the street is our gallery

Mercar, is the new floating art installation Elbi Elem has done for Festival Circular in San Cristobal de los Angeles, Madrid, curated by Madrid Street Art Project. It’s size is 650 x 200x 160 cm and its structure was made by welded metal.

Elbi ELem and 6 other artists, Sue975, Aida Gómez, Octavi Serra, Clemens Behr, Brad Downey and Marina Fernandez lived and worked in this barrio in the south of Madrid for two weeks. On the first week they got to meet  the barrio and its people, chose a location and get their materials. The final materials used where metal and mostly tubes and plastics found in abandoned places and wastes of some factory in the industrial área, used for signs or skylights.

The artist then decided for a location, this long roofed área in the door of the main market background, to hang the piece.

Elbi Elem explains: I loved that place because you could see a lot of transit of people going to buy and it was interesting seeing their reaction, mostly of surprise. This way the sculpture could also could be seen around her, interact with her, be part of her or camouflage. At the same time the colours I used were also same of surroundings, being integrated with the landscape.

About the Festival:

CIRCULAR | SAN CRISTÓBAL, VILLAVERDE | OCTOBER 7-20, 2019

Circular is a festival of artistic finds in the public space created from found and reused materials. These dimensions are associated with urban art but far from its current concept, in which large-scale muralism has a preponderant role. It is therefore a question of contributing to reverse this process that has led to moving urban art away from the human scale and returning it in some way to that state. In addition, promoting the operations carried out with the materials found, we launched the debate about the second life of objects, responsible consumption and the use of resources, focusing on sustainability, recycling and the role of people in the city The San Cristóbal neighborhood, in Villaverde, will host all Circular activity. Taking the festival to this area of southern Madrid, we contribute to the decentralization of culture in the city, to the democratization of art and to bringing it closer to all types of audiences. In addition, the artists will work in close connection with the context of the neighborhood: during the first week of the festival, the artists will know the environment first hand and work on the contextualization of their works; In the second week, carry out its facilities / facilities, which will be completed by a program of parallel activities.

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