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Interview Lidia Cao & Slim Safont X Arnau Gallery

*Interview by Flora Beillouin
EN + FR below

ES

«El mural es un baile, es gestual, trabajas fuera a partir del contexto del lugar».

Del 15 al 19 de enero, nuestra Galería Arnau acogió al barcelonés Slim Safont y a la gallega Lidia Cao para llevar a cabo un mural a cuatro manos, siguiendo las huellas del neomuralismo.

Esta es vuestra primera colaboración. ¿Os conocíais antes de este encuentro? 

Slim – Nos conocimos de camino a un festival, una vez que hicimos un viaje en coche juntos de varias horas.

Lidia – Creo que el primero fue El Asalto, un festival a nivel internacional de arte urbano, y que nos volvimos a ver en Italia, en Taranto…

¿Cómo describiríais el trabajo del otro / de la otra?

Lidia – A mí me encanta el trabajo de Slim, sobre todo porque pictóricamente no estoy acostumbrada. Su realismo, con ese toque de pintura, crea un cuerpo distinto. No se trata sólo de una foto, hay texturas, capas, rayas… Cuando lo observas detenidamente, no sabes bien cómo lo ha hecho y eso me parece interesante.

Slim – Me pasa lo mismo con Lidia. ¡Todo lo que me gustaría tener en mi obra lo tiene ella! Hace un trabajo de línea y de color muy interesante.

¿Qué os hizo querer entrar en el mundo de la pintura? 

Slim – Pues empecé a hacer grafitis ilegales, pintando en la calle con otros apasionados, escuchando Hip-Hop. Luego estudié Bellas Artes y me enfoqué más en hacer retratos. Poco a poco, fui haciendo algunos encargos y subí de escala pasando al muro. Ahora es mi oficio…

Lidia – En mi pueblo organizan un festival de arte urbano y me he criado un poco en ese ambiente, yendo a talleres de muralismo. Cuando empecé, era una persona hipertímida… ¡Odiaba que me viesen dibujar! A través de esos cursos, me di cuenta de que me gustaba muchísimo pintar en la calle, porque allí pasa de todo… Plasmas una ilustración y puedes ver a la gente interpretarla desde su mundo interior. Me gusta esta interacción que se genera.

Volviendo a vuestra colaboración, ¿podríais explicar de dónde surge la idea de este mural?

Slim – Arnau Gallery nos propuso trabajar juntos y Lidia me mandó un dibujo de unos lobos. Yo suelo pintar cosas que pasan a mi alrededor, que me llaman la atención. Voy sacando fotos y luego repaso mi archivo, voy mirando los colores, la composición, la luz, y escojo. Al final, ¡uno pinta lo que ve! De una foto que tenía por ahí, surgió la idea de nuestros autorretratos con los lobos acechando a los artistas.

Lidia – Me gusta colaborar con artistas muy distintos porque intento adaptarme a su estilo sin dejar el mío. A la vez, esta improvisación me genera un poco de pánico, pero me saca de mi zona de confort y eso me gusta. Por ejemplo, ahora estos lobos representan el proceso creativo, puede ser la autoexigencia o la presión que una siente cuando pinta en la calle… ¡Aunque este fondo con superposiciones de hojas y luces no estaba previsto! (risas)

En cuanto a vuestras formas de trabajar, ¿seguís explorando otros medios y formatos artísticos?

Slim – El mural es como un baile, es más gestual, trabajas fuera, a partir del contexto del lugar y de sus problemáticas. En el estudio, tienes que buscar dentro de ti lo que quieres contar. Y ahora siento que quiero trabajar más al óleo, en el estudio, preparar exposiciones. Creo que me he cansado de hacer murales. Aparte de lo duro que es físicamente, siento que ya he conseguido lo que buscaba y que, por otro lado, se está acabando una época en el mundo del arte urbano…

Lidia – Mis inicios fueron como ilustradora Yo empecé como ilustradora, me gusta más dibujar que pintar. ¡De hecho, lo sufro un poco! Hay un momento, al pintar murales, donde sientes que no puedes avanzar mucho más… Y por otro lado, estamos en un punto límite donde muchos festivales empiezan a pedirte un boceto antes y casi te imponen hasta la temática. Es un mundo que está pillando una trayectoria con la que no me siento del todo en fase.

