Benidorm creates a competition to participate in public spaces with the best proposals from urban artists

Benidorm City Council, through the Departments of Historical and Cultural Heritage and Beaches, Environment and Sustainability, presented this Tuesday a pioneering initiative that aims to combine urban art with sustainability and care for the environment. This project, whose first edition starts today with the opening of the period for submitting sketches, is called 'Urban Art Day' and it aims to give a second life to different spaces and elements of public furniture, intervening in them with the best proposals from the urban artists who participate.

The councillors of Historical and Cultural Heritage and Beaches, Environment and Sustainability, Ana Pellicer and Mónica Gómez, have today announced all the details of this 'First Urban Art Day', which will take place on June 8 at the exterior esplanade of the Parc de Foietes, in a participatory event open to the public, coinciding with the celebration of World Environment Day, which is commemorated on June 5. In addition, the attending public will be able to vote for their favourite proposal, which will be the one that will serve to illustrate the poster for the next edition.

Mónica Gómez explained that the idea of creating this contest arose from a constant that is repeated every year: “Although in the Department of Beaches, we carry out very intense work during the twelve months of the year, in the winter season it is used to carry out many more in-depth maintenance and cleaning tasks, as well as infrastructure replacement,” after which he added that, within these works, “on this occasion we decided to remove the old litter bins and replace them with new ones.”

"However," the councillor continued, "we thought that the old litter bins could not be left without any use and it was decided, as a flag of the sustainability on which we are so committed, to give them a second life and, at the same time, bring to our sandy beaches the art that already existed in many other spaces in the city.” In other words, “closing a circle, bringing urban art to some of the best urban beaches in the world, such as those of Benidorm,” stated the person in charge of Beaches, Environment and Sustainability.

From there, Gómez recalled that they requested the collaboration of the Department of Historical and Cultural Heritage and that "the joint and transversal work" of both departments has now materialized in this 'First Urban Art Conference', whose call has already been made. has been launched by the City Council to “attract consolidated or potential urban artists to Benidorm who want to capture their work in our city and expose it to the general public,” said Ana Pellicer.

The councillors of both departments have indicated that the canvas on which this initiative will be developed will be the trash cans removed from the beaches, 80 in total, which once intervened will return to the sands as support for the works of the participating artists. Likewise, they have pointed out that the topics on which the proposals should focus are 'Sustainability', 'Beaches and Environment' and/or 'Benidorm' while, at the same time, they advanced that "the support and theme will change each year to adapt to the needs or circumstances of each moment.”

Among the requirements to participate in this contest, the authors must be over 16 years old and present themselves both as individual artist and in groups of artists of up to a maximum of four people. Each participant will be able to show five sketches, as explained by Ana Pellicer. To participate, interested parties must complete the registration form included in the rules and present this document and the different sketches either by email to the address museobocacalvari@benidorm.org, and systems such as WeTransfer may be used if they exceed the permitted capacity. ; or in person at the Benidorm Central Library, in a sealed envelope and stating on the outside of it the legend 'I Benidorm Urban Art Day.

The Councilor for Historical and Cultural Heritage has reported that the deadline for the presentation of sketches ends on May 20, after which a jury will evaluate the works presented and may remove those that show offensive, violent, sexist, xenophobic, or threatening content. against the dignity of people or unrelated to the topics chosen for this first edition. This phase will take place from May 21 to 27; while on May 31 the proposals selected for the final phase will be published, which the mayor has trusted will be “enough for the 80 paper mills to end up with a canvas.”

Likewise, Pellicer explained that the City Council will provide the participants with all the necessary materials to capture their proposals on the bins on June 8, between 11 a.m. and 1 p.m., and that once the intervention is finished, "the bins “They will return to the beaches as a showcase to show the proposals of each of the artists.” All of them will be provided with a QR code that can redirect the public to the social profiles or website of the participants, which “will be a double showcase to publicize these artists: on the one hand, through their works, and on the other, taking the public to the network so that they can delve deeper into their work.”

The two councillors have invited anyone with artistic gifts and initiative to participate in this contest and have hoped that it will “receive a large number of proposals to continue bringing art to every corner of Benidorm and, at the same time, to "contribute to giving a second life to objects and spaces in the city, thus contributing to caring for the environment."