A graffiti for many still today is "something illegal", a thing of hooligans, hooded kids, gang members and nights of vandalism. Perhaps because it has been in many cases or perhaps also due to the very nature of graffiti, a pioneering artistic movement in the 70s in the streets of the Bronx, which together with hip-hop, acted as a form of protest of the impoverished black population and forgotten in a capitalist society.
But, just as in the streets of the New York neighborhood, what can be seen today in those of Ondara, Benigembla, Dénia, La Xara or Jesús Pobre are works of art. Indeed, we are talking about graffiti, urban art, filling the streets with color and social messages. In this case, it is the work of Tardor, a graffiti artist born in La Xara who leaves any passerby amazed.
"Painting in the street is like painting in a museum with the doors open"
Tardor started drawing some sketches at the age of 15 and when he raised a little money to buy sprays, he took to the streets. "Painting in the street is like painting in a museum with the doors open and I like that feeling of playing with the buildings, thinking about the design and the right story for each place."
The life of the artist is not usually easy, especially living from it. Worse if your work is not so well seen by society because it goes beyond the pre-established canons and they put more than one obstacle on you. “It has not been an easy path, but today I can say that I live from art. Since I was very young I have commissions from the world of muralism and with this have come big projects ”. Tardor has been lucky, but also art.
Dresden Mural: Art and Value
Art and courage was what he had to make visible the growing fascist movement in Dresden (Germany) through a mural in 3D effect. During the process he felt the discomfort of the neighbors while he painted. That is what street art has to you, that you are exposed at all times to criticism, good (and also bad).
Without leaving the region we also find exceptional works such as the murals made in the Alberca riverbed, 'Ahogar las paas' and 'Trapada en el tiempo'. Although Tardor tells us that if there is a mural that marked him personally, it was a Self-portrait that he painted about 3 years ago. "It is not one of my best works, I have improved the technique but it marked the beginning of many later works, I changed the way of seeing what I was doing and I tried to convey something else."
In addition, he also remembers with special affection the first large mural that he faced and was in Jesús Pobre. 28 meters long by 6 meters high in 7 days. He titled it 'El feminisme és la clau', wanting to narrate the scourge of patriarchy in our society and representing with the key that this problem can be overcome with education and feminist struggle.
"The graffiti seek to reconquer the image of the city"
For a street artist we imagine that confinement was not easy. "I tried to take it with patience and I focused on doing digital painting which is an aspect that I really like", but he admits that it did not quite work because "it was difficult for me to get ideas living the same routines every day.
Now, with the pandemic situation more stabilized, Tardor 'returns to the streets' and already has several commissions and projects in the region that he still cannot tell us about but that we are sure will continue to fill the streets of the Marina Alta with life. In addition, they also sell from their Online store t-shirts, prints and paintings.
For him, graffiti "does not intend to sell anything, it only wants to reconquer the image of the city in which the ordinary citizen seems to have neither voice nor vote".
Tardor graffiti tour
Tardor speaks without needing to say a single word. This is the world of graffiti, expressing social realities that function as authentic 'slaps' to society with sprays, with images, with metaphors ... With art. "I like that my works tell a story or that they transmit something, although it does not have to be interpreted in the same way by all the spectators, I think that is also the grace, that each one can give it a meaning according to their experiences".
Ondara, La Xara, Dénia ... We leave you a tour of his best-known and most spectacular works.
Drown the sorrows - Ondara
Trapped in time - Ondara
Feminism is la clau - Jesús Pobre
Mural on the facade of the Llunàtics center - Dénia
Self-Portrait Graffiti - Madrid
Weather - La Xara
Destination - Ondara
