The writing on the wall

December 4, 2006 8:06 PM

Barcelona Street Art. Most places consider graffiti a form of vandalism, but in Barcelona, street art is embraced. The result is a city with public walls like giant canvases of modern art.
posted by Gamblor (9 comments total)

Seattle and Los Angeles have some pretty wicked street art as well.
posted by mullingitover at 8:18 PM on December 4, 2006

Great pictures, but it's not peculiar to Barcelona. It seems any town in Spain big enough for a supermarket has some really sweet graffiti somewhere, like underpasses or other large municipal concrete eyesores. And, funnily enough, you see much less of the pointless tagging so common in less permissive places.
posted by claudius at 8:27 PM on December 4, 2006

And, funnily enough, you see much less of the pointless tagging so common in less permissive places.
Isn't that because in those less permissive places, you just don't have the time to create a giant canvas of modern art because you're worried about getting busted? Tagging's not pointless - sometimes it's the only graffiti you've got the chance to create.
BTW, these pictures are great and have me longing to be in Spain again.
posted by bunglin jones at 8:33 PM on December 4, 2006

Great link, Gamblor. I spent three days running through the back alleys of Barcelona and found out stateside that the camera was broken. Not a single picture came out. It's nice to see others have the same idea.
posted by trinarian at 9:45 PM on December 4, 2006

Funny, I was talking about this last night. I just hit a bunch of cities for work and thought how sad it was that none of them had what Barcelona had in its street art. It's a great thing and glad to see it up here. When I am more conscious, I will need to spend more time with the photos.
posted by kingfisher, his musclebound cat at 9:49 PM on December 4, 2006

I saw some of the stupidest and most pointless things written on walls in Barcelona.

A few feet away from where I saw "Snopp Doggy Dogg" written. I saw that some genius had written "VIVA TODO LO ILEGAL"

That means "Viva [means something like 'long live'] Everything Illegal" So I'm assuming that if someone raped their sister they'd be cool with it.

It appears that to some people anarchy means you can write on the walls.

I still haven't met anyone else who also thinks that Barcelona is a dirty, noisy, claustrophobic, shithole. It's probably because they can't read the graffiti.
posted by redteam at 1:43 AM on December 5, 2006

See 'em while you can. Barcelona has been on a drive for more "civismo" the last couple of years, and the city goverment is slowly but steadily reducing the spaces available. The wall in front of the MACBA has already been completely cleaned in order to make the neighborhood look nice for the luxury condos they're building across the street.
posted by fuzz at 2:32 AM on December 5, 2006

I still haven't met anyone else who also thinks that Barcelona is a dirty, noisy, claustrophobic, shithole.

Well, you have now redteam. Barcelona is hell on earth as far as I'm concerned.

It seems any town in Spain big enough for a supermarket has some really sweet graffiti somewhere, like underpasses or other large municipal concrete eyesores. And, funnily enough, you see much less of the pointless tagging so common in less permissive places.

Nonsense. For every beautiful piece of "street art" (and these are beautiful pieces, thanks for the link, Gamblor), there are a hundred swastikas and MOROS NO!!! slogans spraypainted on the walls.
posted by otio at 6:18 AM on December 5, 2006

Being one of those people that actively follows and attempts to archive the street art scene in (mostly south) Bristol (I would link, but it would summon the banhammer), I've heard a few tales of how cool Barcelona is for interesting work. There are quite a few people that pop up there that I would love to see outside of the internet - Miss Van especially. It's perhaps one of the few cities outside Bristol that has street art of a quality that's worth exploring.

fuzz said: "The wall in front of the MACBA has already been completely cleaned in order to make the neighborhood look nice for the luxury condos they're building across the street."

Unfortunately, the local areas I work with my camera are facing this prospect as well. I figure either the redevelopment will eat the graf, or the graf will eat the redevelopment. Guess which one I'm secretly hoping for? ;)
posted by saturnine at 4:32 PM on December 5, 2006