¿Qué interacciones tenéis con las personas que viven en los sitios donde pintáis?

Slim – Antes de ir a pintar a un sitio, intento estudiar el territorio, a veces me pongo en contacto con la gente, y cuando llego, saco fotos. Cuando es un proyecto tras otro, intento al menos buscar una idea que sea interesante tanto para los vecinos como para mí.

Lidia – Yo también, me documento antes e intento coincidir proponiendo algo poético. Es importante, porque luego te vas y la gente se queda con la obra. Hay cierta responsabilidad…

Slim – Una vez pinté en un pueblo de Salamanca a unos chicos jóvenes que conocí al llegar. Justo eran los pandilleros del pueblo, así que los abuelos me insultaron, ¡casi tuvimos que parar!

Lidia – Nos pasa a todos, da igual lo que pintes, cómo o dónde. Siempre hay quejas y palabras bonitas. Como estos lobos de aquí, que a algunos les parecerán amenazantes, a otros melancólicos… ¡Yo qué sé!

Para vosotros, ¿qué papel juegan los murales en la ciudad?

Slim – ¡Depende mucho dónde! Si la curaduría es sólida y no duda en defender el discurso del artista delante de las instituciones o si son encargos disfrazados… El muralismo, al ser una manera de recuperar las calles, se encuentra entre estrategias políticas, empresariales, publicitarias. Pues en cualquier lugar, nosotros pintamos en directo, y es interesante que los vecinos vean el proceso de la pintura, muchas veces no están acostumbrados a ello.

Lidia – Cuando intervienes en centros culturales, sientes que cumples una función, al menos a corto plazo. Ves a jóvenes que se abren a la cultura, dejando de lado otras actividades más arriesgadas… ¡Hasta una chica, a quien le di talleres, que ahora se dedica al teatro!

¿Qué imagen tenéis de la escena de street art actual de Barcelona?

Slim – Es una de las más potentes del momento. Cuando viajas en eventos internacionales te lo dicen. Pero Barcelona es una ciudad donde nunca se ha superado la época del grafiti de los 90 donde se bombardeó todo… Los políticos se pusieron muy duros y hay pocas obras de gran tamaño. Por ejemplo, ésta es la segunda vez que pinto en ocho años que llevo viviendo aquí.

Lidia – Hay mucha gente de fuera que vienen a vivir a España para pintar, porque hay una buena dinámica y ¡Galicia no se queda atrás! Pero es verdad que se habla mucho de la «Escuela catalana» porque son los que más destacan a nivel internacional por un estilo más marcado.

Para acabar, ¿con quién os gustaría colaborar en un futuro?

Slim – Quizás con Sebas Velasco o Axel Void, uno de estos grandes que han sido mis referentes desde que empecé en este mundo. Siento que podría aprender mucho, ¡me haría ilusión!

Lidia – Por ser ambiciosa, a mí me encantaría ARI, Seiner, Lauren aka SquidLicker en Instagram… ¡Vamos, con estos tres, sería el típico sueño que dudas que algún día se cumpla!

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EN 

“The mural is a dance, it is gestural, you work outside of the context of the place.”

From January 15 to 19, our Arnau Gallery project hosted the Barcelona native Slim Safont and the Galician Lidia Cao to carry out a four-handed mural, following in the footsteps of neo-muralism.

This is your first collaboration. Did you know each other before this meeting?

Slim – We met on the way to a festival, once we took a car trip together for several hours.
Lidia – I think the first was El Asalto, an international festival of urban art, and we met again in Italy, in Taranto…

How would you describe each other’s work?

Lidia – I love Slim’s work, especially because pictorially I am not used to it. His realism, with that touch of paint, creates a different body. It’s not just a photo, there are textures, layers, stripes… When you look closely, you don’t really know how he did it and I find that interesting.
Slim – The same thing happens to me with Lidia. Everything I would like to have in my work is there! She does very interesting line and color work.

What made you want to enter the world of painting?

