Whether you are an individual artist or a graffiti art project looking for collaborations, there exist different Spanish & European urban art initiatives out there that you should take into account.
Here’s a brief selection of companies that you should definitely check:
- Mes que Murs
- Paint the change Europe
- Festival Circular
- ‘I am Titanes’
1-. Mes que Murs, painting the Spanish East coast thanks to a graffiti art project.
This graffiti art project takes place in a semi-coastal city called Sagunto, Valencia. It’s held in Spring and the event gives this Roman Empire location voice and presence in the national street art panorama.
Who are the national and international artists painting at MQM?
Mes que Murs is curated by a local artist crew called MDR, who invite other graffiti writers to participate in each year’s edition.
Nine different murals are yearly added and artists receive permission to paint over different resources:
- Illustrations on public buses,
- Urban art walls in the private buildings’ facades,
- Group exhibitions & solo shows in the festival headquarters.
Artists who have participated in previous editions are Musa 71, Tontos, Mario Mankey, Fastone or Noke1 among others.
An event focused on an open audience.
The festival not only brings art to the streets, but it also approaches people to modern and contemporary art. How?
- Group workshops to elaborate wool creations,
- TED-alike talks for artists & people interested in the graffiti industry
- Music concerts for all ages
2-. ‘Paint the Change Europe’, Street art for social change
Paint the Change is a project created by Maziar Bahari in 2015, which has helped spread the love for urban art among teenagers aged 12 to 18.
It creates a dialogue about relevant worldwide social issues through art. This initiative brought over fourty murals to all continents! Isn’t that amazing?
A graffiti art project to change the rules
Art can be a powerful tool for the societies. Any given image doesn’t necessarily have to be accompanied by a written message in order to have the same impact on people who have grown up in a community.
We could share happy feelings or sad ones, but the moment when you click and feel the connection with people is when art does its job.
The festival has achieved several commitments with the communities where it took place. At the same time, it created a dialogue with other communities and the issues concerning them
Educating with graffiti walls around Europe
Education is not a Crime (Youtube link) is a worldwide collaboration between Bahari’s team and international artists. Bahari is an Iranian-Canadian filmmaker who wanted to show the struggle for education in Iran’s local communities.
These are some of the projects which the team has ellaborated:
- Discover Young Hackney
- Portrait project
- Grenfell Tower
3-. Festival Circular, environmentally friendly graffiti art project in Madrid city
The emergent Spanish contemporary art industry is committed to the climate change. You may have heard about “Trash Art” or different styles which combine the use of recycled materials.
Who’s behind this triple R graffiti art project?
The festival has only celebrated one edition, but the idea is quite refreshing and necessary in our society: Reduce, Reuse, Recycle!
Madrid Street Art Project is a cultural organization behind this public event and few other street art festivals such as Muros Tabacalera, Pinta Malasaña or CALLE Lavapiés.
How do they work?
They basically apply for Spanish and European CCIs budgets (Cultural and Creative Industries). They coordinate urban art events by putting in touch local artists with local governing bodies interested in cultural innovation.
What’s the festival’s motto and message?
There exists quite interesting ideas about this outdoors project:
- It helps decentralize the art shows. They help the suburbs and outskirts’ communities benefit from cultural development.
- Artists first meet & greet the neighborhood in order to analyze the social issues affecting the area.
- The idea is to create urban art in Madrid from found pieces in the street, hence the name, Circular, reusing and recycling objects that could have been considered thrash.
4-. ‘I am Titanes‘ huge values
Titanes is a cultural and educational project to promote social inclusion through art by creating a public art museum of top international artists on silos (grain storage) in Ciudad Real, two hours drive from Madrid.
Which organizations are involved in this graffiti art project?
- Laborvalía: an association which works for the promotion & social inclusion of people with disabilities. It develops and implements programs that demonstrate how the arts can improve the lives of people with disabilities and promote their integration in society and the workplace.
- Ink and Movement, an artists’ management organization representing Okuda, Spok Brillor or Mister Piro among others.
- Ciudad Real council office: providing financial help to the project.
What internationally known artists participated at ‘I am Titanes’ 2019?
- Ricardo Cavolo (Spain), a fantastic mixture of religious art, Russian criminal tattoos, South American flora, nautical themes, and naïve, outsider art.
- Bicicleta Sem Freio (Brasil), manual work, the care with the typography and the drawing of girls, a lot of girls
- Nychos (Australia), dissections and cross sections of human and animal bodies
Cooltourspain thoughts about how should a graffiti art project be organized
We believe that any graffiti art project has to hear artists’ opinion. The best way to develop a brilliant cultural idea is to join forces together and bring the areas’ voices into the plan.
Cooltourspain is open to any press promotion so if you want to exhibit your festival/project in our website, please send us an email with all the information to info@cooltourspain.com
Leave a Reply