In 2021, in Barcelona, 279,422 square meters were cleaned that had previously been smudged with marker, spray or enamel in hand. This year, as of March 31, the polished surface already amounts to 71,114 square metres. It is the problem of act of vandalism most practiced in Barcelona: graffiti, in the broadest sense of the term, which fill the city with painted walls, facades, shutters and art. For citizens, something annoying that dirty and degrades public space, which as its name suggests belongs to everyone. For professionals in the maintenance and restoration of the common good, a bad dream, a recurring nightmare that materializes night after night. Like Groundhog Day. “It is a non-stop, a continuum, a loop. You clean, paint and clean again & rdquor ;. The impotence is expressed Carmen Hosta, responsible for maintaining all public art of Barcelona, which is the same as saying sculptures, ornamental fountains and monuments.
public ownership
Clean up the landscape after the graffiti is not free. The budget in 2022 to eliminate hooliganism amounts to 7.4 million euros (2.5 of them allocated to heritage buildings) without counting the amount that the Hosta department invests in graffiti, about 700,000 euros per year, 63% of the amount directed to the conservation and maintenance of public art. “Imagine all we could do if we just had to focus on the natural aging of parts!” she exclaims. And it is that cleaning the patrimonial elements (furniture and real estate), those that have a historical or artistic, costs at least 3.2 million euros. At least because from the city council they are in charge only of the patrimony of public ownership, the private ownership goes to the account of their owners.
the most vandalized
Thus, fixing the animality of painting the modernist carpentry and the sign designed by Ramon Casas that appear on the façade of Queviures Múrria, on Calle de Llúria, is the task of the owner of the premises. As it is from Macba clean up Oteiza’s ‘La ola’ daily, located in the Plaza de los Àngels but owned by the museum. The consistory deals with those of municipal ownership, more than 1,500 elements and sculptures distributed throughout the city, including one of the most vandalized the ‘Homage to Emili Vendrell’, a set signed by Rafael Solanic, Beth Galí and Rosa Maria Clotet located on Joaquim Costa street. The last two pieces are in the Raval and are among the most painted, but Hosta warns that “there are everywhere”. Although it is true that in the busiest places, the pieces suffer more; also those with flat surfaces –“they are outdoor blackboards”-, like ‘The Wall’ by Richard Serra. Graffiti artists do not like to paint the reliefs of classical sculptures; those who make tags (signatures) don’t care, they dirty everything.
the worst nightmare
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That said, the Hosta department “is a non-stop & rdquor ;. Monument maintenance technicians go through Barcelona every day equipped to eliminate all traces of vandalism: “What we have been clear about for years is painting that is done, painting that We try to erase as quickly as possible & rdquor ; although it is not always easy. True, although it is not easy to keep the landscape pristine. The thugs don’t give up and it is not always worth covering with more paint or spraying with chemical products and pressurized water unceremoniously. They are works of art and vandalism must be eliminated without doing more damage than the piece has already suffered. Each material and each type of pigment have their particularities. It is not the same to scratch a metal sculpture with a felt-tip pen, such as ‘El gat’ by Botero on the Rambla del Raval, as it is to bathe a work in the Ciutadella made with stone from Montjuïc with blue spray. This last, the worst of nightmares: the stone is porous and absorbs everything that is thrown at it; the spray penetrates quickly and is not easily erased. This is the case of the attack suffered on one of the stone shields from the 14th century of Santa Maria del Pi, a full-fledged attack to protected heritage. In fact, a crime punishable by imprisonment according to the Supreme Court, which in March sentenced a graffiti artist to five months for painting a piece by Eduardo Chillida in Madrid’s Plaza del Rey.
civics issue
It is almost impossible to clean without damaging the stone, although there are techniques to do it, but expensive and slow. Hosta calculates that eliminating the traces of graffiti on the sculptures or monuments costs between 56 and 400 euros per action, which is what often has to be invested in fixing ‘El drac’ by Andrés Nagel in the Parque de la Espanya Industrial. Not only does it suffer from recurrent graffiti but it is also used permanently as a urinal. All in all, Hosta assures that he does not perceive an increase in the vandalization of monuments, but rather in the facades and affirms that Barcelona is not worse than other cities. He defends the work of the department, of course, “our sculptures are very well restored and preserved & rdquor ;; Y appeals to the civility of citizens: “We must understand that it is a common good that must be respected, that we all enjoy & rdquor ;. Attacking him costs money, and we all pay for his settlement.