Spain’s public art gallery

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Artist Nena Sanchez (Photo: Julia Barton)

Spain’s 4th largest city is on our Geo Quiz radar today. This city is the capital of the southern region of Andalusia. And just outside the old city center, there’s a neighborhood called Polígono San Pablo. The neighborhood’s just been transformed into a public art gallery of sorts.

30 artists from around the world gathered there last week to paint murals. They used drab apartment buildings, sidewalks, and old gray walls as their canvasses. The murals feature colorful flowers, blue goddesses, and a towering Flamenco dancer:

“It’s a big woman it’s very colorful gray background so the color of her dress will just pop out we’re also going put some pieces of mirror to create some texture and color in an otherwise grayish neighborhood.”

So, where are we?

Spains three biggest cities are Madrid, Barcelona and Valencia. Seville is number four and the answer to our Geo Quiz.

Its Polígono San Pablo neighborhood has been getting a face lift, thanks to a project called “Art for All” it’s now full of colorful murals. Watch the audio slideshow below to hear some of the artists describe their murals as they were painting them.

Julia Barton recorded the voices for this slideshow and took most of the photos. Slideshow production: David Leveille

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LISA MULLINS: Spain’s fourth largest city is on our Geo Quiz radar today. The city is in the capital of the southern region of Andalusia. And just outside the old city center, there’s a neighborhood called Poligono San Pablo. The neighborhood’s just been transformed into a kind of public art gallery. 30 artists from around the world gathered there last week to paint murals. They used drab apartment buildings, sidewalks, and old gray walls as their canvasses. The murals feature colorful flowers, blue goddesses, and a towering Flamenco dancer.

FEMALE SPEAKER:  The big woman. Very colorful. We did a gray background so that the color of her dress would just pop out. We’re also going to put some pieces of mirror and so [INDISCERNIBLE] really create some texture and some color in an otherwise grayish neighborhood.

MULLINS:  We’ll hear more from the artists in just a minute when we, hopefully you, come back with the name of the fourth largest city in Spain. I’m Lisa Mullins and this is The World. Spain’s three biggest cities are Madrid, Barcelona and Valencia. Seville is number four and that’s the one we asked you about in our Geo Quiz today. One neighborhood in Seville was the focus of an international art project last week. The neighborhood is called Poligono San Pablo and it’s home to some previously drab-looking apartment buildings. Well now, thanks to the project called “Art for All,” it’s full of colorful murals. We’re going to hear how some of the artists involved described their murals, as they were painting them. We begin with Veronica Werckmeister, formerly of California, and now a resident of northern Spain. Her group was transforming the side of an apartment building.

VERONICA WERCKMEISTER: We’re painting a Sevillana, which is a bailora, Sevillian dancers with a special dress that has a giant train called a bata de cola. It’s very, very technical in the flamenco dancing and the different techniques and dresses and so forth, but this is a particular one that has a bata de cola and she’s in a stance where I think it’s like the final move where they kick up the train of the dress and then catch it in their hands and then they’re sort of in this impossible position. It’s impossible to hold. The wall was very moldy and we had to scrape it and clean it and prime it, and we’re hoping it’ll last at least a year or two, maybe more if we’re lucky. Most of the murals are being painted on this street, all the buildings are the same size, the same architecture, so it’s interesting to see what different artists are doing with the same canvas.

STEPHEN: My name’s [SOUNDS LIKE] Stephen and I’m from Moscow, from Russia and I’m painting from the street.

TSELUYUK ANDREI: My name is Tseluyuk Andrei, and I’m from Moscow. I am doing some abstraction works. I like to create abstractions and [INDISCERNIBLE] and I don’t like to do classic graffiti forms, because in abstraction I see freedom.

NENA SANCHEZ: My name is Nena Sanchez and I’m an artist from Curacao, that’s Dutch Caribbean. It’s an island in the Caribbean. It’s a beautiful island. I have a little bit of naive, figurative. I paint that way and I painted three blue island goddesses. Hola hola, buenas dias. All of those people are so nice, I mean we’re in the middle of the street here, and I’m having a ball because I make friends with a lot of people. I’m standing here already six days and everybody’s very very nice. Really.

SPEAKING SPANISH

SANCHEZ: She’s saying it’s beautiful, and she’s saying that the whole neighborhood is so happy. Well, you know, our wall is full of colors, Caribbean colors, so I have bright colors and my neighbor, he’s from Chile and he’s also using bright colors and they love it. And she loves it.

SPEAKING SPANISH

MULLINS:  Producer Julia Barton recorded those voices in Seville, Spain. You can see her photos of those beautiful blue goddesses, and that bigger than life flamenco dancer. We’ve got an audio slideshow for you at TheWorld.org.

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