All posts tagged: Barcelona

Started From the Bottom Now We Tagging and Bombing. Imon Boy and Dagoe in Catalonia.

May 22, 2019 Artists

Dagoe is Str8 Ballin’ from the bottom and Imon Boy is banging it across the net with Super Manolo atop a graffiti smashed train in these two new murals in Sant Vicenç dels Horts.

Imon Boy. Contorno Urbano Foundation. 12+1 Project. Sant Vicenç dels Horts, Barcelona. (photo © Clara-Anton)

The artistic duo just brought two new pop culture inspired billboards last week to this small town in Catalonia to entertain you with their hybrid brand of graffiti, video games, and sports references. Like many today they’re using the free association split-attention style of memes and the Internet that is now our lingua franca – or should we say linqua españa

At the intersection of graffiti, the Internet, and cute things, Imon Boy has developed a fun-centric database of pop-cultre references merged and interplayed in scenarios from many a ‘00s teen memories surfing YouTube and catching tags – and showing his work in a gallery setting in Munich, Hamburg, Phillipines, Miami, Sydney, and New York. He says this game is typical of writers and cops – but it looks a lot more fun from this perspective.

Dagoe. Contorno Urbano Foundation. 12+1 Project. Sant Vicenç dels Horts, Barcelona. (photo © Clara-Anton)

A native of Badalona (Barcelona), Dagoe is similarly well travelled geographically as well, taking his illustration, design, and animation powers to France, Tunisia, Italy, Belgium, and the Netherlands. Here he namedrops Cope and references Tupac and Drake – with the sensitive Canadian rapper wearing a FC Barcelona team shirt and crying into a phone – that’s a mashup, bro.

Shout out to the 12+1 and the Contorno Urbano Foundation for hosting this duo.

App Activated Kinetic Tagging by Degon in Barcelona.

May 14, 2019 Artists

The 1990s lo-tech graphics of glitches and gifs and simplistic digitized objects continue to find their way into Street Art and murals, including this new app-activated chromo-keyed mural by Vic-born Degon.

A part-time post-rapper and a co-founder of his own graphics studio for creating beautiful-ugly logos, Degon says he began his first forays into graffiti in ’99, eventually becoming a bonafide crew member of the NGFX.

Degon. *“Green Screen Art”*. Contorno Urbano Foundation. 12+1 Project. Barcelona. (photo © Clara Anton)

Now his interventions are straddling the physical and the digital and to enjoy fully this new “Green Screen Art” for the 12+1 project in Barcelona you’ll need a phone to see the motion graphics that are triggered. Or you can just look at the animation posted here at the end.

Clearly, this is not your grandpa’s tagging.

This project is supported by the Contorno Urbano Foundation. 12 + 1 Project

BSA Film Friday: 05.10.19

May 10, 2019 Artists, BSA Film Friday

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

Now screening :
1. INTI “Soleil”. Blinded by the Light.
2. Martha Cooper: Queen der Street Art
3. Elisa Capdevila x Anna Repullo. Contorno Urbano Foundation. 12+1 Project
4. Mare 139 : L’ avenir” Graffuturism. Group Exhibition.
5. FAUST: L’ avenir” Graffuturism. Group Exhibition.

BSA Special Feature: INTI “Soleil”. Blinded by the Light.

OMG WHERE does Chop ’em Down get their music from? Finally we said it out loud.

Yes, the monstrous archive of top-notch video that they are amassing of Street Artists and others creating work in the world is scintillating, the gut-punch editing is riveting, the pickings are lush. But time and again Zane nails it into next week with the music choices. Bless you brother.

INTI “Soleil”. Blinded by the Light. Video by Chop ’em Down Films for Peinture Fraiche Festival. Lyon, France.

Martha Cooper: Queen der Street Art via ZDF German TV (in German no subtitles)

Our sincere thanks to Susanne Lingemann and ZDF German TV for this great piece on Martha Cooper during the premiere of Selina Miles’ movie “Martha: A Picture Story” at Tribeca Film Festival. Next stop Sydney!

Elisa Capdevila x Anna Repullo. Contorno Urbano Foundation. 12+1 Project

Easily the winner of wackiest choice of concept and music for the year so far is this wiccan themed duo in Spain painting walls across from each other on an underpass. Something to do with sensuality and competitiveness and … witchcraft? Good painting tho.

L’avenir

L’avenir Graffuturism Group Exhibition

A special collection of works opened on April 26th under the banner “Graffuturism”, guided by its creator and advocate, the artist Poesia. The lineup includes a number of artists along the street art/graffiti /contemporary continuum such as Augustine Kofie, Tobias Kroeger, Carlos Mare, Doze Green, Jaybo Monk, Faust, Kenor, and Matt W. Moore – each with distinct graphic voices of their own. Below are a couple of brief profiles from the show follow here.

