Ruta per la Pinacoteca
Barcelona
10.3.2018
La Pinacoteca a Cel Obert was born with the aim of strengthening the local commerce of Eix Sants-Les Corts through an innovative artistic action.
Walking through the streets of Galileo, Can Bruixa, Europa, Vallespir and Joan Güell, when the shops rest with the shutters down, the sketches of Sorolla, Millet, Renoir, Van Gogh and Rossetti appear. Twenty-four works of urban art that fill some of the shops on the Eix Comercial Sants-Les Corts with color by artists Jalón de Aquiles and Lucie Blin.
In the video they explain that the project started from a concrete problem —worn shutters and the occasional tag on shopfronts— and how it became an open-air picture gallery with works by Van Gogh, Sorolla and Goya. The idea behind it: that local shops, like Renaissance patrons, can be cultural agents. Shopkeepers and the Sants-Les Corts retail association take part.
Video transcript (translated from Catalan)3 min 55 s
The idea came about because shops were always having problems with their shutters: the ones that had grown old —replacing them was expensive— or that picked up the occasional tag. And putting together a joint project has tied retail to culture, so that a shop isn't only a place you walk into, buy something and leave, but also something that carries the social fabric and the cultural life of a place.
In terms of the artistic concept, the Open-Air Picture Gallery has focused above all on exploring the role of retail within the cultural world. And it is clear that in the Renaissance, for example, the great patrons of the artists who flourished in that period of art history were precisely the merchants. The choice of works in the project follows from that idea, and so you can see major works by artists such as Van Gogh, Sorolla and Goya.
What is particular about this project is that it fits into a broader way of thinking about employability for people in the district. There is a concept in economics called the short cycle: the idea that if you have the raw material at the factory and the consumer nearby, you cut costs and it is more profitable, not only economically but also in terms of sustainability.
In the end retail is part of the neighbourhood, of what happens in the neighbourhood, of what is done with our neighbours. We pass on more ideas, and it is a project that should grow bigger, into other neighbourhoods.
Within the Sants-Les Corts retail area, the neighbourhoods and local, zero-kilometre commerce somehow start moving and pick up this momentum so that people feel at ease.
You are painting in the street, but really you are painting to boost the shops or to give them something extra. Anything out in the street is great. Do whatever you are doing in the street and it is all great.
You see people taking photos with the striking paintings when the shutters are down. It is teaching, it is culture, it brings the street to life.
The idea of continuing the project with the guided routes now scheduled brings culture together with retail, with residents, with the whole area and the people involved in these two districts. We didn't expect this route to be so well received, or that professionals would train specifically to run this kind of tour. That also makes it much easier to explain the whole project.
From this intervention, it can be given a reach that goes much further and that ultimately helps strengthen the people working in the area.
Video transcript, edited for reading: repetitions and verbal fillers have been removed, the text has been punctuated and speakers are identified.
