A PHOTOGRAPHIC ESSAY 

By Benjamin Clavan

On arriving in Valencia, Spain I was immediately enthralled with the sheer volume of street art - arte callejero - on display throughout the city. It was, for all intents and purposes, a vast outdoor art museum. This, I thought, is a perfect example of residents actively participating in civic life and debate through the means of both guerrilla and officially-sanctioned urban art. That people should aspire to the beautification of their own environment and then attempt to do something directly about it is particularly inspiring.

    

           

  

I set about exploring, learning, and documenting as much as I could. This post contains a cross-section of the 2500+ images I have collected. They are among the best, or maybe the most interesting, or simply those that particularly caught my eye for one reason or another. The over-riding goal is to show the fascinating variety of street art that Valencia has to offer. Where I have been able to identify the artists, their street name is given. Read about them - and others - and see more of their work on any popular search engine.

THE CATEGORIES:

PEOPLE / TEXTURAL / STREET SCENES / ANIMALS / INDIVIDUAL ARTISTS / TALL WALLS / COMMERCIAL / AUTOMOBILES

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P E O P L E 

 

T E X T U R A L

S T R E E T  S C E N E S 

A N I M A L S

"Lost Cat: Blanca"

I N D I V I D U A L   A R T I S T S

" D E I H "

...and going mainstream in the lobby of one of the city's newest boutique hotels.

" J U L I E T A "

" C E R E "

The Valencian version of King Kong attacking the highest building in the city's old town: the Micalet bell tower next to the Cathedral. Instead of airplanes, the creature - a caiman - is swatting at racing cars.  The caiman is Valencia's dragon folklore legend: supposedly this alligator-like creature terrified those working in the fields of Valencia during the sixteenth century.  In 2008, a man was arrested for walking a pet caiman on a leash through the streets of Valencia.  This became a major "news" event. This particular piece of street art is most probably, partially a reference to that event. 

It also has a wider context.  The racing cars can be linked to the short-lived (2008-2012) Circuito Urban de Valencia, a Formula One street circuit built near the edge of the city using roads skirting the city’s harbor and America’s Cup port area.  The circuit was criticized for its “boring layout and lack of excitement,” not to mention the huge cost to the city in developing it.  What made the development more inexplicable was that there is another racing circuit less than 20km from the city, the Ricardo Torno circuit in Cheste, which, since its opening in 1999, has been hailed as “one of the premier driving venues” in Spain.

Other caimans by "CERE" are visible throughout the city...some not as clearly referential as others.

" B A R B I "

At the far right-hand side, somewhat indistinct, a note above a triangle of water: "Here is where the water will be in 2100." This is obviously a reference both to numerous signs around the city indicating how high the water rose in the disastrous flood of 1957 and, now, to climate change.  I assume the figures are attempting without much luck to build a defensive wall.

" L O L I N "

Sign of respect: The next street artist, "DISNEYLEXYA," integrated the original "LOLIN" image into his new mural.  He even repaired it.  Very appropriate, since the two artists sometimes work together (see, "DISNEYLEXYA" below).

An obviously pleased Valencia native who is probably also thinking to himself, "Why did this crazy American run after me to take my picture?"

" A R E  Y O U  D E A D ? "

"LOLIN" and "ARE YOU DEAD?"

(One of the cats by "LooL" - see below - is part of this installation.)

" D I S N E Y L E X Y A "

This (Spring 2017) mural has already been almost totally demolished to allow for even wider construction(?) access to the empty site behind the wall.

...with "Lolin"

"XEMA GONZALEZ"

The owner(s) of this commercial building is obviously supportive of the artist's work, as are the neighborhood taggers who, over the years it appears, have left the images themselves untouched.

The cheese slices above the portrait are also appliques by another artist.  Both as transfer art and painted, the cheeses are ubiquitous throughout the city.

" H Y U R O "

" J u l i a  L o o L "

"Lool's" black cats began to appear throughout the Old City in Fall, 2015.  Since they were appliques or transfer art, by December, they had all but disappeared. Her painted images survive...for now.

This large canvas by "LooL" was placed over another piece of street art by "HYURO" below, preserving another layer of Valencia's history.