“L’ avenir” Graffuturism. Group Exhibition. Mare139.

“L’ avenir” Graffuturism. Group Exhibition. Faust.

Sebastien Waknine: “Learning from Migrants and Refugees” In Barcelona

April 24, 2019 Artists

Owing to the scarceness of resources that are usually allotted to those who arrive as refugees, Street Artist and muralist Sebastien Waknine relies solely upon the thinnest piece of charcoal as he works on this new wall.

Sebastien Waknine. Barcelona, Spain. (photo © Lluis Olive)

“Learning from Migrants and Refugees” is the name of the collection of scenes that document the situations that people can be in when escaping from strife and fear – the human aspect of appealing to the help of another society. After five weeks of intensive work, Waknine stood aside during a public introduction as a Syrian man held the microphone and described the scenes to an assemble crowd in Barcelona.

Created in the gardens on the Hospital of Sant Pau in Barcelona, the mural was commissioned by the Universitat Autonoma de Barcelona and will be exhibited in various locations within the city of Barcelona.

Organizers say that the mural highlights the journey of refugees from the ravages of war and poverty in their countries as well as the realities of their living conditions in their host countries.

It is an unusual technique for a public work these days, as many have become accustomed to the splashy nature of big murals and festivals that present them. Here the warmth of the rendering and the humanity conveyed in the faces and gestures is only magnified when one gets close enough, even intimate with, the artwork.

The detached impersonal nature of war by drone has enabled such masses of people to be uprooted and chased from their lives – and a viewer may contrast the experience of the driver of that drone drawn in the sky with close-up terror of innocents whom Waknine depicts.

Clearly there is much for us to learn.

Cristina Lina: “Tommy” Cat and the Kids at Ferran Sunyer School

April 13, 2019 Artists

Yes, it is Saturday. It’s also #Caturday if you are a fan of the felines and you want to contribute to or simply scroll through the roughly 7.5 million photos with that hashtag on Instagram.

Cristina Lina. “Tommy”. Contorno Urbano Foundation. 12+1 Project. Barcelona, April 2019. (photo © Clara Anton)

This Spanish cat named Tommy looks like he could have belonged to Matisse, due to the overlapping abstract collage method, but British artist Christina Lina says he was her grandmother’s cat – so we guessed wrong. The artist and educator often creates props, temporary sculpture, and installations for kids and places they frequent, and finds her work easily moves from public to private space and back again.

“My work as artist and my work as educator are not easily or tidily separated,” she says of her work. “Mostly I work within a sort of collapse between the two.”

This mural part of a public art program done in concert with local Ferran Sunyer school (so-named after the mathematician) in a neighborhood of Barcelona and students had the opportunity to create puppets during the final phase of the program.

With special thanks to the 12 + 1 walls program by Contorno Urbano.

BSA Film Friday: 03.29.19

March 29, 2019 Artists, BSA Film Friday

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

Now screening :
1. Ibie vs Pelucas. Battle on the Streets Using VideoGame Metaphor
2. Jorge Rodriguez-Gerarda “Perpetual Flow” in Morocco
3. Nuria Toll. Contorno Urbano Foundation. 12+1 Project. Barcelona
4. MUSA vs Siro Wild West. Dueling Walls at the 12+1 Project, Barcelona

BSA Special Feature: Ibie vs Pelucas. Battle on the Streets Using VideoGame Metaphor

A new one from Contorno Urbano, this video is scored/styled as a digital battle with a Ludonarrative dissonance , these two 3-D gaming masters are the ludic elements of gameplay and pushing the narration of discovery and slaughter by paint.

With each player reaching deeper into his quiver for arrows, bolts, and darts, the resulting paintings are deep and lush – compiled with many actions per minute. This isn’t just player versus environment versus player – this is player versus imagination.

Jorge Rodriguez-Gerarda “Perpetual Flow” in Morocco

“My work uses natural materials and technology. I try to do this in a way so that it has very little impact (environmentally),” says artist Jorge Rodriguez-Gerarda here in Morrocco where he has created a huge land-art installation called “Perpetual Flow.”

See our full write-up on the project at “Jorge Rodríguez- Gerada ‘Perpetual Flow’ In the Moroccan Desert”

Nuria Toll. Contorno Urbano Foundation. 12+1 Project. Barcelona

Barcelonian graphic designer Nuria Toll on a sunny day on the street last month. Read more about this project on Nuria Toll Paints Her “Veïnes” in Barcelona .

