Portrait Contest
Once again, the portraits of the artists performing at the festival were one of the main features of our live arts programme. To select the 12 visual artists who created them, an Urban Art Contest was launched via the festival’s social media, and after receiving over 50 proposals, the selected artists were: Alkimist, Atena, B:K, El Rughi, Jorge Ochagavia, Kensausage, Lara Hochreiter, Ona Salvador, Toni Obra, Dante Arcade, Jota López i Uri Kthr.
These creators of very different styles and techniques developed the portrait of one of the headliners during two days of the festival: 6 of them did it on Wednesday 9 and Thursday 10 July, while the other 6 did it on Friday 11 and Saturday 12, using different techniques and materials of urban art.
Once the festival was over, the jury formed by Xavier Ballaz and Ana Manaia (Artistic Director and Project Coordinator of B-Murals), Marc Mascort (Cultural Manager at Can Safari), Marc García (Director of Rebobinart), Laura Suñé (Creative Director of Festival Cruïlla), Antoine Careil (Director and Founder of Street Art Barcelona), Alex (Graffic Impact), Jordi Solsona and Mar López-Pinto (Art Director and Producer of Binomic), Claudia Costa (Creative Director of Poblenou Urban District and curator of Cruïlla Arts) and Esteban Marín (Director of Contorno Urbano), chose Jota López and his Ben Harper portrait as the winner.
15-Year Mural Exhibition
To celebrate that very special edition, we featured an exhibition of portraits created at past editions of the festival — a look back at 15 years of musical and artistic history.
The portraits, created using graffiti and urban art techniques, had been part of the festival since its early days, and their success was key to the growth of Cruïlla’s arts programming over the years.
That exhibition not only served as a retrospective of the visual artists who had accompanied us, but also as a tribute to the musical artists who had performed at the festival and were immortalised in those portraits.
Large-Scale Murals with Gargar Festival
After a successful first collaboration with the Gargar Festival of Murals and Rural Art in Penelles during the 2023 edition, we renewed the partnership for the third year in a row. We once again had two artists creating large-scale murals (35 m²), which promised to leave us speechless.
SLIM SAFONT: Born in Berga in 1995 and internationally renowned, this artist works with a figurative and realistic style and a precise study of colour. Slim creates compositions that raise awareness and engage in dialogue with the environments where they are installed. In addition to his urban art work, he has participated in numerous international mural projects and exhibited his work in a wide variety of artistic spaces, from galleries and formal exhibition halls to more alternative venues.
GUILLEM FONT: His work is inspired by popular culture, scientific illustration, science fiction, and performing arts in public space. His style, closely tied to the study of textures and organic forms from animals and plants, gives rise to a unique imaginary world filled with grayscale hybrid beings and landscapes.
