Photographer Lluis Olive took a quick trip recently to Madrid and he did what he loves to do; took photos of graffiti and shared with us his new discoveries. This one caught our attention.
On Calle Embajadores he found that a mural by the Madrid based artist Okuda was dissed with “Tu Street Art Me Sube El Alquiler” or roughly, “Your Street Art Makes My Rent Go Higher”.
![](https://www.brooklynstreetart.com/theblog/wp-content/uploads/2019/06/brooklyn-street-art-okuda-lluis-olive-bulbena-madrid-06-19-web.jpg)
And the writer has a point, going to the heart of gentrification, and its connection to art.
It goes like this: Rotten, abandoned, vermin infested and derelict neighborhoods with large industrial buildings left in a state of decay are “discovered” by creatives who make them their homes and studios. Artists work to make any environment aesthetically pleasing, and that’s often their downfall.
Last night in a Brooklyn beer garden a buddy told us that he had taken a complete toxic dump in the lot behind his apartment and slowly transformed it into a beautiful garden. For his efforts, he said, the landlord wanted to raise his rent because he now has an attractive garden apartment that he should be charging a higher price for, according to the market. Punished for success?
This aerosol defacement of Okuda’s mural is a partially accurate statement– at least indirectly. But let’s not scapegoat the artist as the one to blame for gentrification. That’s an oversimplification of a complex cycle that no one appears able to diffuse effectively because the incentivized real estate system is surely twisted in many cities.
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