All posts tagged: Fanzara

Fanzara Art Festival 2022

August 20, 2022 Artists

The storied, busy, festive Spanish city of Valencia lies about an hour south of Fanzara, and the difference between the two could not be more pronounced. One of many across the country, this small town has been aging, shrinking in population, a shadow of its former charming self. Since the Fanzara Miau Mural Festival began about a decade ago, that direction has been slowly reversing, with an infusion of murals all over town.

The tourist trafficked has become notable, and that youthful demographic once again wanders through the winding streets, greeting old timers and taking photos of the murals and of course, posing for selfies in front of them.

Ceciro. Fanzara Art Festival 2022. Fanzara, Spain. (photo © Lluis Olive Bulbena)

The artworks are quite varied, with street artists now often formally trained studio professionals and those working in the advertising and commercial art industries. Thankfully the feeling remains free spirited, and many artists appear to await inspiration for their subject matter until arriving, preferring to be inspired by their new environment and creating something that initiates dialogue with their surroundings.

Bault. Fanzara Art Festival 2022. Fanzara, Spain. (photo © Lluis Olive Bulbena)

From the classically figurative to naïve, illustrative to photorealistic, the natural world to daily life, the common thread is thoughtful and considered work that is far from the hype of other street art festivals – and safely far from commercial gloss.

Today we have new photos from the 2022 edition by frequent contributor Lluis Olive Bulbena.

Axel Void. Fanzara Art Festival 2020. Fanzara, Spain. (photo © Lluis Olive Bulbena)

Slim Safont. Fanzara Art Festival 2022. Fanzara, Spain. (photo © Lluis Olive Bulbena)

Pedro Kouba and Cesar Goce. Fanzara Art Festival 2022. Fanzara, Spain. (photo © Lluis Olive Bulbena)

Sokram paints an artist walking the tightrope. Fanzara Art Festival 2022. Fanzara, Spain. (photo © Lluis Olive Bulbena)

Isaac Cordal. Fanzara Art Festival 2022. Fanzara, Spain. (photo © Lluis Olive Bulbena)

Isaac Cordal. Fanzara Art Festival 2020. Fanzara, Spain. (photo © Lluis Olive Bulbena)

Manuel Martin. Fanzara Art Festival 2022. Fanzara, Spain. (photo © Lluis Olive Bulbena)

EL NIÑO DE LAS PINTURAS. Fanzara Art Festival 2022. Fanzara, Spain. (photo © Lluis Olive Bulbena)

Zesar and Meri. Fanzara Art Festival 2022. Fanzara, Spain. (photo © Lluis Olive Bulbena)

Huariu. Fanzara Art Festival 2022. Fanzara, Spain. (photo © Lluis Olive Bulbena)

Fanzara Diary : Mural Update from a Tiny Spanish Town

February 3, 2016 Artists

You can tell by the quality of the street pieces that continue to go up in Fanzara that this young but ongoing “festival” is driven by something more than simply commercial interests. Thoughtful, quiet, hardly showy, Fanzara is the small town that we brought you to twice last summer (see links at end of this article) and the grassroots nature of the visits by Street Artists are a testament to a certain authenticity.

In December BSA contributor Lluis Olive Bulbena took a slight detour from his trip to Valencia and visited Fanzara to see what was completed or new since the last time he was there and he shares his photos with BSA readers. So consider this your update on your tiny Spanish sister:

XELON. Fanzara, Spain. (photo © Lluis Olive Bulbena)

Pichi & Avo. Fanzara, Spain. (photo © Lluis Olive Bulbena)

Escif. Fanzara, Spain. (photo © Lluis Olive Bulbena)

Borondo. Fanzara, Spain. (photo © Lluis Olive Bulbena)

Chylo. Fanzara, Spain. (photo © Lluis Olive Bulbena)

Joaquin Jara. Fanzara, Spain. (photo © Lluis Olive Bulbena)

LOLO. Fanzara, Spain. (photo © Lluis Olive Bulbena)

B.Toy. Fanzara, Spain. (photo © Lluis Olive Bulbena)

Pincho. Fanzara, Spain. (photo © Lluis Olive Bulbena)

DEIH. Fanzara, Spain. (photo © Lluis Olive Bulbena)

See our two other visits for more background on art in the streets of Fanzara:

Fanzara, A Tiny Spanish Town Reinvents Itself With Help From Artists

Fanzara, Spain: “MIAU” Marries Street Art & Cats, Breaks Internet

August 13, 2015 Artists

You knew it would happen eventually, like peanut butter and chocolate on their first date. One day the Internet would deliver to you two of your favorite things together – like cats and Street Art. Yes, it is called MIAU, an acronym that translated from spanish is The Unfinished Museum of Urban Art. The festival is pronounced the way you thought – meow!

