Ekosaurio takes over the third edition of Waterwall
In the video, Ekosaurio's mural at the Sant Joan Despí water treatment plant, chosen by a vote among young people on the town's youth council. The school, the council, Aigües de Barcelona and Rebobinart all speak; Rebobinart explains its role: «to be the link and the bridge between companies and artists».
Video transcript (translated from Catalan)3 min 12 s
The schoolIt is a great initiative on the part of Sant Joan Despí town council and Aigües de Barcelona. We are taking part through the vote being held today, with the collaboration of the school's correspondents at the town council and of the young people on the youth council.
The fact that it comes from Aigües de Barcelona ties in closely with raising awareness about water consumption and the water cycle. And this vote gives the city's young people an importance they deserve.
A studentI think it is a creative, original project. And I think it is great that we get to choose the painting that will go on the wall.
Aigües de BarcelonaIn this case, through public participation —the choice of murals was put to a vote— these students have been able to explain Aigües de Barcelona's knowledge and values to their classmates.
The town councilWe reached an understanding with Aigües de Barcelona in order to develop this project, because it gives young people in Sant Joan Despí the chance to take part and promotes an activity that generates culture and art.
RebobinartOur role as an organisation that promotes urban art in public spaces is to be the link and the bridge between companies —in this case Aigües de Barcelona— and artists. We have come with Ekosaurio to help him paint the mural at the water treatment plant here, and this experience could not have been better.
It has been a lovely experience, because we are not only painting a mural: we are turning this space into a far more attractive and visually more beautiful one.
And working together with public administration lets us work in partnership, on participatory design, on a mural that the whole public will be able to enjoy along this wonderful path beside the river. For us it is essential: we do not see a future without partnership, without public, private and social cooperation.
Video by Aigües de Barcelona. Video transcript, edited for reading: repetitions and verbal fillers have been removed, the text has been punctuated and speakers are identified.
Sant Joan Despí
26.09.2022
During the last week of September, the Puerto Rican artist Ekosaurio intervened the walls of the water treatment plant in Sant Joan Despí, thanks to the collaboration of Aigües de Barcelona, the Council of Adolescents and Correspondents of the municipality and Rebobinart.
The Waterwall project has been reactivated three years after its last edition to rehabilitate one of the areas of Aigües de Barcelona’s assets that had been vandalised with illegal graffiti. Waterwall pursues the mission of making a city with a new initiative of participative and cooperative intervention between various collectives and inhabitants of the territory in question, maintaining art as a working tool and water – treated as a source of life and biodiversity – as the thematic axis.
How was it implemented? In two phases: the first with a clear pedagogical approach in which a participatory session was organised to contextualise the young participants in the municipality, and the second in which the artist and the neighbourhood executed the work together.
In the first session we wanted to bring the educational network closer to the values of sustainability and the responsible use of water through artistic expression, as well as a voting process to choose the winning mural design. In this case, Ekosaurio’s design.
Thus, the second phase based on the execution of the mural was conducted by the artist himself and a Rebobinart production assistant, Albert Penado. From 26 to 30 September, the walls of the Sant Joan Despí water treatment plant were painted in a very personal style: the representation of natural flora and vibrant vegetation that reclaims its space in search of a new identity.
The first action of the Waterwall project took place at the Dipòsit del Pomar, in Badalona, in 2018, and involved the artist Spogo and a group of young volunteers from Espai Jove Supernova and Espai Jove Morera. A year later, at the gates of the Sant Pere Màrtir depot, the artists Núria Toll and Gemma Fontanals intervened jointly, with the participation of students from the Escola Municipal d’Art d’Esplugues de Llobregat.
