P-Art Barcelona — a one-day urban art festival
Barcelona
9.4.2011
In April 2011, as part of Persianes Lliures, Rebobinart organised P-Art, a festival that set out to bring urban art closer to Barcelona’s neighbourhoods with open-air galleries that residents could freely enjoy. The photo shows a moment from the day on an open lot: an artist in a red T-shirt draws on the ground with yellow chalk while a girl on roller skates watches.
The idea involved local groups and associations and combined workshops for children, music and food so people could spend the whole day. Persianes Lliures preceded Murs Lliures and was the seed of Wallspot.
In the video, a report on the P-Art gathering in a car park in Les Corts: close to 80 registered artists covered the wall in about eight hours. The organisers call for more spaces for artists and for breaking the pattern that confines art to galleries: «a message in the street reaches far more people».
Video transcript (translated from Catalan)1 min 42 s
The reportA space like this one, as well as being a car park, can be used to host urban art. That is what the organisers of the gathering believe: they want to call for more spaces in the city for artists and to break the pattern that confines art to galleries.
The organisersWhat we were seeing was that artists wanted to get out of that elitism: the viewer who goes to a gallery is not the same one who is out in the street. And a message in the street reaches far more people than a message in a gallery.
The reportThe organisers intend to turn the event into an annual gathering where artists from different disciplines can develop their work.
An artistI'm going to do my own version of Perseus with the Head of Medusa. I'll improvise as I go, with the colours and with the technique, but in principle I'll work with a brush.
The participantsI think it is a protest: we have to passively swallow thousands and thousands of campaigns that are legal and that are paid for on top of that, while we have no right to occupy public space. Here in Barcelona you can't do it.
And having it next to your home, being able to put on a show and paint in peace without anyone saying anything, and with the friends you see every day, is even better.
The reportThroughout the day, the nearly 80 registered artists have been working on their pieces.
Another artistI'm painting a car and a transvestite defecating will go here: that's what comes to mind when I walk past.
The reportAfter almost eight hours of work, the wall of this car park in Les Corts is completely covered. A whole day's work will stay here until the next gathering, which, all being well, will take place next year. The intention, though, is to extend the initiative to other parts of the city.
Video transcript, edited for reading: repetitions and verbal fillers have been removed, the text has been punctuated and speakers are identified.
