This week BSA is in Barcelona to participate in the Contorno Urbano competition to select an artist for a new community mural and residency in the municipality of Sant Feliu de Llobregat – and of course to see the famed Barcelona Street Art scene as it continues to evolve.

Street Artist ESCIF is Chosen as Contorno Urbano Winner.

From 300 to 12 to 1, we have a winner.

The final phase of the judging process was the meeting of the citizens who have a stake in the outcome that far outstrips the considered analysis of experts in the Street Art/ Public Art world. Four veteran members of the Sant Feliu De Llobregat Neighborhood Association generously shared their personal oral history recounting the struggles of this neighborhood that coincided with the passing of Franco in the 1970s.

Theirs is a story of people’s struggle; a coalescing neighborhood’s movement to fight for self determination, democracy, education, health, women’s rights, union rights, human rights, and yes, the right to public space in battles against the dictatorship and powerful private interests. Hearing these people talk was illuminating, educational, and inspiring – as was our visit to the Plaza De La Salut (La Salut Square), itself a result of the neighbors fight for public space against moneyed interests who wanted to build a huge gas station there in 1977.

After reading through close to 300 submissions and asking 12 to submit specific proposals, a thoughtful deliberation and strict voting process took place among an assembled panel of Mónica Campana, Verónica Werckmesiter, Fernando Figueroa, Esteban MarÍn and Jaime Rojo.

The chosen proposal was submitted by Escif, a Spanish artist who lives in Catalonia.

“Any public intervention is political as it modifies the daily life of people in the cities. This modification can be directed in two possible directions: bringing people closer to their reality or away from it,” he says on his website today.

“Even if my work is inevitably within the parameters of spectacle, I try to find a way to bring painting closer to reality. I try to erase (or at least blur) boundaries between life and spectacle, between presentation and representation, between contemplation and experience, between landscape and territory, between the power of institutions and the power of the people.”

More details will follow about his winning submission later, but here’s a loose collection of some examples of Escif’s previous work.

Learn more about Escif at Street Against.

Escif. (photo © Jaime Rojo)

Escif. (photo © Jaime Rojo)

Escif. (photo © Jaime Rojo)

Escif. (photo © lluis Olive Bulbena)

Escif. (photo © Henrik Haven)

Escif. (photo © Lluis Olive Bulbena)

Escif. (photo © Lluis Olive Bulbena)

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