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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.

Barcelona Dispatch : A Street Art Survey From a Fan

May 6, 2015 Artists

By his own account Lluís Olivé has been shooting images in the city of Barcelona for about 50 years; street scenes, demonstrations, parades, architectural details, tiles, iron work, doors, doorknobs, windows, and of course, graffiti and Street Art. Calling himself an amateur, Señor Olivé nonetheless has captured a lot of Barcelona’s changing Street Art scene in the last decade and shares a handful of his favorites from the 2,500 or so street art images he has shot in the city.

MAMM. Barcelona, Spain. (photo © Lluis Olive Bulbuena)

“My experience shooting graffiti began in 2005 when I discovered an aerosol painting of the face of a girl and I was so impressed by it that I began to look for more,” he says, describing how he was first bitten by the bug. “I started to tour around different neighborhoods and even though I lived 150 kilometers from Barcelona at the time, I took trips there as often as I could to take pictures of the graffiti and Street Art.”

ManuTwice. Barcelona, Spain. (photo © Lluis Olive Bulbuena)

Since 2010 he has moved much closer to the city and thanks to the friendships he has formed he says that artists have reached out to him to come and shoot their new work. He favors murals, portraits and faces, illustrations, photorealism and fantasy. Since he now lives closer to the art he has adopted an approach that is methodical. “I research on the internet, search certain hashtags, and check my email – I usually follow more or less known weekly ‘routes ‘,” he explains.

Unfortunately for Street Art fans like Olivé, the city has taken serious steps to limit organic street art in recent years. Areas of the city that once burst with thousands of murals, pieces, stencils, and wheatpastes had begun to attract tourists to an art scene that outshone many major cities but according to many artists the city and real estate industry saw new development opportunities and smothered a scene that had inspired books, websites, videos, galleries, and related cultural events.

Penao. Barcelona, Spain. (photo © Lluis Olive Bulbuena)

While the city’s clean-up efforts have spawned a criticism in certain quarters that the organic nature of the street art scene has been cynically expunged in favor of commercial retail stores and corporate dullness, municipal advocates respond that the city has also created “zones” for individual creativity to be expressed with little restriction.

Señor Olivé believes that both parties have a point. “Since I began taking photos in Barcelona I have seen a huge change from when I started – the amount of Street Art has decreased due to new municipal policies high penalties. But the city has also created 8 or 10 ‘approved’ zones for graffiti and the quality is often very good.”

MAMM. Barcelona, Spain. (photo © Lluis Olive Bulbuena)

One of his favorite sanctioned spots to shoot is in a park inaugurated in the 1990s where a light and power station once operated and where three tall chimneys from the previous century still tower as a reminder of the history of the city. “Jardines de las Tres Chimeneas” (Three Chimney Park) provides a number of paved skateboarding spots and walls specifically reserved for an ongoing graffiti exposition that is renewed weekly. The park has events including skateboard competions, electronic music performances and exhibitions of hip-hop and break dance.

He is retiring from his regular job this July and plans to take a trip to a number of cities in the US to celebrate with his wife, and to take photos. He has a post-retirement photography plan already. “Starting this October I am planning a new project for myself to do a one-year weekly documentation of the ‘Tres Chimeneas’,” – perhaps to present in a gallery or some other formal venue.

And of course, there is still plenty of the unsanctioned stuff to shoot, it just may be a little harder to find…

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This article is also published on The Huffington Post

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