You may have noticed that Seville is very colorful and covered in street art. There are various spots throughout the city where you can visit fantastic murals and graffiti. The most prominent location is alongside the Guadalquivir river, where you can find the Sevillian Hall of Fame. This area is the only public space in the city where graffiti is legal. Another important spot for graffiti is the San Pablo area, where graffiti artists from all around the world, as well as Sevillian street art pioneers, have added their work.
The everchanging walls display various artworks created by multiple people, from regular graffiti makers to even some of our exchange participants. It is common for the artists to leave their social media tags alongside their work, allowing you to check out more of their art and support them.
Anna Counihan, a Capacity Ireland Erasmus participant from Dublin doing a marketing assistant placement at a fashion company, has taken the opportunity to add her art to the walls of Seville.
She added her personal touch in Santa Clara where residents don’t mind street art as it is facing the highway. When asked about the experience, Anna said that ‘street art is looked down upon in Dublin’, so she is happy to have been able to express herself in a city more accepting of graffiti.
Counihan has been making graffiti for about four years and has added her art to multiple cities, including New York. She likes the artform because ‘it’s not perfectionist and it’s a bit of a mess. There’s no correcting graffiti, it’s unfiltered’. Graffiti also appeals to the artist because ‘you can’t sell it, it’s temporary, and it’s surprising: you’ll forget about one you’ve made and reencounter it later walking down the street’.
Anna claims anyone can partake in making street art: it is an easy technique to learn. She encourages people to give it a try.
Kelly O’Dowd, a Capacity Ireland Erasmus participant and 3Si’s current graphic design intern, is looking forward to adding graffiti to the Guadalquivir Hall of Fame. She recently became interested in the artform after her digital design degree.
‘I want to make more physical art; everything seems to be digital nowadays’.
For a guide of the city’s best pieces of graffiti, visit this article.
Was this article a good read? For more, visit our blogpost about live music in Seville.
Photographer: Caoilte Cahill and Anna Counihan
Content writer: Elina Nuutinen