Thiago Goms. MIAU. Fanzara, Spain. July 2015. (photo © Lluis Olive Bulbena)

Cynics among you, please turn your eyes away from the screen as we show you adorable scenes of murals by Street Artists who basically have adopted a tiny town of Fanzara, 35 minutes from Castellón de la Plana on the east coast of Spain. And by tiny we mean 323 people, most of them senior citizens.

It all happened innocently, according to stories heard by photographer Lluis Olive Bulbena and published reports, when two local guys wanted to invite a small number of Spanish Street Artists to paint murals in the town in the wake of bitter debates that had been happening around a proposed incinerator in town and creating rancor between citizens.

Animalitoland. MIAU. Fanzara, Spain. July 2015. (photo © Lluis Olive Bulbena)

The pay would not be high; you’d sleep on somebody’s couch and eat home cooked kitchen cuisine, but it would be appreciated. An “adopt an artist” program was started and people volunteered to host a visiting painter. The town board came up with a small budget. Word spread quickly and the number of artists interested grew to 20. In little time, as citizens responded favorably, there were 40 new murals in town and many of them were done with some participation of residents.

That was 2014. Last month 21 more artists arrived, worked with local folks, did workshops, had film screenings, a few photo exhibits, had a PechaKucha night, involved youth in painting projects, helped create community, and were serenaded live while painting by La Rondalla Santa Cecilia, a 13 piece local band formed in 1983.

Borondo. MIAU. Fanzara, Spain. July 2015. (photo © Lluis Olive Bulbena)

If you are wondering how much of this adorable story is the product of clever marketing strategies by savvy Gen X professionals who made their money in digital advertising campaigns and how much of this is genuine, we understand your suspicions: it is awfully cute. But the murals are real, and the town is real. And yes, there are a number of cats in the compositions as well.

Miau.

Borondo at work on a larger wall. MIAU. Fanzara, Spain. July 2015. (photo © Lluis Olive Bulbena)

The list of artists invited this year are: ANIMALITOLAND, BIBBITS, BORONDO, BTOY, CHLYO, D.JUEZ, EMILIO CHERRY, GAEL, FLU, H101, Joaquín Jara, JULIAN ARRANZ, Kenor, LOLO, LUIS MONTALVO, PICHI & AVO, PINCHO, SGER, THIAGO GOMS, Xelon XL and DEIH.

Xelon XL. MIAU. Fanzara, Spain. July 2015. (photo © Lluis Olive Bulbena)

Bibbits. MIAU. Fanzara, Spain. July 2015. (photo © Lluis Olive Bulbena)

Gripe. MIAU. Fanzara, Spain. July 2015. (photo © Lluis Olive Bulbena)

Emilio Cerezo. MIAU. Fanzara, Spain. July 2015. (photo © Lluis Olive Bulbena)

GR170. MIAU. Fanzara, Spain. July 2015. (photo © Lluis Olive Bulbena)

H101. MIAU. Fanzara, Spain. July 2015. (photo © Lluis Olive Bulbena)

Julian Arranz. MIAU. Fanzara, Spain. July 2015. (photo © Lluis Olive Bulbena)

Sger. MIAU. Fanzara, Spain. July 2015. (photo © Lluis Olive Bulbena)

BToy. MIAU. Fanzara, Spain. July 2015. (photo © Lluis Olive Bulbena)

Chlyo. MIAU. Fanzara, Spain. July 2015. (photo © Lluis Olive Bulbena)

Costi. MIAU. Fanzara, Spain. July 2015. (photo © Lluis Olive Bulbena)

Pincho. MIAU. Fanzara, Spain. July 2015. (photo © Lluis Olive Bulbena)

Xabier XRTM Laguna. MIAU. Fanzara, Spain. July 2015. (photo © Lluis Olive Bulbena)

Kenor. MIAU. Fanzara, Spain. July 2015. (photo © Lluis Olive Bulbena)

Pichi and AVO. MIAU. Fanzara, Spain. July 2015. (photo © Lluis Olive Bulbena)

Natxuta. MIAU. Fanzara, Spain. July 2015. (photo © Lluis Olive Bulbena)

Lolo at work on his wall. MIAU. Fanzara, Spain. July 2015. (photo © Lluis Olive Bulbena)

D.Juez. MIAU. Fanzara, Spain. July 2015. (photo © Lluis Olive Bulbena)

Deih at work on is wall. MIAU. Fanzara, Spain. July 2015. (photo © Lluis Olive Bulbena)

Our most sincere gratitude to Mr. Bulbena for sharing his photos with BSA Readers.

