This brief documentary depicts the creation and installation of the artwork Criança by the artist Octavi Arrizabalaga (ARYZ). Between the months of July and December 2023, the piece was installed on the main altar of the Basilica del Pi. Producer Raül Refree performed a musical intervention to reveal the artwork on July 14.
_______________________
UPBRINGING - Octavi Arrizabalaga (ARYZ), Artist.
Values such as love, respect, honesty, kindness, sincerity, trust, justice and fidelity should be universal. All these values today sound almost revolutionary. And although we do not have evidence of the fact that they are in the DNA of the human being, they should be in the DNA of the society and make an effort among all to implement them. Despite the fact that this work does not directly represent a religious image, it does speak of the transcendent and of these values mentioned.
The dialogue between the piece and the environment is fundamental when I do this type of intervention. In this case, the paint has a desaturated range of colors that matches the colors of the building's stone. As the tones that predominate in the architecture of the Basilica are also the ones that predominate in the painting. These masses of colors are interspersed with small pieces of light colors that subtly enter into dialogue with the bright colors of the stained-glass windows.
What for me is a mother with her child, for another person can represent something entirely different. The fact that the viewer can enter the work, relive the image and project their experiences or fears onto it is, in the best cases, the magic of art.
THE GESTATION OF THE ARTWORK. Jordi Sacasas, curator and archiver of the Basilica.
This pioneering collaboration initiative is born from the desire to combine a universal and timeless message with a current language. As a result of an anonymous graffiti on the facade of the basilica, the Church of Santa María del Pi initiated a dialogue to clarify the facts, not with a punitive intent but with the intention of understanding and sharing visions. The Church of Santa Maria del Pi has always wanted to live the gospel in an open and welcoming way following the thinking of the universal Church as the Atrium of the Gentiles, a space open to everyone and a discourse where the only limit is the love without limits.
The Basilica, as a result of this specific fact, proposes a collaboration with B-Murals Urban Art Center to carry out an artistic project that offers continuity to the cultural and social work of the Basilica, and which at the same time serves to promote and cultivate dialogue with their environment.
It is from this prologue that Aryz's artistic language, Criança, begins, a radically human and perennial message with a fully contemporary experience.
_______________________
Credits:
Film by Germán Rigol
Music by Refree & Sceno.
Special thanks:
B-Murals / www.bmurals.com
Basílica del Pi / www.basilicadelpi.cat
Raül Refree / www.raulrefree.com
ARYZ:
Instagram: mr_aryz
Website: www.aryz.es
_______________________
TECHNICAL INFORMATION
Title: Criança
Technique: Acrylic Paint on canvas
Size: 13,92 m x 10,3 m / 45,67 ft x 33,7 ft
Year: 2023
INTERVIEWS:
Jordi Sacasas. Arxiver i conservador de la Basílica de Sta. Maria del Pi.
Xavier Ballaz. Co-director de B-Murals
Octavi Arrizabalaga. Aryz
Raül Refree. Músic, compositor i productor.
Locations:
Taller d'escenografía Can Castells, Santa Agnès de Malanyanes.
Basílica de Santa Maria del Pi, Barcelona.
Aryz Studio, Cardedeu.
B-Murals, Nau Bostik, Sant Andreu.
Barcelona, Spain 2023