YOSEBA MP
Hospitalet
20.12.2019
The artist Yoseba MP has made a large mural on the Plaza de Guernica, Collblanc district. The project is part of the actions that the City Council of L’Hospitalet has undertaken in recent years to establish an artistic circuit in the public space. This was the first intervention of the Galician artist in the city, who for two weeks has been plotting his work “Un castell, moltes llengües i 12km²” on the facade of building number 8 in the square. This project is produced by the cultural entity Rebobinart.
Yoseba MP combines studio work and urban murals with a realistic style that is able to portray everyday scenes that reflect a very human part of society from a humorous perspective. For this intervention in the Plaza de Guernica, the artist has shaped a tower of “castellers”, an emblematic element of Catalan culture, made up of different cartoon characters and comics.
Through a humorous look, the characters in the mural represent the cultural diversity of L’Hospitalet, focusing on the idea of community, social cohesion, collaboration and coexistence. We can recognize some comic book figures such as Power Ranger, Lara Croft or Son Goku. In the left side of the mural, Yoseba MP painted “L’Acollidora”, an sculpture by the Arranz-Bravo artist, that is installed on the Rambla de Just Oliveras, which represents the open and integrating spirit of L’Hospitalet.
The City Council of L’Hospitalet has opted for urban art with a social and professional vision, stimulating the artistic and cultural fabric of the city. This mural is part of a rich and heterogeneous composition of street art interventions.
Yoseba MP won the Novos Valores Prize from the Pontevedra County Council with the painting “Juancho y sus perros” in the series “Mis amigos y sus perros”. In 2012 he won the contest ” Fenómenas do rural “, a work he develops exclusively in Galicia. This series is a tribute and testimony to the work that the rural woman is doing in Galicia, where she mixes the reality of the countryside with science fiction, comics and cartoons.
In the video, how the L'Hospitalet mural route is being built: the city council wants a varied circuit, so each artist paints only once. The artist explains that he saw the city as «built out of geographical patches» and that is why he painted a casteller human tower made of a diversity of colour.
Video transcript (translated from Spanish)2 min 18 s
In producing the murals at council level the aim is clear: to promote artistic culture with the goal of creating a route across the whole city. What L'Hospitalet City Council wants is a varied circuit, and that is why the idea is to paint only once with each of the artists we work with.
Without having any idea what L'Hospitalet was, doing a bit of research online, I saw that it was a city built out of geographical patches. And so it is a collage of colour. What did I do in L'Hospitalet? Build a Catalan casteller human tower out of that diversity of colour.
It has been one of the most complex productions we have put together in L'Hospitalet. We worked with a slightly awkward machine because of the conditions: there is a wall separating the street from the mural and quite a steep slope.
It is a connecting axis between the two cities of L'Hospitalet and Barcelona, it draws a lot of passing traffic, and people are stopping and taking photos. I think it is the best location for giving visibility to his work and creation.
Video transcript, edited for reading: repetitions and verbal fillers have been removed, the text has been punctuated and speakers are identified.