MUSA vs Siro Wild West. Dueling Walls at the 12+1 Project, Barcelona

An awesome duel between can-slinging cowboy and cowgirl! Scored to a wild west musical theme, see these two artists on opposite sides of the tunnel painting fire and rattlesnakes and their individual wild styles.

See our original article “Two Writers Walk Into a Tunnel: MUSA71 x Siro in Barcelona”

Anna Repullo Gives Passersby “The Kiss” in Barcelona

March 26, 2019 Artists

Artist Anna Repullo is bringing the excitement of attraction to the street in her new mural, “El Beso” (The Kiss). It’s her sentimental contribution as part of a 3-woman program for walls here in Sant Vicenç dels Horts, curated by Contorno Urbano.

Anna Repullo. *El beso (The kiss)*. Contorno Urbano Foundation. 12+1 Project. Barcelona. March 2019. (photo © Clara Antón)

The figurative painter who loves to hike and explore nature lives in Granada Spain and is comfortable painting on canvas or walls. Her worko often depicts acts of intimacy and refuge between people in romantic or platonic embrace; sometimes even between people and pets.

This particular kiss is well timed for Spring, where many a passion is stirred by the caress of a warm breeze in the sunshine, the sounds of birds arriving with their song, the sight of trees bursting with their fresh blooms everywhere.

“You kissed me! My head drooped low on your breast
With a feeling of shelter and infinite rest,
While the holy emotions my tongue dared not speak,
Flashed up as in flame, from my heart to my cheek;
Your arms held me fast; oh! your arms were so bold —

Heart beat against heart in their passionate fold.
Your glances seemed drawing my soul through my eyes,
As the sun draws the mist form the sea to the skies.
Your lips clung to mine till I prayed in my bliss
They might never unclasp from the rapturous kiss.”

~ from You Kissed Me by Josephine Slocum Hunt

Captivating New Work at 12+1 Project from Elisa Capdevilla

March 25, 2019 Artists

One of three female artists keep these walls on lockdown right now in Sant Vicenç dels Horts, Capdevilla says she’s calling into question our classical comparisons of our own bodies to those ideals of Eurocentric sculptures and painters from centuries ago.

Elisa Capdevila. *Bodies*. Contorno Urbano Foundation. 12+1 Project. Barcelona. March 2019. (photo © Clara Antón)

She says “the plaster bodies are a good analogy for the rigid canons of beauty we’re used to,” and you can see exactly what she is talking about, from many angles.

Organizers of the parent project “Contorno Urbano,” itself a grassroots run collection of public and Street Artists and their admirers, say work like this hits one of their many people-fueled goals. “We keep working every day to normalize women’s participation in Street art projects, because art belongs to all of us.”

Of all body types! Ya heard?

Back Alley Survey of Offerings in La Ciutat Vella, Barcelona

March 23, 2019 Artists

La Ciutat Vella or The Old City is a district in Barcelona also known as the Gothic Quarters. Among many things it is also known as the stomping grounds for the young Pablo Picasso, who attended the Fine Arts school that once stood on Calle Avinyó.

Not to mention the impressive Gothic architecture and the first project of Famed Catalan architect Antonio Gaudi. Rambling up La Rambla is a good way to check out the parade of Barceloneons with its long walking avenue and take get great food in El Raval which is 50% populated by immigrants who come from many places including South America, Pakistan, the Phillipines, and Romania. Also, its close to the beach.

For those looking for street art this is also a remarkable point of destination. There are no big walls really but The Old City has plenty of back allies where artists find old rusty doors or windows to put up small pieces of Street Art.

The lengths you have to go to have a cigarette these days. Cane (photo © Lluís Olive)

Figurative, fantastical, surreal, dark pop, illustration techniques are favorites for local artiststs, who use all the compliment of modern Street Art techniques, including stencils, posters, stickers, and wheat pastes.

Our sincere thanks to photographer Lluis Olive who visited this part of the city recently and sends this dispatch of small offerings to share with BSA readers.

Shark party Homer popsicle LSD vision? Konair . Scifu (photo © Lluís Olive)

Amazing framing of the piece! Raf Urban (photo © Lluís Olive)

Flavita Banana & Women in a Springtime Dance

March 16, 2019 Artists

With a nod to La Danse by Henri Matisse and many human tribes’ rites of Spring, artist Falvita Banana creates her new “Juntes sumem” (add together) here on the façade of Cotxeres Borrell in Barcelona.