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Fanzara, A Tiny Spanish Town Reinvents Itself With Help From Artists

June 22, 2015 Artists

Coming up during the third weekend of July will be the second installment of MIAU (The Unfinished Museum of Urban Art) in the tiny town of about 325 people named Fanzara, Spain. Begun by local artists and with a tiny budget from the local council, more than 20 Spanish and a handful of Italian street artists took part in the grassroots festival the first time around last summer, transforming homes and buildings in this aging municipality. In advance of the new paintings we bring you images of the current murals as shot by Lluis Olive Bulbena, who offers his personal account of visiting the town and getting a tour from MIAU co-founder Javier López and artist Ana Pez.

By Lluis Olive Bulbena

When I first learned of Fanzara’s Street Art I had no idea where the town was so I had to search on the Internet to locate it. The town is located about 186 miles from my own town of Barcelona in the Province of Castellón, Fanzara is about 55 miles from Valencia on the Iberian Peninsula.

Their local web page told me they had about 30 murals so my wife and I contacted the town’s office of tourism and made arrangements to meet someone there when we arrived.

Sure enough, Javi and Ana were there waiting for us and they gave us an extensive tour of the town. It was a very hot day, bathed with sun light and I had enormous problems shooting pictures because of the light. But our hosts couldn’t have been more gracious.

After our tour a drink was in order and we got a table at a bar called “Abajo” (meaning “below”). 50 meters up the street there used to be a bar called “Arriba” (above) but the owners changed the name.

Fanzara’s love for Street Art began when a group of youths began thinking of new ways to revitalize the town and Street Art was mentioned as a possibility.

They posed themselves a couple of questions to the town: Would local people want Street Art on their home’s walls? The answers came back; the majority said yes. Some said no. Many of the naysayers have now changed their minds to the yes column.

The second question: Who would they invite and under what criteria? This problem was swiftly solved as Javi was friends with a graphic designer located in Madrid named Pincho Lopez. Because of his familiarity with the mural art scene Pincho was put in charge of curating the artists who would be invited to paint.

The first group of artists included: Escif, Julieta Xlf, Deih, Laguna, Cere, Ruina, Chylo, Sabek, Xabier Xtrm, Pincho, Susie Hammer, Lolo, La Foix, Hombrelopez, Joan Tarragó, Yes, Pol Marban, Ana Pez, Rafa Gascó, Natzo, y Acció Poètica La Plana Castelló.

Once in town the artists worked tirelessly to complete the murals, big and small in just three days in September of 2014. Since the small budget did not allow for much more than paint and ladders, the town folks banded together to provide accommodations and food to the artists. In mid-January of 2015 three Italian Street Artists, Collettivo FX, Nemo’s, and Bibito, were invited to paint three additional murals.

Hombre Lopez .Rafa Gascó (photo © Lluis Olive Bulbena) “For me the piece that impressed me the most was the installation by Hombre Lopez and Rafa Gascó. Their piece consisted of photographs/portraits of the locals transferred on to stones and installed on a wall. The photographs are of people who lived there and are long gone as well as of current inhabitants of the town. This installation creates a relation between space and time among the town’s inhabitants and their relatives through several decades” -Lluis Olive Bulbena.

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XELON. Fanzara, Spain. (photo © Lluis Olive Bulbena)

Pichi & Avo. Fanzara, Spain. (photo © Lluis Olive Bulbena)

Escif. Fanzara, Spain. (photo © Lluis Olive Bulbena)

Borondo. Fanzara, Spain. (photo © Lluis Olive Bulbena)

Chylo. Fanzara, Spain. (photo © Lluis Olive Bulbena)

Joaquin Jara. Fanzara, Spain. (photo © Lluis Olive Bulbena)

LOLO. Fanzara, Spain. (photo © Lluis Olive Bulbena)

B.Toy. Fanzara, Spain. (photo © Lluis Olive Bulbena)

Pincho. Fanzara, Spain. (photo © Lluis Olive Bulbena)

DEIH. Fanzara, Spain. (photo © Lluis Olive Bulbena)

Thiago Goms. MIAU. Fanzara, Spain. July 2015. (photo © Lluis Olive Bulbena)

Animalitoland. MIAU. Fanzara, Spain. July 2015. (photo © Lluis Olive Bulbena)

Borondo. MIAU. Fanzara, Spain. July 2015. (photo © Lluis Olive Bulbena)

Borondo at work on a larger wall. MIAU. Fanzara, Spain. July 2015. (photo © Lluis Olive Bulbena)

Xelon XL. MIAU. Fanzara, Spain. July 2015. (photo © Lluis Olive Bulbena)

Bibbits. MIAU. Fanzara, Spain. July 2015. (photo © Lluis Olive Bulbena)

