MADRID, Spain — Tourists are often drawn to Spain’s iconic museums and historical exhibits to admire celebrated artists and their pieces, but what happens when the art found on the streets is just as interesting?
Madrid and Seville are home to some of the most vibrant graffiti and urban art scenes in the world. Here, both professional and amateur artists alike use open wall space and storefronts as platforms to reflect on the political and cultural pulse of their communities. Drawing inspiration from American hip-hop’s imprint on Spanish culture since the 80s, Sevillian artists Antonio Gordillo and Julio “Bizcui” Pina have been utilizing their artistic gifts to spread love and promote unity within their respective neighborhoods.
Graffiti, often tagged as unconventional or lacking professionalism, is often met with resistance from outsiders in neighborhoods where it is prominent, like Lavapiés in Madrid.
“If you reflect a little on the right of the city, how we feel comfortable, how our current city designs are so hostile, and how our cities don’t pertain to us, art is another form to appropriate the city and feel part of it,” says Luisa Lobo Guerrero, an art expert and Lavapiés resident who argues that street art is simply a way for locals to assert their identity in a city that often excludes them.
Though Antonio and Julio insist their art is not exclusively political, their identities are woven into their work as artists, and they don’t believe in a separation of the two, especially regarding their activism and social action.
“A street artist has to bother people. You can’t stay quiet when there’s injustice. I’m an artist that’s not very political, but if I stay quiet, I am an accomplice to what is going on; not as an artist but as a person,” says Antonio.