The Stencils of barrio Lavapies


One morning I walked out the door of my apartment and found feet stenciled on the sidewalk all over Lavapies, every few footprints they had stenciled the question "Y Por que No?" "And why not?" ... I couldn't come up with a reason not to, brightened up my day and the sidewalk in general:)


So, Lavapies is great, I live in Lavapies. Lavapies is the most international place I have ever been. You walk into the locotorio to make a phonecall and you easily hear 8 different languages. Lavapies has traditionally been a working class and immigrant neighborhood, and still is to some extent, but young artsy types, such as myself, are drawn to the energy of the area, so we come in waves and are starting to raise market rent prices. In addition to higher rent, young people are also unleashing alot of alternative political energy in Lavapies as well. In the short two months that I was there, there were an amazing amount of film cycles, conferences, manifestations, seminars, concerts and much more all dedicated to raising public awareness around issues such as cuts in Spanish social service programs, racial profiling by police and changes in the European Union´s immigration policy. In addition to all of this, another medium frequently used in Lavapies for education, publicity, and general good times are STENCILS!!!!

So, many individuals don´t consider stencils to be exactly Graffiti, they are however an extremely important presence in the larger urban art scene. I like stencils for their clean final look and the quickness in which you can leave them. Of course it takes time to make the origional, but after that you can rapidly spread a message or design. The Quickness lowers the risk of being observed by non stencil fans -- such as police officers. Stencils also have a bit of the "logo effect", people see the same message 1,2,3 times, and it sticks in their heads. Also, in a wall full of tags, a crisp stencil really graps the eye.


So, I love spirals. Time is not linear, I have 2 spiral tatoos that I share with my fabulous sister Erica, and I find them very asthetically pleasing in general, I was immidiatly drawn to these 3 spiraly stencils on calle Lavapies. I pass them every day on my way to metro Tirso de Molina





So "comete la vida" is pretty much just like saying "eat up life", I love this stencil






















"la noche y la calle tambien son nuestras" " the night and the streets are ours (in the feminine form) too".










This "el sueño Israeli", "The Israeli Dream" stencil showed up all over the neighborhood during the Israeli/ Lebanon conflict. I asked all sorts of people in the street how they felt about this stencil, what they thought it ment, and people had a surprising range of answers. People had all sorts of interpretations of its meaning... kind of like an inkspot that was seen in whatever way would make it fall in line with that individuals existing political beliefs about Israel happened to be. However the most common response about the meaning of the stencil was that the realization of an Israeli state, the Israeli dream, would mean suffering for many others.









Here is another stencil that comments on the situation in the Middle east. This stencil didn´t provoke such a wide range of interpretations, the design makes it pretty clear thath the author feels the occupation of Palestine is unjust. Many Pro-Palestine supporters liked the stencil and felt in accuratly portrayed the magnitude of the injustice and the unequal access to resources in the conflict. However, some found the message disempowering, and would have prefered a stencil that put more enfasis on Palestinian resistance.




























Here are two more stencils that I found by la Reina Sofía art museum. "se vende el planeta" "planet for sale" and underneath are the logos of several companies with a very strong presence in Spain.























These unhappy little men in Suits, "hombresgrieses" can be found all over Spain. I found this sad little businessman by la reina sofia art museum as well. This group inculdes their websit in all of their actions... something that I´ve realized is pretty common. This sort of reverses my origional information dispersioin ideas about graffiti- That the wall was like a newspaper for ordinary people- so that you could, for example, take information from online independent media sources, and put it on the walls so that more people would have access to it. But lots of group put the internet adresses of alternative websites on the walls- www.otromadrid.org, www.sonajero.tk and www.hombresgrieses.com are just a few examples. Also, lots of graffiti artist sign their pieces with their website- elninodelaspinturas.com and www.seakone.com are two that come to mind.
I´m still accessing how effective this form of advertising is... I mean when I see websites written on the walls I write them down and visit them, but that could just be me.
















Here is the website of an independent radio station of some friends in Madrid. They just recently did a large stencilling run through Madrid to advertise their programs website (you should all go to the website, especially if you speak Spanish). Before they didn´t really advertise at all... so if website hits increase dramatically in the next week or so, that will speak strongly to the effectiveness of stenciling---or it will be a warped result because Laura told all of her blog readers to go visit www.sonajero.tk




So, these are the thoughts on stencils for the moment... I´ll try to put up some of the stencils i saw in Granada... there were some really incredible ones- both witty and aestetically pleasing.

Granada Stencils

So, continuing with the theme of stencils- here are some stencils from Granada that I really liked.

Por Amor del Arte





These fotos are of a small wall in parque canal, right by the canal metro stop in Madrid.
Members of USC, the usual suspects crew, meet here about once a week to paint this wall. They just paint one piece on top of another (as you can see in the foto), constantly topping their own works so that fotos are all that remain of last weeks masterpieces. It is there wall, no one else paints here, and they can paint tranquilamente. One of the members commented that when he was younger he did alot more painting in the street, but for him that time has passed. He doesn´t care about the fame, coverage in graffiti magazines, any of that... he just likes to meet here in the park, paint, and chill with his friends.

