Roc Blackblock paints the shop shutters of the Eix Clot

Roc Blackblock, one of the best-known names in Barcelona muralism, turns the shutters of 17 shops in the Eix Clot into sepia scenes as part of the Persianes que fan barri project.

Roc Blackblock is the artist for the Eix Clot, in the district of Sant Martí, within the Persianes que fan barri project: a street art intervention on 185 shops across Barcelona, organised by the Barcelona Creativity & Design Foundation with creative direction by Rebobinart.

A Catalan visual artist and muralist with a long career in street art, he has made muralism a tool for protest, awareness and collective expression. His work, marked by social commitment and historical memory, has unfolded in numerous interventions in public space with a critical eye that is always tied to the territory — the same eye he now puts at the service of the shops of the Clot.

Get to know the artist better in our interview with Roc Blackblock.

Roc Blackblock’s style: the neighbourhood in sepia

The Clot series works with a sepia palette that turns each shutter into a living photograph of the neighbourhood. When the shutter comes down, the identity of the shop keeps speaking on the street: the trade, the product and the closeness become urban landscape. The everyday becomes heritage when someone decides to look at it closely — a visual celebration of the businesses that give the Clot its character, rhythm and identity.

Visually, Roc Blackblock builds the scenes with high-contrast tonal layers reminiscent of spray paint and stencil: maroons, earths, oranges, browns and creams form almost monochrome images, close to old photography. He enlarges everyday objects and gestures — a cup of coffee, garments, sewing thread, seafood, pastries — until they fill the whole shutter, with the outlines dissolved into patches and shadows.

Each composition is directly linked to what the shop sells or does: the threads and buttons of the haberdashery, the café con leche cup of the bar, the teapot of the tea room, the scissors of the hairdresser or the open suitcase of the travel agency. A visual inventory of what keeps the neighbourhood alive.