Our weekly focus on the moving image and art in the streets. And other oddities.

Now screening :
1. BCN Rise & Fall. Documentary History of Street Art in Barcelona

BSA Special Feature: BCN Rise & Fall, Documentary History of Street Art in Barcelona

The permissive nature of the city created a golden age of art in the streets, unencumbered by  the police or the city itself, an exciting destination for artists like Banksy, Space Invader, Os Gemeos, Aryz, BTOY, Kenor, Mark Bode, and Obey – but really it was an aerosol family reunion with relatives arriving from around the world.

Today we feature a well-researched and presented re-telling of the golden age of muralism born here in the first few years of the 2000s, spawning careers of many and attracting culture watchers of all kinds. As is the case with gentrifying spaces, the next phase after artists make everything pop with energy and new ideas, the vultures moved in to capitalize on it, and kill it.

Strict laws, strict penalties, and putting on a nice commercial face for the corporations and shoppers. Later, the creative spirit seems quashed – and the city that gave birth to a stunning spectacle seems completely unaware of how they shot themselves in the foot – until they have to pay to see the stuff in a museum exhibition later.

Now years later we have a clearer view of what transpired and why thanks directors Aleix Gordo Hostau and Gustavo López Lacalle, who painstakingly construct and deconstruct the story through colorful stories and an ocean of imagery. Political and sometimes divisive? Sure. A form of speech, undoubtedly. Pity it is manipulated sometimes to fit an agenda, even when the artist hadn’t intended it to be.

BCN Rise & Fall. Documentary History of Street Art in Barcelona