Malasaña, the best agreement between street artists and merchants

Street artists are always looking for new spaces where they can show their creations. And it is in this search when they use trade barriers as a canvas to paint on.

This is a very annoying point for all the merchants, who are forced to spend big amounts of money to clean their stores frontages. But, this point of confrontation was seen as an opportunity by the Catalan association “persianes lliures” (free trade barriers). They tried to get common interests between merchants and artists: by one hand artists were looking for places to paint on, by the other the merchants needed to make their stores more attractive for their clients. So both parties concluded an agreement in order to find interesting creations for both sides. But the final result was far away to be successful. The public forces reacted against this initiative fining the artists and the merchants.

Different results in Malasaña

After this incident Madrid took the relay of this action trying to do the same than others did in Barcelona. It was in the district of Malasaña where street artists were able to find different merchants offering their business as a canvas. After a previous agreement where painters and owners decided what the creation was going to be like, the artist was free to do it without any interruption.

In this occasion the final result was very different in Madrid than it was in Barcelona, and there was no interference of the government or any other kind of penalty. The action was very well organized by Somos Malasaña (We are Malasaña) and Asociación de Vecinos ACIBU (neighbors association of the district) who were representing both sides: artists and merchants.

Adequate agreement

So, the artists could take a whole weekend to develop their creations with total freedom. Attracted by this stage, many artists from abroad came to the Spanish capital in order to leave their marks. Many different profiles were seen painting during that weekend: art students, professional painters, illustrators, architects…

At the end of this weekend both parties were very happy with the final result, street artists because they found a perfect frame for their creations, and merchants because their stores took a new style that is very attractive for their customers. 

Photo by: Javier Garrido