Madrid's new take on graffiti

Spanish capital invites graffiti artists to paint shutters protecting stores to stop them from being defaced.

MADRID: Reportedly the Spanish capital too has invited graffiti artists to paint the steel shutters protecting their stores at night in the hope that this will stop them from being defaced by crude scribblings made on the run.

Over 130 graffiti artists from across Europe, including Bristol and Milan, decorated 140 shutters on February 6, 2011 in Madrid's central Malasana neighbourhood which has long been the heart of the city's countercultural scene. Since painting over another graffiti artists' artwork, especially with lower quality work, is considered a serious insult by street artists, the shopkeepers believe they will no longer wake up to find their shutters covered with ugly, and sometimes obscene, drawings that can be expensive to remove.

Published in The Express Tribune, February 10^th, 2011.