It’s been a struggle to mount art events in the last year and a half for many reasons. That includes the 6th edition of GarGar Murals and Rural Art Festival in Penelles, Spain.
Instead of grouping all the artists and events and fans together for one short period of high activity, the organizers this year decided “to progressively invite the artists in smaller numbers so they could paint more confidently and feel protected from the virus.”
Now that all the 2021 murals have been painted, BSA collaborator Lluis Olive-Bulbena traveled an hour and a half from Barcelona to capture fresh paint! We thank him and we invite you to enjoy GarGar!
Yesterday our posting was about artists in London creating works about endangered species and today we go to Barcelona where 35 artists joined with Greenpeace and a local group named RebobinArt on April 9th to create works centered on environmental issues, especially the quickly disappearing polar ice cap.
The art-platform model of RebobinArt is interesting because they are a community organization that manages spaces and issues permits for painting for competitions, festivals, exhibitions, educational programs, and cause-based events like this one.
Under the guidance of Director Marc Garcia, RobobinArt promotes and facilitates a different sort of public painting that is not strictly commercial and yet it is clearly not the freewheeling graffiti/street art based stuff that made Barcelona such a magnet for artists in the early-mid 2000s.
Done along a 600 meter long strip in the neighborhood of Poblenou many artists joined in to paint simultaneously and talk about issues like biodiversity and the melting of the arctic. Artists included : AKORE, Dase, Rupper Artgigena, Labuenaylamala, Cheko, EDJINN, Laura Torroba, Mateu Targa, 400kunstler, Jaloóndeaquiles, Ulises Mendicutty, Joaquim Riaq, Santa sudaka, Penao, ENER, Tayone Grey Rainbow, Axe Colours, Bublegum, Mariajo, Rubicon1 , Camil Escruela, Elru Ghyart, El Xupet Negre , Mr. Sis , Kimo Osuna, H3L-X, Eva Zurita, and LaCastillo, among others.
With the international banking crises continuing to force everyday citizens to suffer, Spain is one of the more recent “developed” countries being forced to cut programs and services for its people. Just this past Saturday tens of thousands of Spaniards marched through cities across the country to protest deep austerity, the privatization of public services and political corruption. With tens of thousands of closed businesses and an economy in severe retraction and cuts to education and health programs, the pain hits the youth particularly hard as 55% of people under the age of 25 are unemployed.
To reflect this environment on the streets, four artists have begun a Street Art installation in Barcelona that highlights the human aspect of the economic crisis using sculptures of hands strategically placed in the public sphere. The results of HANDS are subtle but effective, and many passersby interact with them, take photos of them, pose with them, stand and discuss these gestural conversation pieces. Poignant and pointed, the installations aim to help people draw the connection between the crisis and those who ultimately are responsible.
All involved in the field of visual arts, the artists who have a hand in HANDS are Octavi Serra, Mateu Targa, Daniel Llugany and Pau Garcia. You may now applaud if you like.
In their ongoing quest for creating public works that meaningfully impact society and provoke examination, Various & Gould bravely trespass …Read More »
BROOKLYN STREET ART LOVES YOU MORE EVERY DAY
