“The Basque Government is about to start the procedure for awarding the 104 homes in the subsidised housing project that will be located on Zorrotzaurre plot SI-2,”says the website for the biggest development area in Bilbao- the new Zorrotzaurre Island.

We wonder how long the street art and graffiti will persist here now that the masterplan of Zaha Hadid is nearing another phase of completion. We’re guessing that you still have time to catch some of the best stuff if you are willing to scout it.

The grassroots handmade art movement has occupied the rundown and neglected sector for years, as well as the concomitant artists performance spaces, quirky small businesses and tech-forward digital art studios.

Yesterday with a local expert named Javi we scaled some of these neglected spaces to get a sense of this particular margin and discovered that old skool aerosol colorful letter styles and the new flat brush & roller tags are flourishing amongst the occasional political screed.

The new island, created by excavating the existing peninsula, may not be on time but the existing neighborhood is still popping with pop-ups and late night excursions into experimental music and scene making.

While vast swaths of smoothly graveled land await the new towers of developers dreams to punctuate the skyline, you are invited to pass through the fence and climb a small mountain of old furnishings, coats, furniture and building rubble.

This Bilbao based site-specific survey reveals a varied selection of traditional graffiti, post-graffiti; abstract, conceptual, figurative, activist, and some that is just plain smart.

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