Street Art is being honored in Malaga with mainly two neighborhoods embracing it : SOHO and Lagunillas.
Both areas have been struggling in the past years, especially since the economic crisis. Recently, a bunch of actions have been taken to bring life back in those neighborhoods.
THE SOHO
Obey, D*Face and Ben Eine are some of the world famous artists that took part in creating those street paintings in Malaga.
Once an important bourgeois neighborhood, which is full of magnificent examples of the nineteenth and twentieth century architecture, the SOHO was left behind in the past 50 years.
Right behind the CAC museum, the MAUS project (Malaga Arte Urbano en el Soho), which aim is to transform the SOHO area through art, gave birth to true masterpieces and was created in conjunction with the local residents.
The MAUS project create an unforgettable artistic experience which includes dance, music, photography, sculpture and painting.
Malaga has received international attention since the MAUS project started with the media-coverage being important. This is in part due to the fact that some of the artists involved in the project are extremely famous around the globe.
Some of the artists who took part in creating those street paintings are Britishers D*Face and Ben Eine, as well as Obey from the USA.
LAGUNILLAS
The “heart and soul of Malaga’s street art” can be found, according to locals, only a few feet away from where Picasso was born.
Unlike the MAUS project in the SOHO, the Lagunillas neighborhood did not received as much attention or coverage.Here the work of arts come for rather local Spanish artists than international artists.
Right next to Picasso’s House, the magic happens. As a bonus, this urban wonderland of spray can geniuses is not yet packed with tourist.
Here it is not the government who started the renovation of this area but the community who stood up and changed the atmosphere of their district.
By introducing street art to the district, they lifted its spirit by adding color to their lives.
Concerned for the future of the kids living there, Miguel Angel Chamorro, a local artist, created a cultural association called Fantasía en Lagunillas and began the change of this quarter of the city.