Muros Vivos (Living Walls) was an artistic and community festival held on Sunday, 9 June 2025, at the Lope de Vega School in the Carabanchel neighbourhood of Madrid. This initiative transforms the walls of the school into a space for collective expression, where urban art, neighbourhood participation and student creativity come together to highlight the power of public education and the value of art as a tool for social transformation.
The festival was made possible thanks to the drive and coordination of the Ecosistema ISO association, which launched a crowdfunding campaign that was warmly received by families, residents and neighbourhood groups. Ecosistema ISO is a platform that promotes participatory culture, transformative education and creative processes with social impact, connecting artists, schools and communities to generate lively and collaborative networks.
The main artistic intervention took place at the front of the school, where two large murals were created. One of them was created by photoAlquimia, using stencils and spray paint. After meeting with the students, we listened to what inspired them about the slogan they had democratically chosen in previous days on the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs): ‘Together we are the future.’ Based on their ideas, we designed and cut out more than 70 original stencils representing concepts such as community, diversity, sustainability, equality and cooperation. During the Festival, a section of the mural was left open for children and families to participate, who learned and experimented with the stencil technique, completing the work collectively.
The second mural on the front of the school was created by artist Carol Solar, a resident of Carabanchel, whose work is characterised by a visual language influenced by comics, pop art and children's aesthetics, with which she addresses contemporary issues from an ironic, critical and very personal perspective.
Muros Vivos is much more than a mural; it is a celebration of colour, identity and working together. A space where art is born in the neighbourhood and returns to the neighbourhood, more alive than ever.
Processes
Design and production of 70 stencils
Inspired by the theme and motto “Unidos somos futuro” (United we are future) democratically chosen by schoolchildren and framed in Sustainable Development Goal 17, we designed and produced more than 70 templates with which we would create spray painting the collective mural.
Base for the mural
Once the school wall had been repaired and restored, we painted the area where the slogan would go on the mural white. Next, templates were created for each letter of the slogan to design its layout on the wall. Once the outlines had been drawn, we proceeded to mask the entire letters with masking tape so that we could paint the background of the mural in black, onto which the coloured spray stencil would be applied.
Collaborative stencil
For several days, using the stencils, we painted with sprays of colors in the shades of the rainbow on the black background. For the day of the Festival, a section of the mural was left open to the participation of children and families, who learned and experienced the technique of stucco, completing the work collectively.
Discovering the motto
Once the colorful mural was completed, it was time for magic. Taking off the tape with which we had covered the letters of the motto under the black paint, it came to light in a pure white, contrasting and shining above.
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