" D A D I  D R E U C O L "

"Dadi Dreucol is a concept which was created to “investigate the urban environment from the perspective of direct action,” be it through the use of mural painting or via forms of media such as photography or video."

"ATIRO HESHO"

"I am not a racist, but...(The importance of but)"

You will take on the voice of a people

and it will be your people's voice

and you will be, always, people...

What matters is the consciousness

of being nothing, if not people.

Vicent Andrés Estellés 

(Estellles: "Born: 4, September 1924 in Burjassot, Comunidad Valenciana –  died: 27, March 1993 in Valencia, Estellés was a Spanish journalist and poet. He is considered one of the main renovators of modern Catalan poetry, with a similar role to that of Ausiàs March or Joan Rois de Corella in earlier periods.")

"SRGER"

"LA NENA WAPA WAPA"

" E S C I F "

First seen, Spring 2015: A family waiting for housing that was obviously a casualty of the 2008 financial crisis.



Spring 2016: The caption, "Next Promotion," plays on the continuing presence of the billboard for the building site, promoting the unrealized construction of the housing block.  

Spring 2017: The idea of housing has been lost altogether - or has it?.  Are flats, apartment houses and restaurants now seen as a plague on the city?  I understand "restaurants" - there are seemingly three on every block, but housing?  I am also not sure if this is another "ESCIF" effort.  Some of the lettering is similar, but the style is a bit different.

The billboard on the adjacent wall advertising a house painter has also been in place since at least March, 2015.  I have always assumed it to be an actual advertisement.  I am not sure whether "ESCIF" (if indeed he is the artist) chose to copy it for the latest street art or whether "ESCIF" had something to do with the original billboard.

SPRING 2018: An advertising banner has appeared that announces, "New Housing Promotion" with a phone number to contact.)


POSTSCRIPT, SPRING, 2019 :  The new housing banner has now also disappeared...

This wall was uncovered in the Fall, 2018 after the demolition of another wall (at approximately the location of the trench) for widening of the sidewalk. The now demolished wall had some interesting arte callejero of its own (see "Barbi" above).

T A L L  W A L L S 

In what is probably the most famous of the large-scale street art in the city, Rosita Amores, a famous Valencian cabaret performer, appears in a flying paella in a photograph by Luis Montolio.  The history of the rice fields of Albufera on the edge of Valencia are inextricably tied to the history of the city.  Paella is both a rice-based dish and the pan in which it is cooked that can be traced back to the Roman rule of Valencia and subsequently, the Moorish rule and their culinary influences.  

Often singled-out as the signature gastronomic achievement of the city if not the country, paella has brought the city a measure of fame, no less so than Amores herself.  Now 80, the still lively Amores introduced a level of public eroticism into her act that was a counterpoint to and thinly-veiled criticism of the ultra-conservative years of the Franco regime.

(Note: "Julieta's" work on the street wall.)

The hawk re-appears from the "rooftop" around the corner.

A famous architect once said, "The physician can bury his mistakes, but the architect can only advise his client to plant vines"...or attempt to paint them out with street art.  (And, apologies for the archaic male-only professional reference.)

Sometimes, people do not realize how fortunate they are.  Early in 2020, the entire wall was painted white, returning the building to its anonymous, overpowering, original blank facade.

C O M M E R C I A L

 A U T O M O B I L E S

A R T E   D E  C A L L E J E R O  W I TH  

P E O P L E

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"Traveling is finding your roots."

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Benjamin Clavan, Ph.D. is Principal of BENJAMIN CLAVAN, ARCHITECT, AIA, located in Los Angeles, U.S.A. and Valencia, Spain.  The firm focuses on client-driven residential, commercial and office design (www.ClavanArchitecture.com). During his career making spaces for people, he has remained active as an academic researcher and architectural journalist.  

For the past 25 years Benjamin has also been the Coordinator and website editor for the international Berkeley Undergraduate Prize for Architectural Design Excellence (www.BerkeleyPrize.org).  Over 3400 students from 84 countries have participated in the PRIZE whose purpose is the discussion and investigation of the social art of architecture.

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Copyright © 2017-2023 Benjamin Clavan