Viva Valencia - Street Art

I had no expectations when I arrived in this city.  We hadn't researched any tours nor had we really looked at what the city had to offer.  As it turned out, I loved it - except for the crap WiFi in my hotel room!

We started our visit by going to the Post Office - Nawal wanted to mail some stuff home.  Now, usually, this activity would not warrant a comment.  However, the main post office here is spectacular.  Inside, it looks like an opera house.  When I asked the gal at the information desk, what the building had originally been built for, she looked at me quizzically and said, "Well, a Post Office, of course!  You can see the original sign on the outside of the building."  Well, guess she told me!  The building is very much in the "belle epoque" style and was built in 1916.

We spent our first morning wandering some of the streets and also visiting the central market but decided to do a street art walking tour in the afternoon with a company called "Free Tours Valencia".  Actually, many cities offer free tours through this company and you only pay what you think the tour is worth.  After our experience here, and we did two, I expect we will do another one in Bilbao.  Both were great.

We met Carlos, our guide for the street art tour, in the Placa de la Virgen.  He was animated, very funny, and exceedingly knowledgeable.  

The starting point for the tour

Carlos with three "helpers" he recruited

The tour took place in a neighbourhood called El Carmen.  Years ago it was a "down and out" area of the city; however, that has now changed.  From the Internet, I found the following information:

A tangled web of streets, alleys and plazas, El Carmen has largely shaken off its seedy past to become Valencia’s most famous neighborhood. For many, El Carmen is the city; when you “go downtown,” this is where you generally end up. With hip restaurants, cool shops, insane street art, excellent museums, and an eclectic mix of people milling about its plazas, El Carmen is beautiful, strange, and occasionally sketchy, but it’s never boring.

The area would probably not normally be the first part of the city visited by tourists.  The focus of the tour was specifically about the Valencian street artists so we passed by a lot of interesting work but without Carlos commenting on it.  I have done a street art walking tour in London twice - not to be missed if you visit that city (check out Alternative London to find it) and I am still pretty much of the opinion that street art is mainly graffiti defacing buildings.  However, as Carlos pointed out, some of these works are commissioned and others make important political or social statements and are, therefore, of value.  There is more to it than just tagging and "graffiti".  The following, again from the Internet, is some information about the artists.

Seen everywhere are the black cartoonesque ninja figures holding a spray can by David de Limón.  And then there are the works by street artists belonging to the XLF crew, also from Valencia. Each has his or her own discerning style, like the Kawaii-style Asian looking girls by Julieta, the pink rabbits by Barbi, the comic book inspired characters by Deih and the robot-like figures by Xélon.

Following are some photos which I took including works by de Limon, Julieta, Barbi and one of the most famous artists, Esteve. 

This one is by an artist named Disneylexia

Can't remember the artist of this one but it feels dark, evil and creepy

One by a member of the KLF crew

One of Julieta's work

A work by Esteve

A commissioned work by Esteve

This one by Barbi.  Note the "United States" airplane and the Trump-like figure flying it

This one and the other two below were commissioned by a man living on this narrow street.
He wanted something more interesting to look at.  

Arguably one of the most famous works and on the same street is called "The Kiss".

The nearly 2 1/2 hour tour finished after 6 so by then we were tired.  We stopped for a drink in front of the main gate into the city before finding a place to have dinner.  

Tuesday, we have signed up for another tour; this one is called "Valencia Essentials".