--- Who are you and what do you do in Barcelona?
--- First of all, we are not a Barcelona project: we are a metropolitan project. And Mediterranean.
--- Okay, let's go by parts: who are you?
--- Besart is a project under construction to create the largest urban art museum in the world, located in the last stretch of the Besòs river, between Santa Coloma, Sant Adrià, and Barcelona. It starts in Santa Coloma, with the desire to extend to Sant Adrià, Barcelona, La Llagosta, Martorelles, Mollet, Montcada i Reixac, Montmeló… Just follow the river.
--- And "Urban Art" means graffiti, right?
--- No, although the most visible from the outside are obviously the murals and graffiti that can already be seen on both sides of the river. Our project wants to open a space, a large space, for citizen expressiveness and creativity. We not only invite great international artists, but, especially, on the wall on the south side (which we call "El Refugi"), all citizens are invited to participate in the creation of urban art. In fact, within the metropolitan area, there was a lack of large spaces for this. But having said that, in this large area we also want to make room for sculpture, dance, music, theater… The social aspect of the project is fundamental for us.
--- In fact, it's a free museum, isn't it?
--- We are used to museums confined to buildings, public or private facilities, where you pay an entrance fee and follow a more or less guided tour. Here we are opening the space to people, also in a participatory way, because we believe that contemporaneity involves having a point of spontaneity, open-mindedness, and social participation. The Refugi side, if you notice, is already very developed and, if we continue at this pace, we will soon approach the municipality of Sant Adrià. There are about 24 works in total, made in just a few months, and we already have about 300 applications for participation nationally and internationally! We have started a dynamic that is already unstoppable, and that involves everyone. In fact, we are preparing a documentary.
--- All this together with recognized artists?
--- And those with a high "cache"! But we are opening a large area that was already open, that had already been won for the population and for the environment, and that will now form the largest urban art museum in the world, much more than what has been done in Miami or what was developed along the Berlin Wall in its day.
--- A kind of Barcelona Brooklyn type?
--- Exactly. This museum will be a living museum, where everyone can participate, and where the constant changes we are currently experiencing are perceived on the walls and on the grass. There is no entrance fee. No tickets. No restrictions, no guides, nor is extensive artistic knowledge necessary. You just need to share a space, breathe, contemplate, and express yourself.
--- Is that what contemporaneity is, you say?
--- In Barcelona, there was a great, inexplicable divorce with contemporary art. At the level of popular knowledge, at most we have managed to reconcile the city with Plensa, especially if we think in terms of urban art or art installed in the street. And we still have contemporary art very confined to museums, often far from the mainstream pulse. Besart is a project that partly tries to provide a solution to this, from both an artistic and social perspective: there is a way to reconcile contemporary art and society, which is urban art and, very specifically, murals and graffiti.
--- We are no longer talking about hooligans or vandals, in short.
--- This art is no longer associated with clandestinity or hooliganism, but this has been the case since Banksy. That it is popular art does not make it vulgar, far from it, just as Warhol also dignified pop art. From a Catalan perspective, Barcelona has been a reference in urban art for many years, but we needed to grow and believe in ourselves. All important urban artists have passed through Barcelona in the last 20-25 years.
--- And what complicities have you found?
--- To begin with, the Santa Coloma de Gramenet City Council got involved: our great ally in this challenge. Afterwards, historical Barcelona entities also participate in our association, such as the Reial Cercle Artístic, with whom we collaborate very closely. But this does not end here, far from it, and we want to have even more national and international collaborators. Apart from social entities, schools, residences, health centers… Art can heal in many ways, but it can also create community and dignify people. You haven't gone to a museum: you have participated in a work, in a museum, and alongside great artists!
--- I see that participation is a recurring idea.
--- People are part of the work, even when they don't paint! We have an international artist making a mural and, when a man jogging or a grandfather walking approaches him, all these experiences also influence the work and shape it. That's why I say that, unlike most museums, this is a living art museum!
--- And is it intended to be a kind of Barcelona's Art Basel Miami?
--- For now, I can only tell you that, in terms of Instagram followers, the sum of all our collaborators is over a million. And that when we officially open in 2024, we expect to already have 10 works by international artists on the north side, up to the bridge. We have installed our offices here, in the Ciba building, thanks to the close collaboration with the City Council. We know that in L'Hospitalet they also bet on culture in the city, but this large space dedicated to urban art can only be found in the Besòs.
--- A space that has also become quite clean. I mean, we are doing this interview next to a family of ducks.
--- Our project aims to integrate the environmental sustainability of the recovered Besòs area with local creativity, global talent, and social and neighborhood connection. This river, which had been a sewer, will now be a dynamic space for art and creativity, and will now capture the pulse of the street, of the people: Besart must flow constantly like river water.
--- And we return to the metropolitan theme: is there enough metropolitan awareness to undertake a project like this?
--- We have it. Santa Coloma too. Barcelona and Sant Adrià will surely find a way to get closer. Now there are many projects that unite several metropolitan municipalities, but Besart arrives at a special moment to connect the municipalities. We want to connect modernity with roots and localism with cosmopolitanism. We are a universal and ultralocal project at the same time. This museum will be part of our artistic heritage, but also part of our life in society. And a tourist reference, too: the Sagrada Familia is still an ultralocal project but a reference for millions of visitors. We want to be like that.
--- More than a project, it seems you are talking about a work of art.
--- It's that we want to be a work of art.
--- Urban, of course.
--- A living Museum. The greatest work of urban art in the world.