Facades in Glasgow are conceived of as canvases; For this reason, the city of Scotland has decided to embrace the feelings of its urban artist with this colorful project that champions this controversial form of creativity in the heart of the city.

Its tall buildings in the center do not leave indifferent. Street artists decorate the city with the approval of the city council, using the slogan “People Makes Glasgow” (“People make Glasgow”), visible from any angle.

“This is an interesting way of street art that has started to fill the streets” of the city since 2014, the person in charge of the regeneration area of ​​the town hall, John Foster, who directed the “City Center Mural Trail” project, assured Efe. from the Downtown Mural”).

The initiative was taken by the artists, who “approach the town hall (…) with a concept, identify potential spaces and together we explore opportunities”, explains Foster. That process includes “identifying building owners and obtaining permits, such as planning projects.”

On your way through the heart of the city, you can find up to fourteen of the nearly thirty graffiti murals that are officially part of the project.

“We try to offer as much creativity as possible,” said the person in charge, stressing that the subject matter was diverse, although “nothing about politics, religion or football” was not accepted. “We’re trying to get away” from this problem. due to the “potential discredit” of the city, whose population is divided between Catholics, who are usually Glasgow Celtic fans, and Protestants, who support Glasgow Rangers.

“Besides, the sky is the limit,” Foster said.

According to the city council, the initiative received a “very positive” response and has even sparked interest from “diverse parts of the world” to develop similar projects, such as San Diego and Newburyport, in the United States, or Dundee and Nottingham. , in the United Kingdom. .

A CITY WITH A LOT OF ART

“There’s art and murals all over town,” Jenny Benson, owner of a tour agency that offers walking tours of the city, assured Efe.

“Glasgow is an arts city in every way … and having street art gives people culture, things to do, kids access to art,” he said.

The murals reflect and explore the journey of history through the streets of the Scottish metropolis. From its origins, to the representation of the “two precious pieces” by artist Smug of the founders of the first settlement in Glasgow, ‘Saint Mungo and Saint Enoch’, to murals commemorating a journey through indigenous community towns on the occasion of the last COP26 Climate Summit, explains Benson.

The Saint Mungo mural is the sixth most-uploaded photo on Instagram in the UK, according to e-commerce website I want Wallpaper.

Benson’s company, which admits that “there are people who don’t like having murals in town”, offers daily 90-minute tours with visits to at least ten unique graffiti, says Jenny, because “the walls change every week”.

“I think murals are art and they beautify the city, they have something to say,” Ashia Campbell, a young Glasguana, told Efe.

“They are beautiful, they light up the place”, said several Welsh tourists, highlighting one that remains “imprinted in their minds”, namely “an old man in a hat, talking to a little bird – a robin-”, referring to the Saint Mungo mural. .

Guillermo Garido