Slim – Well, I started doing illegal graffiti, painting in the street with other enthusiasts, listening to Hip-Hop. Then I studied Fine Arts and focused more on making portraits. Little by little, I made some orders and moved up the ladder to the wall. Now it’s my job…
Lidia – In my town they organize an urban art festival and I have grown up a little in that environment, going to muralism workshops. When I started, I was a hyper-shy person… I hated being seen drawing! Through these courses, I realized that I really liked painting on the street, because everything happens there… You paint an illustration and you can see people interpret it from their inner world. I like this interaction that is generated.

Returning to your collaboration, could you explain where the idea for this mural came from?

Slim – Arnau Gallery proposed that we work together and Lidia sent me a drawing of some wolves. I usually paint things that happen around me, that catch my attention. I take photos and then I review my file, I look at the colors, the composition, the light, and I choose. In the end, you paint what you see! From a photo I had lying around, the idea of our self-portraits arose with the wolves stalking the artists.
Lidia – I like to collaborate with very different artists because I try to adapt to their style without leaving mine. At the same time, this improvisation makes me panic a little, but it takes me out of my comfort zone and I like that. For example, now these wolves represent the creative process, it could be the self-demand or the pressure that one feels when painting in the street… Although this background with superimpositions of leaves and lights was not planned! (laughs)

Regarding your ways of working, do you continue exploring other artistic media and formats?

Slim – The mural is like a dance, it is more gestural, you work outside, from the context of the place and its problems. In the study, you have to search within yourself for what you want to tell. And now I feel that I want to work more in oils, in the studio, preparing exhibitions. I think I’m tired of doing murals. Apart from how hard it is physically, I feel that I have already achieved what I was looking for and that, on the other hand, an era is ending in the world of urban art…
Lidia – My beginnings were as an illustrator I started as an illustrator, I like drawing more than painting. In fact, I suffer from it a little! There is a moment, when painting murals, where you feel that you cannot advance much further… And on the other hand, we are at a limit point where many festivals begin to ask you for a sketch beforehand and almost impose the theme on you. It is a world that is taking a trajectory with which I do not feel completely in phase.

What interactions do you have with the people who live in the places where you paint?

Slim – Before going to paint somewhere, I try to study the territory, sometimes I get in touch with people, and when I arrive, I take photos. When it’s one project after another, I try to at least look for an idea that is interesting to both the neighbors and me.
Lidia – Me too, I research beforehand and try to agree by proposing something poetic. It’s important, because then you leave and people keep the work. There is some responsibility…
Slim – I once painted some young boys that I met when I arrived in a town in Salamanca. They were just the town’s gang members, so the grandparents insulted me, we almost had to stop!
Lidia – It happens to all of us, it doesn’t matter what you paint, how or where. There are always complaints and nice words. Like these wolves here, which to some will seem threatening, to others melancholic… What do I know!

For you, what role do murals play in the city?

Slim – It depends a lot on where! If the curatorship is solid and does not hesitate to defend the artist’s discourse in front of the institutions or if they are disguised commissions…

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FR

“Le muralisme est une danse, il est gestuel, tu travailles à partir du contexte d’un lieu”.

Du 15 au 19 janvier, notre galerie Arnau a accueilli le Barcelonais Slim Safont et la Galicienne Lidia Cao pour une peinture murale à quatre mains, dans la lignée du néo-muralisme.

Vous connaissiez-vous avant cette rencontre ? 

Slim – Nous nous sommes rencontrés lors d’un festival, où on a partagé un voyage de plusieurs heures en voiture.

Lidia – Je crois que le premier était El Asalto, et puis on s’est revus en Italie, à Taranto…

Comment décririez-vous le travail de l’autre ?

Lidia – J’adore le travail de Slim, car je n’y suis pas habituée d’un point de vue pictural. Son réalisme, avec cette touche de peinture, crée un corps différent, ce n’est pas juste une photo, il y a des textures, des couches, des rayures… Quand on le voit, on ne sait pas comment il l’a fait, et je trouve cela intéressant.

Slim – C’est la même chose avec Lidia : tout ce que j’aimerais avoir dans mon travail, elle l’a ! Le travail des lignes et des couleurs est très intéressant.