Gripe. MIAU. Fanzara, Spain. July 2015. (photo © Lluis Olive Bulbena)

Gripe. MIAU. Fanzara, Spain. July 2015. (photo © Lluis Olive Bulbena)

Gripe. MIAU. Fanzara, Spain. July 2015. (photo © Lluis Olive Bulbena)

Emilio Cerezo. MIAU. Fanzara, Spain. July 2015. (photo © Lluis Olive Bulbena)

Emilio Cerezo. MIAU. Fanzara, Spain. July 2015. (photo © Lluis Olive Bulbena)

GR170. MIAU. Fanzara, Spain. July 2015. (photo © Lluis Olive Bulbena)

H101. MIAU. Fanzara, Spain. July 2015. (photo © Lluis Olive Bulbena)

Julian Arranz. MIAU. Fanzara, Spain. July 2015. (photo © Lluis Olive Bulbena)

Sger. MIAU. Fanzara, Spain. July 2015. (photo © Lluis Olive Bulbena)

BToy. MIAU. Fanzara, Spain. July 2015. (photo © Lluis Olive Bulbena)

Chlyo. MIAU. Fanzara, Spain. July 2015. (photo © Lluis Olive Bulbena)

Costi. MIAU. Fanzara, Spain. July 2015. (photo © Lluis Olive Bulbena)

Pincho. MIAU. Fanzara, Spain. July 2015. (photo © Lluis Olive Bulbena)

Xabier XRTM Laguna. MIAU. Fanzara, Spain. July 2015. (photo © Lluis Olive Bulbena)

Kenor. MIAU. Fanzara, Spain. July 2015. (photo © Lluis Olive Bulbena)

Pichi and AVO. MIAU. Fanzara, Spain. July 2015. (photo © Lluis Olive Bulbena)

Natxuta. MIAU. Fanzara, Spain. July 2015. (photo © Lluis Olive Bulbena)

Lolo at work on his wall. MIAU. Fanzara, Spain. July 2015. (photo © Lluis Olive Bulbena)

D.Juez. MIAU. Fanzara, Spain. July 2015. (photo © Lluis Olive Bulbena)

Deih at work on is wall. MIAU. Fanzara, Spain. July 2015. (photo © Lluis Olive Bulbena)

When I first learned of Fanzara’s Street Art I had no idea where the town was so I had to search on the Internet to locate it. The town is located about 186 miles from my own town of Barcelona in the Province of Castellón, Fanzara is about 55 miles from Valencia on the Iberian Peninsula.

Their local web page told me they had about 30 murals so my wife and I contacted the town’s office of tourism and made arrangements to meet someone there when we arrived.

Pol Barban (photo © Lluis Olive Bulbena)

Sure enough, Javi and Ana were there waiting for us and they gave us an extensive tour of the town. It was a very hot day, bathed with sun light and I had enormous problems shooting pictures because of the light. But our hosts couldn’t have been more gracious.

After our tour a drink was in order and we got a table at a bar called “Abajo” (meaning “below”). 50 meters up the street there used to be a bar called “Arriba” (above) but the owners changed the name.

Hombre Lopez .Rafa Gascó. Detail. (photo © Lluis Olive Bulbena)

They posed themselves a couple of questions to the town: Would local people want Street Art on their home’s walls? The answers came back; the majority said yes. Some said no. Many of the naysayers have now changed their minds to the yes column.

The first group of artists included: Escif, Julieta Xlf, Deih, Laguna, Cere, Ruina, Chylo, Sabek, Xabier Xtrm, Pincho, Susie Hammer, Lolo, La Foix, Hombrelopez, Joan Tarragó, Yes, Pol Marban, Ana Pez, Rafa Gascó, Natzo, y Acció Poètica La Plana Castelló.

Collettivo FX (photo © Lluis Olive Bulbena)

Nemo’S (photo © Lluis Olive Bulbena)

Xabier XTRM (photo © Lluis Olive Bulbena)

Ana Pez (photo © Lluis Olive Bulbena)

Sabek (photo © Lluis Olive Bulbena)

Julieta XLF (photo © Lluis Olive Bulbena)

Julieta XLF and Pincho (photo © Lluis Olive Bulbena)

Escif (photo © Lluis Olive Bulbena)

Chylo (photo © Lluis Olive Bulbena)

Costi (photo © Lluis Olive Bulbena)

Lolo (photo © Lluis Olive Bulbena)

Lolo (photo © Lluis Olive Bulbena)

Deih (photo © Lluis Olive Bulbena)

Chylo (photo © Lluis Olive Bulbena)

Cere (photo © Lluis Olive Bulbena)

Cere (photo © Lluis Olive Bulbena)

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