Back in Madrid



So as you all can imagine, traveling directly from the pueblo in Soria, to a week away in Granada = a very necessary time of laundry upon my return to Madrid. My apartment, like most in Madrid, has a compact washing machine and no dryer. Most of the large apartment buildings are divided into wings, each wing is a hollow square or rectangle formed around a small court yard. The court yards are fabulous for letting light into interior rooms, increased air flow in the apartment and for hanging laundry out to dry. The drawbacks are that sound travels perfectly from one apartment to another and that all af your neighbors laugh at you from their kitchens when your underwear falls from the fifth floor to the ground as you try to remove it from the clothes line. I have recently realized that I'm the only person who hangs her underwear outside to dry... at first I thought it was just a coincidence that I was observing people´s laundry on the day they happened to not wash undergarments... but I paid close attention all last week, and no one else puts their underwear outside to dry.... everyone else must put it on racks inside their apartments because my brightly colored undergarments are the only ones displayed in the courtyard- surely making their decent from the fifth floor even more humourous for the neighbors
Anyway... this is the view from the balcony in my room. My apartment has 3 street facing balconies: Mine (which I´m stanging on to take the foto), the next one is off of my roommate Xabi´s room, and the third one is off of our living room.



Some of my recent Madrid activities include: Running in the park Retiro, researching graffiti at the National Library and at Computenses University, going to museums- there have been lots of special Picasso exhibits this summer in Madrid because this year marks the 125th aniversary of the birth of Pablo Picasso (1881-1973) and the arrival of the painting Guernica to Spain 25 years ago. I have also been on a friend's radio show, I'm volunteering for the Madrid chapter of the organization S.O.S racismo, I am taking dance classes, eating lots of good food, and I embark on missions several times a week to meet up with contacts for my project or seach and photograph areas people have directed me to for excellent graffiti.

Several times during the U.S backed Israeli attacks on Lebanon I attended concentrations in the plaza directly below my apartment. The group that organized the events was in contact with Lebanese artist Mazen KIerbaj who lives in Beruit. Mazen drew one or several drawings each day during the attacks. At the concentrations there were no speakers, people would simply gather in the plaza and look at all of the drawings, there were also candles. I found Mazen´s drawings to be very moving and powerful,they can be seen on his blog - www.mazenkerblog.blogspot.com








Graffiti in Madrid

Graffiti started to appear in Madrid in the late 60's and was origionally most prevalent
in Mostoles, Alcorcón, Fuenlabrada and Leganes- highly populated neighborhoods in the South of Madrid. So I am going to begin sharing my Madrid graffiti fotos starting with some I took in Alcorcón.


Here is one of the many pieces that line the highway leading into Alcorcon



I probably walked 1 mile along the highway, continuously saying to myself- "just a little further..." I was starting to get hot and dizzy from the sun when I took this last foto just to emphasize that it never ends, the highway is pretty much painted solid from the South back up to Madrid Central.



Here is a Graffiti representation of Guernica right outside of the San Jose de Balderas Renfe train stop



This is the inside of the casa okupa or squat in Alcorcón. A graffiti exhibition was held at the squat last year. Relationships between squats and local graffiti artist are common. The casa okupa in Granada also was covered with the work of local artist and had held several exhibitions decorating both the inside and outside walls of the squat. The Casa Okupa in Bilbao is hosting a graffiti exhibition next weekend.



Here is a piece by Jes, with the face of Fela Anikulapo-Kuti in the center, that was created during the squat's exhibition.



So I hope all blog readers are well and that I am beggining to win back the confidence of my readership base by posting two entries in close succession...

coming soon- Madrid Central graffiti, Lavapies graffiti, and fotos from Laura´s trip to Basque country in the North of Spain.

I am a bad blogger... I proposed this embilical cord of communication and now I have starved the fetus, but fear not because
1) relatives & friends e-mailing and asking why I never upate my blog makes me feel loved
2)on monday I am getting a laptop, which means more internet access and potentially more spontaneous blogging
3)if I blogged alot alot, people should be worried, it would mean I wasn't getting out enough, so not blogging since August means I am having a great time in Spain.
4)I am going to begin "back blogging" today and fill you in on some of the fine happeninging in my life from the past few weeks. Starting with...

An Amazing Week in Granada

Granada is beautiful. Granada was first settled by native tribes in the prehistoric period, and was known as Ilbyr. Then the Romans colonised southern Spain and built their own city there and called it Illibris. The Arabs, invading the peninsula in the 8th century, gave Granada its current name. Granada was the last Muslim city to fall to the Christians in 1492, at the hands of Isabel and Ferdinand. So today in Granada all the signs are in Arabic and Spanish and the beautiful architechture strongly shows the Arabic influence as well, here is a picture of the Arabic Baths.



Other Granada highlights are the amazing tapas, you literally eat for free, order a drink and they bring you a hamburger... wonderful. Some bars even bring you a tapa menu and let you pick your tapa. The whole city has Flamenco in its veins, Camaron de la Isla, "the man who changed Flamenco", is larger than legendary.. I know this now because I didn't know who he was before I went to Granada and when this surfaced it was as if I had shot someones mother... so now I have a Camaron CD and a small poster hanging in my room... and of course the greatest Granada highlight, the graffiti.

Here is a chunk of "the blue wall" done by Peja, Diam, Hec and Stook...
















here is a beautiful piece by Reti





and here is a piece by the grafitista Ruby



and finally here are a few fotos of an amazing wall dedicated wall to la musica flamenco y la tierra de Andalucia, this wall is in Malaga, and was done by Presto, Peja, Hec, Stook, Lady & co... during my Granada visit. The face in the center is Camaron de la Isla, The women are Gitanas dancing flamenco and claping the rythm, and an Andalucian village with a beautiful piece incorporated ...Amazing.










I have so many photos of Graffiti in Granada,I had the luck of connecting with so many amazing artist there, it was very hard to pick what work to highlight on the blog, so I just chose some of my favorites done by some of my "Granada graffiti guides" who were fabulous and very generous with their time. With all the fotos I have (and am accumulating more rapidly) I want to publish a book... more on this to come.

A 6 hour bus ride back to Madrid on Wednesday, August 23 brought my Granada adventures to a close