Qu’est-ce qui vous a poussés à vous lancer dans la peinture ? 

Slim – J’ai commencé à faire des graffitis illégaux, à peindre dans la rue avec des passionnés en écoutant du hip-hop. Puis j’ai fait les beaux-arts et je me suis concentré sur le travail du portrait. Petit à petit, j’ai répondu à des commandes et j’ai changé d’échelle en passant au grand format, puis au mur. Aujourd’hui, c’est devenu mon métier…

Lidia – Dans mon village, on organise un festival d’art urbain et j’ai grandi dans cet environnement, en participant à des ateliers. Quand j’ai commencé, j’étais très timide, je détestais qu’on me regarde dessiner ! Grâce aux cours, je me suis rendu compte que j’adorais peindre dans la rue, parce que c’est un espace où tout peut arriver… Vous créez une illustration en direct et vous voyez les gens l’interpréter à travers leur monde intérieur, j’aime cette interaction.

Pouvez-vous nous expliquer d’où est venue l’idée de cette peinture murale ?

Slim – La Arnau Gallery nous a demandé de travailler ensemble et Lidia m’a envoyé un dessin avec des loups. Je peins généralement des choses qui se passent autour de moi, que j’aime. Je prends des photos, puis je consulte mes archives, je regarde les couleurs, la composition, la lumière, et je choisis. Au final, on peint ce que l’on voit ! C’est à partir d’une de mes photo qu’est venue l’idée de peindre nos autoportraits encerclés par les loups, comme s’ils traquaient les artistes.

Lidia – J’aime les collaborations car j’essaie de m’adapter au style de l’autre sans délaisser le mien. Cette improvisation me panique toujours un peu, mais ça me pousse à sortir de ma zone de confort. Par exemple  là, ces loups représentent le processus créatif, cela peut être l’exigence ou la pression qu’on ressent quand on peint dans la rue… Mais ce fond n’était pas prévu !

Continuez-vous à explorer d’autres supports artistiques ?

Slim – La peinture murale est comme une danse, c’est très gestuel, on travaille à l’extérieur, à partir du contexte du lieu et de ses problématiques. Dans l’atelier, il faut chercher à l’intérieur de soi ce qu’on veut dire. Et maintenant, je sens que je veux travailler davantage à l’huile, en atelier, pour préparer des expositions. Je crois que je suis fatigué de la peinture murale. Au-delà de la difficulté physique, j’ai l’impression d’avoir atteint ce que je cherchais et qu’une époque se termine…

Lidia – J’ai commencé comme illustratrice, je préfère le dessin à la peinture. Je dirai même que la peinture me fait souffrir un peu ! Il y a un moment, en peinture murale, où l’on sent que l’on ne peut pas aller plus loin… Par ailleurs, on arrive à un point limite où beaucoup de festivals commencent à te demander un croquis préalable et t’imposent presque le thème. C’est un monde qui prend une trajectoire avec laquelle je ne me sens plus très en phase.

Quelles interactions avez-vous avec les habitant.es des lieux où vous peignez ?

Slim – Avant de me rendre à un endroit pour peindre, j’essaie d’étudier le territoire, parfois j’entre en contact avec les gens, et quand j’arrive, je prends des photos. Lorsque les projets s’enchaînent trop j’essaie au moins de trouver une idée qui soit intéressante à la fois pour les voisins et pour moi.

Lidia – Moi aussi, je me documente avant et j’essaie de faire coïncider ce que je comprends avec mes idées pour proposer quelque chose de poétique. C’est important parce qu’ensuite nous on s’en va et les gens restent cohabiter avec l’œuvre. On a une certaine responsabilité…

Slim – Une fois, j’allais peindre dans un village de Salamanque et j’ai fait le portrait de jeunes que j’avais rencontrés à mon arrivée. C’étaient la bande qui foutait le bordel au village, les grands-parents se sont mis à m’insulter, on a failli tout arrêter !

Lidia – Ça nous arrive à tous, peu importe où tu peins et ce que tu peins. Il y a toujours des gens qui se plaignent et des mots gentils. Comme ces loups ici, qui sembleront peut-être menaçants pour certains, mélancoliques pour d’autres, va savoir ! 

