And talking about the graffiti artist himself, –or rather just artist, as he usually calls himself– he prefers to remain anonymous, mostly for legal reasons, so we don’t know much about him. All we know is that he uses he/him pronouns, he’s originally from Latin America, and he’s been living in the city for ten years now and he used to be a ‘sin papeles’, even though he now says he’s been “upgraded” from immigrant to foreigner.
SINPAPELES, THE GRAFFITI THAT HAS BECOME A MOVEMENT
If you live in Barcelona you’ve surely seen on the streets a graffiti that says ‘Sinpapeles’ (‘undocumented’ in English), and you’ve most likely asked yourself who’s behind all of this and why did it all start. The Sinpapeles graffiti, written just like that, all together, in easy-to-read cursive handwriting, is in walls, metro stations and window displays, in the neighbourhood of El Raval, El Born or Gràcia; basically everywhere. But this isn’t just a graffiti artist’s signature, because he’s already had a few copycats, and this isn’t a case of identity theft, we’re talking about a movement with the objective of starting up a very necessary conversation.
Sinpapeles was born as an initiative to spread a radical message, uncomfortable to some, which he himself would agree on, as he states that it’s his job to annoy people. It is born to remind those who live here and those who’re passing through the city, that we shouldn’t forget about those undocumented people who walk among us, as they could be your neighbour, your corner store’s salesperson or the owner of your next-door bar.
The movement has gained so much strength that he has even ended up creating a workshop to teach others how to copy his signature, which would normally be unthinkable in the world of graffiti, where signatures are sacred. The artist behind Sinpapels has also created art installations, one of them at the Haimney Gallery, where he presented different artistic pieces connected to immigration as well as other subjects related to it. It’s an anonymous fight, which might be uncomfortable to some, but it’s deeply necessary to build a better world. For all of us.