Flavita Banana. “*Juntes sumem”* Contorno Urbano Foundation. 12 + 1 Project. Barcelona, Spain. (photo © Clara Anton)

Her illustrations have been in magazines, books and on public walls, often with the most basic and courageous technique at play; the simple stroke in monochrome. Humor, absurdity, melancholy all are intertwined. Here the expansive commanding of space and convivial craze infers the spirit as well as the movement of these celebrants.

But as with many of her humorous works, she says that this new wall completed Wednesday has a sadness – the clan-like closeness on display is for safety as well as intimate sisterhood.

This is a feminist ring-around-the-rosy says the artist. “At any time and situation, women have to be alert and united. We have to protect and help each other; unfortunately, even when we’re having fun,” she says of the jovial scene. “Above all, we have to remember that we are stronger together.”

Created in conjunction with the public art project Contorno Urbano in Barcelona.

No Borders: Murs Contra el Murs (Walls Against Walls)

February 21, 2019 Artists, Street Art Festival

This past Sunday, February 17 at La Plaza de las Tres Chimeneas ( Three Smokestacks Square) in Barcelona an international group of artists participated in the first “No Borders Festival.”

Carles G.O’D. No Borders Festival. Barcelona, Spain. February 2019. (photo © Lluís Olive)

Called “Murs Contra el Murs”, which is Catalan for “Walls Against Walls”, the multi-mural festival intends to highlight the ongoing humanitarian crises of refugees and immigrants at international borders around the world.

Graffiti artists, Street Artists, painters, and illustrators came together to create new murals to speak to the issue and encourage debate and conversation. Artists included Btoy, Carles G.O’D, Dixon, Eledu, Enric Sant, Javier Arribas, Juanjo Surace, Julieta XLF, Kenor, Kram, Pincho, Roc Blackblock, Ruina, Saturno, Simón Vázquez, Tutzo, and Wati Bacán, among others.

Julieta XLF. No Borders Festival. Barcelona, Spain. February 2019. (photo © Lluís Olive)

NO BORDERS is a grassroots organization that was created to raise awareness about the refugees, to demand their acceptance, and to raise funds through debates, art and documentaries.

They say they want to raise the uncomfortable questions – which will undoubtedly lead to uncomfortable answers as well. To paraphrase the text on their website:

“Do we settle for a society that violates its moral and legal obligations to refugees? A refugee is a person who flees – Flees because he is on the losing side. Because he thinks, feels or prays differently than those who point him with their weapons.”

As usual, artists are bringing these matters to the street for the vox populi to debate.

Our sincere thanks to photographer Lluís Olive for sharing his shots of the walls with BSA readers.

Enric Sant. No Borders Festival. Barcelona, Spain. February 2019. (photo © Lluís Olive)

El Rey de la Ruina. No Borders Festival. Barcelona, Spain. February 2019. (photo © Lluís Olive)

Juanjo Surace. No Borders Festival. Barcelona, Spain. February 2019. (photo © Lluís Olive)

Royal. No Borders Festival. Barcelona, Spain. February 2019. (photo © Lluís Olive)

Saturno Art . Eledu Works. No Borders Festival. Barcelona, Spain. February 2019. (photo © Lluís Olive)

Pincho. No Borders Festival. Barcelona, Spain. February 2019. (photo © Lluís Olive)

Kenor. No Borders Festival. Barcelona, Spain. February 2019. (photo © Lluís Olive)

Roc Black Block . Rubicon. No Borders Festival. Barcelona, Spain. February 2019. (photo © Lluís Olive)

TVTZO. No Borders Festival. Barcelona, Spain. February 2019. (photo © Lluís Olive)

For more information on the festival running through March 3rd that includes documentaries, panel discussions, workshops, and prints, please go to https://noborders.es/ and follow @nobordersrefugees on Instagram

Nuria Toll Paints Her “Veïnes” in Barcelona

February 16, 2019 Artists

Saturday fun today from local Barcelona graphic designer Núria Toll, who’s sort of new to the experience of doing murals and art on the street.

Translating her own history with illustration and typography, Ms. Toll finds that humor is a welcome antidote to the negativity that is produced by our invasions of animals’ natural habitats.

**Núria Toll.** *“Veïnes*”. Contorno Urbano Foundation. 12 + 1 Project. Barcelona. February 2019. (photo © Clara Antón)

Here with “Veïnes” (female neighbors in Catalan), her seagulls are meant to remind us that the natural world was here first, and we should make a home for all of us. The seagulls are rather good at integrating, and Toll here is giving them their due.

Núria Toll paints here for Contorno Urbano, the first foundation in Spain dedicated to street art and graffiti.

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