Pour vous, quel rôle jouent les fresques aujourd’hui dans la ville ?

Slim – Ça dépend beaucoup de l’endroit ! Si le commissariat est capable de défendre le discours de l’artiste devant les institutions ou s’il s’agit de commandes déguisées… Le muralisme, comme c’est une manière de se réapproprier la rue, c’est à la croisée des stratégies politiques, commerciales et publicitaires. Donc au milieu de tout ça, nous on peint en direct, et c’est intéressant pour les voisins d’être témoins de ce processus, car souvent ils ne sont pas habitués.

Lidia – Quand on intervient dans les centres culturels, on a l’impression de remplir une fonction, au moins à court terme. On voit des jeunes s’ouvrir à la culture, délaisser d’autres activités plus risquées… Une ado que j’ai eu en atelier a même décidé de se lancer dans des études de théâtre !

Quelle image avez-vous de la scène actuelle du street art à Barcelone ?

Slim – C’est l’une des plus puissantes du moment. Quand tu voyages dans des événements internationaux, les gens te le disent. Mais Barcelone est une ville qui ne s’est jamais remise de l’époque du graffiti des années 90 où tout a été bombardé… Les politiques se sont durcies et il y a peu d’œuvres d’envergure dans la ville. Pour donner une idée, c’est seulement la deuxième fois que je peins depuis huit ans que je vis ici.

Lidia – Il y a beaucoup de gens de l’étranger qui viennent vivre en Espagne pour peindre, car il y a une bonne dynamique – d’ailleurs la Galice n’est pas en reste ! Mais c’est vrai qu’on parle beaucoup de ” l’école catalane “, car elle se distingue au niveau international avec un style marqué.

Avec qui aimerais-tu collaborer à l’avenir ?

Slim – Peut-être avec Sebas Velasco ou Axel Void, une de mes références depuis mes débuts. Je sens que je pourrais apprendre beaucoup, je serais content !

Lidia – Pour être ambitieuse, j’aimerais bien ARI, Seiner ou Lauren, aka SquidLicker sur Instagram… Allez, avec ces trois-là, ce serait typiquement le rêve impossible à réaliser !

Posted in Featured Artists, Library, Lidia Cao, Slim Safont and tagged , , , , , , , , , , , , , .

Rumble in Raval

Article by David Davis

Barcelona is well renowned in the street art community as a mecca for the practice. For this project, I decided to dive into this subculture and spend time with several artists currently working in the largest city on the Mediterranean coast of Spain.
Whenever someone mentions Barcelona, people’s minds will often wander to picture crowded beaches that stretch as far as the eye can see. A buzzing metropolis of bars, clubs and restaurants that cater to the 27 million tourists the city attracts each year. Or, most notably, one of the many structures designed by the late architect Antoni Gaudí. Buildings like the Casa Vicens, the Casa Battló, and of course, the famous Sagrada Familia, which after 133 years of construction, is now entering its home stretch towards completion.

But besides the picture-perfect brochure images advertised to attract its outstanding volume of visitors or the countless highly polished Instagram photographs they publish to the world wide web each year. Barcelona is also home to another unique and somewhat underrepresented aesthetic. Street art.

As soon as you exit the Barcelona Sants Train Station, Barcelona’s largest train station and starting point for most tourists, you will find yourself thrust into its vibrant world of the colourful, creative, and often crass scene of artistic expression. I would be comfortable to place a high wager that one would find it impossible to find a single door, shutter, electricity box or garage entrance not sprayed, stencilled, pasted, or painted in some form. If the surface is smooth and at ground level, it is guaranteed to be used by an artist as a crude, ad hoc canvas for their artful endeavours.

While most of the graffiti in Barcelona is illegal, the local council does provide a few locations for artists to paint without fear of repercussion from the law. The most popular of these, certainly the largest, is Jardines de las Tres Chimeneas. A sizable urban space that also caters to skaters, ping pong players, and those looking to shoot some hoops. Hoping to meet some local artists for this photo essay, I decided to visit the location.

After spending some time there documenting the busy walls, I noticed individuals without skateboards recceing the location. And sure enough, after they had identified a suitable position, the spray cans began to emerge from the tatty carrier bags and paint encrusted rucksacks they had brought with them.

