Transdev’s light rail in Barcelona, TRAM, kicks off the fifth edition of Art al TRAM (TRAM Art) at the Sant Martí de Provençals stop on Trambesòs lines T5 and T6 with a mural by Elisa Capdevila. This Barcelona-born artist will depict various tram users with their different bodies, clothing, lifestyles, ethnicities, ages, and moods.
The mural will thus be a tribute to the citizens and at the same time will invite people to distract themselves and observe, an activity that is becoming less and less frequent in big cities.
On one of the walls, the characters will put together different scenes that the users will have to decipher, making them exchange glances with the realistic portraits. On the other side, the work will play with the windows as if they were showcases displaying objects that may or may not be related to the characters in front of them.
The Catalan artist Elisa Capdevila studied painting and drawing at the Barcelona Academy of Arts. She gradually transferred her work to walls, eventually creating large-scale projects, which has led to her international acclaim. She has participated in several urban art festivals and currently combines her mural work with studio work.
About #artalTRAM
Art al TRAM is an artistic intervention project curated by the urban art production company Rebobinart to use art as a way of revitalizing passenger spaces on the tram and making them friendlier places, as well as generating unique experiences for passengers.
The initiative began in 2020 when Iker Muro (Mur0ne) created a work of art at the Cornellà Centre stop, where the multiculturalism and diversity of the tram’s users is represented over 1600 m2 through a set of intersecting face profiles that generate a sensation of movement.
In 2021, it continued with the mural intervention by Amaia Arrazola at the Besòs stop, where inclusive, diverse, contemporary and metaphorical characters share a space with giant birds native to the Besòs area. The latest Art al TRAM interventions were carried out by the French artist Perrine Honoré and the Basque illustrator Javirroyo. Perrine worked on the TRAM offices in Barcelona with a mural evoking a sensory tram journey. With Royo, TRAM took part in the exhibition « Banksy. The art of protest » at the Disseny Hub Barcelona, where the illustrator explained the relationship between the Art al TRAM project and the graffiti artist Banksy.
The cultural organization Rebobinart has been working since 2012 to put urban art at the service of the social and cultural revitalization of public spaces. It works to promote the most elaborate expressions of urban art and to destigmatize the perception of an art form that has often been considered vandalism and invasive.