Interview with Boa Mistura

This artistic team not only colour the streets of cities and villages they visit, but also the hearts of the people, creating positive change in communities that need a caring touch. Through an intelligent mixture of colour, architectural composition, engineering precision and typographic lettering they leave a trail of hope and pride wherever they journey.

We’re talking about Boa Mistura.

The team spoke to us about their early origins, the beneficial composition of their team, their bonding with locals during interventions and the changes they’ve seen come to life.

fluoro. How and why did ‘Boa Mistura’ first come to life?

Boa Mistura. It was in the early 2000s. We met each other painting graffiti in the streets of the neighbourhood where the five of us were raised [Alameda de Osuna, on the outskirts of Madrid]. We were around 14 or 15 years old. Then, we hooked up on weekends to paint, with no more intention than having a good time. We became close friends, and we were painting more and more, travelling, because we had a lot of fun and we connected in a very special way on the walls and in spirit.

We finished our degrees [Rubén Martín is a civil engineer, Pablo Ferreiro a graphic designer, Javier Serrano an architect, Juan Jaume a fine arts graduate and Pablo Puron a publicist and illustrator] and chose not to work in the areas which we were prepared for in the universities, but to continue doing what we had been doing since we where kids, doing what we love the most. We established the studio then, in 2010, and since that day, we made a living of our hobby. 24/7, we make a life from what we love the most.

f. How has your work evolved since you first came together?

BM. When we started painting together, we were only looking for aesthetical results. Gradually, our work has been evolving, and we have been adding different layers to our work, completing and enriching it, since the beginning.

A guy from our neighbourhood once told us “doctors cure, mechanics fix cars and artists touch your heart”. At the beginning, you work for yourself, for a personal satisfaction. Nowadays, our work is focused outside of us instead of inside. We try to inspire the people with our work, make something positive with it. We look for that, ”touching the hearts” of the people.

We have learned that art in public spaces can be a very powerful tool for change. With a thin layer of paint, you change the perception of places very quickly, so we think that our work in the streets must improve the city. Be constructive.

We are constantly evolving. Our work evolves as we work.

f. How do your different backgrounds influence you work?

BM. Each member of the collective brings a different perspective, a different optic to the same project. There are different formations and concerns from each one [of us]. And this is the key of our work, this mix.

From architecture we learn how to read the spaces, decode it and do something specific for it
From graphic design, the love for typography, from civil engineering how to organize big projects. These days, we are eight in the studio – collaborators numbering in the team of architects, graphic designers, illustrators. People who contribute and enrich each project.

f. Describe your typography style. How did it come about?

BM. We don’t really think that we have a certain style. Obviously, we have different lines of investigation, which gives continuity to our work. But the style comes from the place where the work is going to be placed. As we mentioned before, our work is linked to the place, and we let it inspire us. We can’t paint the same in the colourful neighbourhood of La Habana [Cuba] than on the solemn and conservative Casbah of Algeria. This fact opens a lot of work lines.

f. In what ways does your work foster community building?

BM. Once, while we were developing a project in El Chorrillo, a very dangerous area of Panamá City, a neighbour told us “when the dialogue is between hearts, all doors are open”. We try to improve areas with our work, and inspire the neighbours. These communities are not used to people who come to make something different, make something positive with them. Every little change for the better is always welcome.

f. You always focus on creating art in dialogue with the local community. What do you seek to extract from the community before you commence a new intervention?

BM. First of all, we try to gain the trust of the community. Without it, the project makes no sense. We always live inside the community to interact with the neighbours, eat where they eat, walk the streets they walk, and breath the atmosphere of the place. We don’t start painting until we feel that the community has received us. During all these days before painting, we search everything that can enrich and make the project more solid. The deeper you get into the community and involve its people, the more proud they are of it, and the more they are going to protect it.

f. What do you base your location selection on?

BM. Lots of times, it’s the place that selects us. But we always try to improve the places. With our work, we try to improve the city, working with a constructive purpose. Before we start working, we ask ourselves the same question “is our work going to improve the place?” If the answer is “no”, we don’t do it.

f. Have you seen change in places where you have left your colours?

BM. There is an example that resumes all. In January 2011, we were living inside a Favela in São Paulo, developing a project in the narrow streets of the hill, called vielas. In the vielas, everybody used to throw their rubbish and didn’t care about what happens out of their houses – they’ve got so much to take care of inside, to care for what happens outside. Some days after the intervention, we saw one of the neighbours sweeping dog poop. This is because after they changed their own environment, they felt proud of the place they live in. They got the responsibility of taking care of what they had done.

There is always a change, not only on the aesthetic point of view, but also in the human factor. The community is not the same the day you arrive as the day you leave. And this, the change in the human side, is the most important for us.

f. What projects are you currently working on?

BM. At the time of this interview, we are making an intervention in Zaragoza, Spain, and preparing two projects for the next few weeks in Bulgaria and Colombia. We’re always rocking!