Spain
13th.
The Vitoria-Gasteiz City Council has been promoting the implementation of participatory murals since 2007 in different neighbourhoods of the city.
The aim of the experience is the creation of a mural in a city neighbourhood resulting from a participatory process involving different social groups and citizens in both the design and the implementation of the mural.
The first of these murals is entitled "Al hilo del tiempo" (In the course of time) and was executed by the artists Veronica and Christina Werckmeister. There are a total of 19 murals that have been executed to date. The last of them is the mural "Ongi etorria" (Welcome) by the artist Irantzu Lekue.
It seeks to create a contemporary cultural heritage, humanising and beautifying the pre-existing urban landscape, with criteria of equality and social integration. It combines citizen participation and culture, in this particular case, through artistic expression reflected in a mural.
The experience is innovative because through citizen participation and artistic expression, the inclusion of groups in situations of social vulnerability is favored, especially favoring women, who start from a situation of greater inequality. Also because it generates employment and facilitates access to employment for people who have greater difficulties.
Through citizen participation, different contributions, needs, various vital experiences are collected, different voices are heard: of elders, of young people, of girls and boys, of people from the city and people from other cultural contexts. It reunites different people living in the same neighborhood who wants to give it life, and in that listening community is being created so that social cohesion is woven.
Here the cultural artistic expression through a mural in a neighborhood is a way of being able to carry out a collective work of community strengthening. It motivates people and groups of different ages and interests who have in common the daily experience of the neighborhood they inhabit. It is an experience that allows to create community and weaves social cohesion.
For the last four murals made in different neighborhoods of the city between 2017 and 2018, at least 3 preparation sessions with groups and diverse citizens have been carried out in each of them, a minimum of 2 insertion contracts per mural have been made, from 21 volunteers participated in the less up to 54 in which more in the execution of the mural itself and the degree of satisfaction of the participants has been high in all cases. And the presence in the media has also been important.
More information:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lPZuky36ZyI&feature=youtu.be
https://www.oidp.net/docs/repo/doc702.pdf
https://participate.oidp.net/processes/award2019/f/104/proposals/694
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