs Lliures. Rebobinart explains the Wallspot app and website, which let anyone request a permit to paint anywhere in Barcelona, and the comparison they always use: «we have built the bike lane of art». One of the artists used to swim at the pool there as a child.
Video transcript (translated from Catalan)2 min
When they suggested we paint, do graffiti, we thought: why not? Let's turn dirty, run-down walls in poor condition into urban art.
At Rebobinart we have designed a mobile app and a web app called Wallspot, which lets anyone who wants to paint in a public space request a permit anywhere in Barcelona. In this case, here at the Sant Andreu football ground, we have been given the inner walls so they become part of this database of walls.
We always end up saying this is the bike lane: we have built the bike lane of art. Anyone can come here and paint whatever they like. These spaces may last a week, a month or a year, but you know your work will eventually disappear.
I had worked with them on some joint projects with the city council, like the P-Art car park or the Pere IV cinemas, in the Besòs. And this project has made me especially happy because I swam at the pool here as a child for four years: the moment they told me it was to come and paint at the Sant Andreu ground, I broke into a smile. And here we are.
What we are doing here, in a small way, is making things normal. It should have been normal for a long time now that if you are contributing something to the society of a city, that society treats you as well as it can: giving us spaces, giving us materials, and paying us would be good too. But at the very least, that they respect us and understand that we are not looking for a wall that is falling down, as if that made what we do matter less — what we are looking for are visible spaces, spaces that will really give a lot of people a life with more colour.
Video transcript, edited for reading: repetitions and verbal fillers have been removed, the text has been punctuated and speakers are identified.
