Urban art is here to stay. Society is increasingly inclined to admit this form of artistic expression, albeit within guidelines. Differentiating street art from vandalism is still a tricky subject that generates discrepancies. However, there are more and more urban spaces set up to receive the proposals of these spray masters and clean walls left at their disposal, ready to receive a layer of creative paint. This trend contributes to give identity to the neighbourhoods, to generate movement around art and to revitalise more quiet areas that in this way, charge energy.

Walls of Tabacalera en 2016 (©Daniel Mesa, via madriddiferente.com)

The Muros-Tabacalera initiative responds to these ideas, a project that is now in its third edition and that Promoción del Arte launched in 2014 to recover the walls of the perimeter of Tabacalera, in Lavapiés. In May of that year, a contest was opened to receive proposals from the artists and to paint the walls of the old tobacco factory. 2014 was an open proposal, without a defined theme, in which 32 artists linked in some way with the Madrid urban scene and with the neighbourhood participated.

Mural 2019, by Kenor (via madridstreetartproject)

In 2016, 25 new artists gave new life to the walls of the Glorieta de Embajadores and the streets Miguel Servet and Mesón de Paredes, with works inspired by the title Urban Natures. Under this topic, the idea was to create pieces that explore the distance of the natural environment that comes across the big cities and invite to reflect on this disconnection of contemporary society, covering the grey walls with colourful and dynamic works.

Mural 2019, by Srger (via madridstreetartproject)

For this new edition of 2019, the topic is Azar (chance). 25 artists will put their imagination and sprays at the service of this evocative title. The participating artists in this third edition are 108, Amaia Arrazola, Ampparito, Anna Taratiel, An Wei, BYG, Boa Mistura, Liquefied Collective, Dafne Tree, Eltono, Gviiie, Iñigo Sesma, Kenor, Manolo Mesa, Mario Mankey, Maz, Nemo's , NSN997, Null, Wigs, Sara Fratini, Son3k, Spogo, Srger and Yksuhc Juan.

Mural 2019, by NSN997 (via madridstreetartproject)

With initiatives like this, urban art gradually gains a niche in the cities and conquers the hearts of the neighbours. In fact, the murals have become an important attraction for tourism, and this has also had its consequences for the day to day of the neighbourhoods, which see how the cost of living raises by the power of attraction of this type of interventions. What is clear is that the graffiti has come to stay and has gradually made its way into the walls of the city.

The practice of the collective DIMASLA (Diana + Álvaro) is situated at a fertile intersection between contemporary art, ecological thinking, and a philosophy of experience that shifts the emphasis from production to attention. Faced with the visual and material acceleration of the present, their work does not propose a head-on opposition, but rather a sensitive reconciliation with time, understood as lived duration rather than as a measure. The work thus emerges as an exercise in slowing down, a pedagogy of perception where contemplating and listening become modes of knowledge.

In the work of DIMASLA (Diana + Álvaro), the territory does not function as a framework but rather as an agent. The landscape actively participates in the process, establishing a dialogical relationship reminiscent of certain eco-critical currents, in which subjectivity is decentralized and recognized as part of a broader framework. This openness implies an ethic of exposure, which is defined as the act of exposing oneself to the climate, the elements, and the unpredictable, and this means accepting vulnerability as an epistemological condition.

The materials—fabrics, pigments, and footprints—serve as surfaces for temporary inscriptions and memories, bearing the marks of time. The initial planning is conceived as an open hypothesis, allowing chance and error to act as productive forces. In this way, the artistic practice of DIMASLA (Diana + Álvaro) articulates a poetics of care and being-with, where creating is, above all, a profound way of feeling and understanding nature.

In a historical moment marked by speed and the overproduction of images, your work seems to champion slowness and listening as forms of resistance. Could it be said that your practice proposes a way of relearning time through aesthetic experience?

Diana: Yes, but more than resistance or vindication, I would speak of reconciliation—of love. It may appear slow, but it is deliberation; it is reflection. Filling time with contemplation or listening is a way of feeling. Aesthetic experience leads us along a path of reflection on what lies outside us and what lies within.

The territory does not appear in your work as a backdrop or a setting, but as an interlocutor. How do you negotiate that conversation between the artist’s will and the voice of the place, when the landscape itself participates in the creative process?

Álvaro: For us, the landscape is like a life partner or a close friend, and naturally this intimate relationship extends into our practice. We go to visit it, to be with it, to co-create together. We engage in a dialogue that goes beyond aesthetics—conversations filled with action, contemplation, understanding, and respect.

Ultimately, in a way, the landscape expresses itself through the material. We respect all the questions it poses, while at the same time valuing what unsettles us, what shapes us, and what stimulates us within this relationship.

The Conquest of the Rabbits I & II. 2021. Process.

In your approach, one senses an ethic of exposure: exposing oneself to the environment, to the weather, to others, to the unpredictable. To what extent is this vulnerability also a form of knowledge?

Diana: For us, this vulnerability teaches us a great deal—above all, humility. When we are out there and feel the cold, the rain, or the sun, we become aware of how small and insignificant we are in comparison to the grandeur and power of nature.

So yes, we understand vulnerability as a profound source of knowledge—one that helps us, among many other things, to let go of our ego and to understand that we are only a small part of a far more complex web.

Sometimes mountains cry too. 2021. Limestone rockfall, sun, rain, wind, pine resin on acrylic on natural cotton canvas, exposed on a blanket of esparto grass and limestone for two months.. 195 cm x 130 cm x 3 cm.

Your works often emerge from prolonged processes of exposure to the environment. Could it be said that the material—the fabrics, the pigments, the traces of the environment—acts as a memory that time writes on you as much as you write on it?

Álvaro: This is a topic for a long conversation, sitting on a rock—it would be very stimulating. But if experiences shape people’s inner lives and define who we are in the present moment, then I would say yes, especially in that sense.

Leaving our comfort zone has led us to learn from the perseverance of plants and the geological calm of mountains. Through this process, we have reconciled ourselves with time, with the environment, with nature, with ourselves, and even with our own practice. Just as fabrics hold the memory of a place, we have relearned how to pay attention and how to understand. Ultimately, it is a way of deepening our capacity to feel.

The fox and his tricks. 2022. Detail.

To what extent do you plan your work, and how much space do you leave for the unexpected—or even for mistakes?

Diana: Our planning is limited to an initial hypothesis. We choose the materials, colours, places, and sometimes even the specific location, but we leave as much room as possible for the unexpected to occur. In the end, that is what it is really about: allowing nature to speak and life to unfold. For us, both the unexpected and mistakes are part of the world’s complexity, and within that complexity we find a form of natural beauty.