Boa Mistura across the world
Enjoy a look at some of the most iconic works created by Boa Mistura – which is turning 20 – in different Iberia destinations.
Images courtesy of Boa Mistura
- Together with the Puerto Rican artist Myke Towers, this work comprises six letters painted on six basketball courts in different places (Santo Domingo, Mexico City, Santiago, Madrid, San Juan and Medellín) that form the word UNIÓN (union).
- After carrying out a survey of the most commonly used words among a small but diverse group of Rome’s residents, Boa Mistura chose three concepts: CULTURA, SVEGLIA and POPOLO (culture, wake up, people) to create this composition in Rome’s MAXXI National Museum.
- From three openings made in the walls of Barcelona’s former Modelo Prison, one can read the phrase MÁS ALLÁ DE LOS MUROS, LA CALLE (“Beyond the walls, the street”), a verse by the poet Josep Domènech i Avellanet, who was incarcerated here after Spain’s Civil War.
- The universal temple Ciudad del Saber in Panama City has the words PENSAR and SENTIR (think and feel) intertwined; the artists interpret this mixture as the essence of knowledge itself.
- 248 concrete pivots make up this composition in the Sesc Osasco centre in São Paulo. The words OS OLHOS QUEREM O TEMPO, MAS AS PALAVRAS JÁ TÊM (“The eyes want time, but words have it already”) are on one side, and OS OLHOS TOCAN PRIMEIRO, MAS AS PALAVRAS POR FIM (Eyes touch first, but words do last) are on the other. These are two verses from the poem Ponteio by Alcides Villaça.
- A side of a building on the Paseo de la Reforma in Mexico City says SOY PORQUE SOMOS (“I am because we are”). It’s a work inspired by the trees of life made by the artisans in the centre of the country that reflect the idea that “we are all indispensable parts of a whole”.
- Eight former machine gun nests on the beaches of Es Trenc and Sa Rapita in Mallorca were decorated for ART NIT CAMPOS – a local urban art intervention contest – with verses by the Mallorcan poet Miquel Costa i Llobera, under the name PARATGES DE PRAU (“Landscapes of Peace”).
- Since October 2020, more than 4,000 people have been living without light in Madrid’s Cañada Real, the largest informal settlement in Europe. Exactly 4,000 candles made up the phrase NOS ESTÁN APAGANDO (“They are switching us off”) during the night of 5 January 2021. All of these candles were represented and turned on by the residents involved.
- Painted on the rooftop of the health centre in Commune 20, Cali, Colombia, this says ORGULLO (pride) and can be seen only from the Metrocable side. It is meant to be a symbol in the fight against the stigmatisation of this neighbourhood in Colombia.
- Together with the Puerto Rican artist Myke Towers, this work comprises six letters painted on six basketball courts in different places (Santo Domingo, Mexico City, Santiago, Madrid, San Juan and Medellín) that form the word UNIÓN (union).
