PRESENT: Some of the many projects going on in Tenerife.
Puerto Street Art (Puerto de la Cruz)
15 murals by some of the top mural painters in the world. The Puerto Street Art project began in 2014 as part of the Festival Mueca, with murals painted by 5 artists. The second phase took place later in the year during the Festival Periplo, with murals painted by 8 Spanish artists. Matías Mata performed all the liaisons with the artists. Puerto Street Art was sponsored by Consorcio Urbanístico para la Rehabilitación de Puerto de la Cruz, along with Puerto’s department of Urbanismo y Cultura. In 2015, two more murals were added. See article. To tour Puerto de la Cruz, you can just follow our map, or ask for a brochure in the main information booth at the ground floor of the contemporary art museum (C/ Las Lonjas). The excellent Festival Mueca in May celebrates “Arte en la Calle”, mainly performance art.
Festival de Las Eras de El Tablero
The Festival of El Tablero was the first annual festival in Tenerife to incorporate murals: in 2013. Most impressively it has been done without a city budget. The small budget for the festival gets raised privately each year, with the painters donating their efforts.
Sumérgete en Santa Cruz
The Sumérgete en Santa Cruz project began in 2013 with the sponsorship of Cepsa and coordination of painter Iker Muro. The project started with the wall surrounding the refinery. During 2014 and 2015, 4 artists painted the arches below the Serrador bridge. Another mural was done in 2015. See article.
Project Calle Malpei (La Laguna)
La Laguna is a latecomer to city-sponsored murals, surprisingly since the city is the source of the Bellas Artes students who have beautified the island with murals over the years. The Calle Malpei project began with 2 murals in 2017. Fortunately, they gave belated recognition of Feo Flip as one of the two artists. As he says, “after 17 years painting in the streets, this is the first large format mural in the city where I began as an urban artist.”
Project Seis de Doce (Los Realejos)
Great to see Los Realejos join the movement with their own urban art project. This project began with 6 murals painted during 2019. Seis de Doce is coordinated by Victor Pacheco (KOB). The City Hall’s plan is to add 6 murals every year. As of 2022, this city is the most active with new murals. At this rate, Los Realejos will outpace Puerto de la Cruz and Santa Cruz.
Solar
Solar‘s mission is to create cultural networks among people. Their events have included artist installations in abandoned spaces in downtown Santa Cruz. See their facebook page for upcoming events.
FUTURE: Contact us to help accomplish these projects.
Rodin Museum of Tenerife?? How about a Museum of Street Art instead.
In 2022, the Santa Cruz City Hall plans to spend 16,000,000 euros to buy Rodin statues from the Rodin Museum in Paris and create a satellite museum in Parque Cultural Viera y Clavijo. Huh? Is this corruption or just plain stupidity? I see about 30 tourists a day visiting the Museum instead of the City Hall’s figure of 1500 visitors a day (maybe they plan to offer free beer to visitors). Read this counterproposal for a true 21st-century art museum for this space.
Paint the plaza de toros in Santa Cruz
The plaza de toros has been the object of countless plans and uses. The latest plan — the result of a contest in 2008 — was scrapped when the recession hit, leaving the plaza de toros in its current delapidated state. We just need to convince the owners to convert this eyesore to an attraction for tourists: see proposal.
Another great cylinder to paint in Santa Cruz is El Tanque: see proposal.
Welcome street performers to Tenerife
Change the laws and attitudes in the island, so that street performers are welcomed, rather than regulated to death. Encouraging the best street performers to come to the island will undoubtedly help tourism in the long run. Festival Mueca is a fabulous start, but more can be done.
PAST
Urban Knitting
The Urban Knitting project had close to 100 participants covering the trunks of 41 trees in crochet during events in 2013 – 2015. The yarn-covered trees were on the streets of Viera y Clavijo, Pérez Galdós, Plaza de Iglesia del Pilar y Alameda del Duque de Santa Elena. The project was the inspiration of Celia García from the Trisquel store and is mainly self-funded, with logistical support from the Concejalía del Distrito Centro-Ifara. See article.
Arte Okupa
2015 – 2016 Arte Okupa was focused on converting the ruins of the Mirador de Teresitas (also known as the “Punta de los Órganos” and “La Piconera”) to an outdoor museum. Surprisingly, the space is privately owned (a good corruption story, no doubt. Visits to Urbanismo haven’t uncovered the name of the owner.) The police came for the third event. In 2018, a bureaucrat decided to fence off the mirador and remove the parking. Dangerous. Please sign this petition to give us back our mirador (see facebook for more info).
1973: Exposición Internacional de Escultura en la Calle
Of the 30 sculptures that remain from the great 1973 Exposición de Escultura en la Calle, “Ejecutados y Ejecutores” by Xavier Corbero still feels “cutting edge”. Back in 1973, with Franco still alive, this work was a bold move. It’s not too hard to interpret the work as the “executed” communists hanging lynched on the trees, while the executors look on, as well as other interpretations más cojonudo. In 1973, the polyester mold was also a very modern material for a sculpture. The rest of the sculptures lie along the Rambla and in the Parque Garcia Sanabria. (Henry Moore is next door.) The cat door hidden in the Park is labeled as being by Oscar Dominguez, even though he died 24 years earlier. (It was actually just inspired by a work of his.)
“Ejecutores y Ejecutados” provides a fascinating contrast to the fountain/sculpture built just 7 years earlier on the same street (where Rambla meets Avda. Anaga), entitled “Monumento a Su Excelencia el Jefe del Estado“: a man standing on an angel represents Franco in his plane on his famous flight to the mainland to initiate the Civil War.
1982 – 1999: Eberhard Bosslet
Eberhard Bosslet, a German artist with many outdoor works in the Canary Islands. He transformed ruins, often painting the borders with white lines, or painting black color fields — he called them “Re/formations”. He had a great exhibit in TEA in 2014 called “Heavy Duty“. There is one re/formation in south Tenerife. It is shown on our map.