After approaching these individuals with my questionable Spanish, it became evident that they were not local. The first two artists I spoke with were from the UK, and the third was Canadian. Each one had come to Barcelona to paint and skate in the city and were only here for a short time. And while their work was impressive, and it was interesting to hear about the lengths these artists were willing to travel to contribute to the scene, they were not going to grant me access into the inner circle. It was time to take a different approach.

Where should I go to meet a group of people that otherwise prefer to remain elusive? I thought to myself. Spending time waiting at walls would be a non-proactive use of my time. I could be stuck waiting for days before I met a local. The next step was to target their suppliers at one of the many paint stores.

Armed with my camera and tripod, I began to tick off each shop on the map, hoping to exchange shots of their stores for information on artists that may be willing to be documented for the project. After several failed attempts, I was given the contact details for the cultural head of Montana paints after visiting the Montana store in Gràcia, close to La Sagrada Família.

Following a short volley of emails and telephone calls explaining the project, the number of Antoine, the founder of street art Barcelona, was handed to me. An organisation founded (X) years ago to help secure locations for street artists to showcase their work in several legal sites on a rotating bi-monthly basis.

Antoine spoke of a mural project planned for the proceeding week and expressed his interest that I attend to document the event. He also graciously passed me the information of the two artists collaborating on the mural. Two unquestionably talented creatives that go by the street handles Twee Muizen and Slomo.
Perfect, I had found my route into the scene. The next step was to set up dates with these artists to find out a little more about them, their work and their views on the street art landscape as it presently stands in Barcelona before the project began. After contacting the two, it was unfortunate to hear that Slomo had fallen sick and would not meet before the mural commenced.

Fortunately, Twee Muizen (Denis) was in good health, so I arranged a visit to his studio/gallery in the heart of the gothic quarter that dates back over 2,000 years.
After a short while navigating the undulating and somewhat claustrophobic streets of the fascinating neighbourhood, I arrived at the studio to find Denis and his girlfriend, Christina, another talented creative, waiting to welcome me warmly into their inspirational gallery/studio. One, they tell me they had renovated themselves from a once dilapidated condition.
After exchanging a few niceties, we sat down in the rear studio section of their gallery to discuss their work and their views on what it means to be an artist in Barcelona in 2022.

Both Denis and Christina are originally from the Spanish countryside, the organic roots clearly evident in the forms of their work, and had travelled to study fine art (Denis) and Textiles (Christina) in Amsterdam, the Netherlands, for their undergraduate degrees. Here, they would meet each other for the first time and begin working on collaborative projects, showcasing their work in several museums and exhibitions for some years before deciding to move back to Spain and Barcelona. A decision based on the financial benefits of being based in a place renowned as a cultural capital with a torrent of foreign traffic. One that worked well for them both as they explain they now supply clients worldwide.

But besides their relative success as artists (they can support themselves entirely from their art). The couple explained that it has not always been easy for them. In the start, they both had to work part-time jobs and had to juggle the perfection of their crafts around their other professional commitments. Furthermore, they both agreed how the Spanish fee system for freelancers makes it difficult for emerging artists to begin to support themselves with work deemed less economically valuable in the eyes of society. Both artists and lawyers pay the same to practice their professions.

When questioned about their views on street art, the most problematic barrier the two agreed on was that since 2005, when the local council decided to clean the inner city in a bid to make it more appealing to tourists, things had become far more challenging for real projects such as murals to be painted on the buildings here. An unfortunate case considering the level of ready talent available to breathe life into the cities otherwise dreary and often dilapidated walls.
Denis continued that before the clean-up, the place was somewhat of a wild west for street art, with even more of the city painted than today. And while there are still several murals within the inner city, the current rules state that they must not be visible from the main streets. Furthermore, they must also conform to a Pantone set by the architects responsible for overlooking the cities development.

Besides these and other barriers they face, they explained how there is support for artists, Such as Street Art Barcelona and another named B Murals, an organisation that also fights for urban real estate and provides exhibition space for artists too.
After our conversation, I thanked them for their time and expressed my excitement to document the mural project that would commence in the coming week.

