Granada graffiti

I’ve recently returned from Granada, where I was attending the EvoStar conference.  I had a good time, listened to several very interesting talks, apologised to my publisher’s rep for being somewhat late in delivering a book, and gave a talk myself, on “Challenges for Open-Ended Evolution”.

The conference ended early Friday afternoon, and there were a couple of walking trips arranged in the afternoon, for those not leaving until the following day.  I went on the first of these, “Graffiti of Granada, a tour of urban artwork”, lead by J.J. Merelo, who was also the local organiser of the conference.

Granada has a lot of very high quality street art, from local artists and from artists who travel specifically to join in.  We were shown a great selection of it.  A knowledgeable and enthusiastic J.J. explained the various terminology, of tag, throw-up, stencil, blockbuster, wildstyle, and more.  I did at one point ask how it was that he knew all this detailed terminology, but it’s all there on wikipedia.

The weather was gorgeous: bright and sunny, and only just very slightly too hot, so we got lots of good photos.  My camera battery went flat about two-thirds of the way round, but even so, the pictures I got show a remarkable range of talent and styles.

typical graffiti, with many tags

clever incorporation of the eroded plasterwork

colourful

bizarre

surreal

J.J. explains an intricate mural

commissioned

another commission

huge!

just gorgeous

I have often thought that some of the more intricate graffiti enlivens otherwise dead blank concrete spaces, but in Granada it has been taken to a whole new level.

After walking up and down steep hills for a couple of warm hours, I then elected for the bar and tapas option, rather than the second walking trip.