Under the initiative of Barcelona based street artist, Xupet Negre, around 15 artists responded to an invitation to participate in the project #theblackwallmovement at Parc De 3 Xemeneies in Barcelona.
Police brutality is not a foreign concept in Barcelona and the images coming out from the United States have hit a nerve within the creative community of this Catalan Metropolis, we are told, and the artists here decided to show their support for the protest against racism in Barcelona by painting these walls.
Photographer and frequent BSA contributor Lluis Olive shared his photos of the project with us.
The anonymous artist(s) who painted the mural above, titled “Here the police also kill” decided to paint the names of a number of the immigrants killed by the police in Barcelona since the ’90s. An individual who happened to be on the scene where the mural was painted and wishes to remain anonymous related the what unfolded once the police got wind of the mural:
“Here the police also kill…and censor!
Yesterday I visited Parc De 3 Xemeneies in Barcelona to support #theblackwallsmovement event organized by Xupete Negre. I wasn’t there as an artist, but rather in support of my fellow artists who were participating and painting in the event.
What caught my attention was a mural where a crew of anonymous artists decided that rather than paint images on the wall they wrote a list of the names of immigrants assassinated by the police in Barcelona from the ’90s to the present time. Shortly after the mural was completed a police squad arrived. The officers wanted to know the name of the artist(s) who painted the mural so they could charge the artist(s) of defamation and demanded that the mural be painted over.
The artists who were present at the time refused to name names and refused to paint over the mural. The following day the portion of the mural that reads: “Here the police also kills” was painted over. I find it abhorrent that crimes that took place are being censured and that the collective memory of said crimes is being erased.
Never mind that the event in question was to fight racism and police brutality and to denounce the murder of George Floyd in The United States.
“This is the end of pretty pictures,” wrote the artists at the end of the mural. “-by anonymous.
*These two murals are not part of the event listed above and were painted a different location in Barcelona.
Other Articles You May Like from BSA:
Did you get Covid this year? Lose your job? Get evicted? Look in the mirror. You may be Donald Trump. The difference is that you may be poor - but Donald Trump never was, and won’t ever b...
In this charming and historic little village in northern Italy called Isola de Cevo, a new art installation of placards in the streets must have townspeople a little puzzled. If there were any pe...
New Yorkers are now complaining bitterly about the cold January weather because, well, it's our job. In a city where opinions collide into each other daily about all topics like bumper cars at...
It has been two days since the Sun was directly over the Equator and she is heading north to bring the Global North a lot of flowers and blossoms in the earliest spring since 1896. Today we have newly...
Fintan Magee, Lonac in Process at No Limit/Borås: Dispatch 1