On Tuesday, I arrived at the location at (X) just across the road from Jardines de las Tres Chimeneas to find Denis and Ricky (Slomo), sketching out the rough lines of the mural. It was great to see Denis once more and meet Ricky for the first time.
Slomo, his preferred name, is originally from Venueszala and has been a resident in Barcelona for the last (X) years. And even though he only started painting five years ago, he has already become a well-known figure in the city, being extremely active and demonstrating a unique style of hard lines with bold colours he creates with the help of masking tape, an approach that gives his work a unique style that contrasts sharply with the more fluid lettering and characters painted by other artists.

As the mural progressed, the few rough paint lines the artists had sketched slowly began to take a more complex form as they began blocking out and layering the mural. It was the first time I had witnessed this kind of artwork made, and I felt privileged to have the opportunity to document the process as a first-hand observer.
Two days into the project, during one of Antoine’s free work windows. He passed by to check on the progress of the wall. During our talk, he mentioned that evening he would be going to a bar with more artists to watch a drag show of a performer being painted on a wall the following week, and I should join him to meet them. “Of course,” I replied eagerly. The more creatives I can talk to, the better.

Later that evening, I met Antoine and the rest of the group at the mural location. The first of the artists I spoke to was named Nemo. A tagger that uses paint rollers with letters of her name to paint walls and pavements at small and large scales. The result looks like someone has driven a vehicle vertically up a building, leaving tyre imprints behind.
The second artist was Morky, an artist that has been primarily using black and white in the streets for decades. A period of time evident in the skill of his work. Both professional murals and graffiti alike. His tag is a burning matchstick and is one I had noticed extensively throughout my time documenting the street art in the city.

Another, we will call Amy, uses the written word to provoke thought and emotion in those that read her text in the street.
After our brief introductions, we began to the drag bar to catch the show. But not before stopping at one of the paint stores I had visited in the previous week to collect some supplies. I could tell that the night was going to be an interesting one.
After the show, one spoken in Spanish, meaning I couldn’t fully appreciate it, we indeed took to the streets to contribute a hint of the artistic flavour the inner city is better known for, illegal graffiti.

Barcelona is a city with a strong police presence. With countless officers patrolling its narrow alleyways in cars and on motorcycles. Sniffing out the drunkards and rowdy tourists like hawks circling the vermin of a cornfield. Eager to pay their wages with the handing out of fines for those unfortunate enough to be spotted while performing any unsavoury act, admits the racket and chaos of the inner metropolis.
There was a strong sense of danger permeating the air while I watched these taggers practice their profession, but this thrill of the chase, of getting caught by the vultures, was perhaps the most enjoyable part of the night. And we almost were caught at one point. While Morky had Nemo on his shoulders to paint a for sale sign above a shops shutter, sure enough, one of those birds of prey turned a corner just 100 meters away, with their blue lights illuminating the uneven orange walls, we knew it had us in its sights.

We broke like a pack of zebra, knowing the eyes of a predator were upon us. Fortunately, that 100 meters were enough distance between us and their warm ticket book to put our money towards another crate of beer for ourselves and not another’s Christmas bonus. After this close call, we decided to call it a day and retraeated to the safety of Morkys studio to enjoy the rest of our night in peace to good music and company while wrapped in a warm alcoholic blanket.
The next day I returned to the mural to document the final day of Denise’s and Ricky’s project. There was little to do beyond filling in a few details, meaning the day had strong overtones of a relaxed nature. What these two had created in such a short space of time was truly outstanding. A shame, however, that it would only last for two short months. But such is the impermanent nature of street art, but the photographs taken will go on.

To celebrate the completion of the wall, and because it never truly winters in Spain, Slomo arranged a BBQ on the private rooftop of his terrace building located just 200 meters from Denis and Christians studio the following weekend. I was fortunate enough to receive an invite to the party and meet even more artists working here in Barcelona.
Watching these artists do their thing while eating good food with a beer in hand to the sun setting over a pastel Barcelonian skyline was the perfect way to wrap up this project and say goodbye to people that had not only been the subject of this photo essay but people that had become good friends. Cool dudes, I will return to visit soon.

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