Shorouk Express
The Catalan village of Penelles has been transformed into a street art hotspot with over 150 murals decorating its buildings’ walls, all in a bid to attract tourists and help locals fight depopulation.
Many of Spain’s interior regions are suffering from the consequences of dwindling populations and lack of services due to the sheer number of people moving away to the big cities in search of jobs and better opportunities.
It’s estimated that around 40 percent of villages in Spain are at risk of depopulation.
Towns and villages across the country have been trying to increase numbers and save their homes by creating incentives for people to move there, developing new tourism businesses that put their villages on the map.
One of these is a village in Catalonia called Penelles, which has only around 428 inhabitants.
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Penelles now has over 150 murals. Photo: Josep LAGO / AFP
Located in the province of Lleida, Penelles has found a unique way to attract visitors and increase tourism by turning itself into a street art museum.
Each year, during the first week of May, the village plays host to the Gargar Festival of Murals and Rural Art, where artists not only from around the country, but around the world, come to participate and fill the village with art.
It attracts everyone from graffiti artists to muralists, painters, tattoo artists, illustrators and sculptors, and has been taking place now for nine years.
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Previous editions of the festival have even seen artists join from as far away as New Zealand and Chile.
More than 100 pieces of street art and murals displayed on Penelles’ buildings attract tourism in this depopulated and agricultural area. The ‘Gargar project’ started in 2016. Photo: Josep LAGO / AFP
The result is a fantastical open-air art gallery where every façade of cottages, farm buildings and communal halls is decorated in unique pieces filling the village with colour and creativity.
The town is now home to over 150 murals, many of which are in fact portraits of the villagers who live there.
Penelles is 40 kilometres from the Catalan city of Lleida. Photo by Josep LAGO / AFP
And the plan seems to be working. Jordi Solsona, promoter of the Gargar Festival told Spanish news site El Diario, “In our best year, which was 2019, we managed to attract around 12,000 people during the three days of the festival”.
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“Throughout the year we estimate that more than 50,000 people pass through, either to visit the murals or attend the different courses we carry out related to mural art,” he added.
The festival has expanded to include art classes throughout the year led by artist Olga Cortadelles. Students from various art schools, such as the Escola D’Art Ondara de Tàrrega in Lleida also participate.
The whole village has become an art gallery. Photo: Josep LAGO / AFP
Town mayor Eloi Bergós wants to preserve human existence in the town for many years to come and not become another statistic of an abandoned village. The festival has been named after the noise that the Gargar garriga perdiu bird makes, which is also danger of extinction.
If you don’t live in Catalonia or aren’t visiting this area of the country, there are several other towns and villages around the country doing similar artistic projects.
Many of the paintings are of local residents. Photo: Josep LAGO / AFP
These include Carcaboso in Extremadura, Villangómez in Castilla y León, Ciudad Real in Castilla-La Mancha, Tudela in Navarra and Calpe in Valencia. Not all of these are suffering from depopulation, however, so the motives are a little different.
