Berok: “Barcelona is the European capital of graffiti”

In this new chapter dedicated to the NN Wallery project, today we focus on the most demanding part, which is the transposition of a drawing onto walls of up to almost 80 m². This is the work carried out by Óscar García, the alter ego of Berok, a well-known professional graffiti artist from Barcelona, Spain, who has become a benchmark in mural decoration for homes and businesses, thanks to the showcase provided by working for Leo Messi, Jorge Lorenzo, or Kobe Bryant, as well as numerous

cadenas de televisión. Aunque empezó realizando grafitis allá por 1992, su deseo era ganarse la vida como dibujante o ilustrador, dos disciplinas en las que resultaba muy difícil hacerse un hueco. Hasta que una llamada telefónica lo cambió todo: “un amigo grafitero contactó conmigo para que le ayudase con una casa que debía pintar. Me encargué de la habitación de los niños, dibujando un Pikachu y unas letras. Fue entonces, al ver la reacción de la madre cuando vi la luz y una oportunidad de negocio”.

No sooner said than done, Óscar reclaimed his signature from Berok and began to promote himself on the Internet when no one else was doing it. It was the year 2000. “There were no social networks. He would enter forums and offer personalized services according to the theme of the group: heavy metal, children's themes, etc.” And so, from one commission to another, he developed a quite versatile character that allowed him to create graffiti in nightclubs, shutters, and walls of restaurants or children's rooms, depending on the trend of the time. “It goes in waves. Now, for example, parking lots are in vogue”. His good work allowed him to build an increasingly loyal audience, “families who have called me to do their child's room and, years later, have contacted me again to do their younger sibling's room, or restaurants that open franchises and call me back”.

That word-of-mouth, and his excellent portfolio, led him to be proposed by the heads of Norma Comics as the executor of the graffiti for the NN Wallery project: “Once the artists and illustrators who were going to create the drawing were decided, they needed a muralist-graffiti artist who could transfer those drawings onto the construction walls”. Thus, in the various phases of the project, Berok is in charge of transferring, on a large scale, the drawing designed by seven different illustrators, a task not at all complicated, “but very labor-intensive, especially on those walls where there is an abundance of straight lines. Preserving and respecting them has been a very slow process”.

Even so, Berok is privileged, as he is the first to receive the impressions of the neighbors, who watch the work while he carries out his job. “The feedback has been very positive. Especially with the mural of Sagar, on Fraternitat street, which we did during the Gràcia festival. It ended up becoming a photo call that everyone would go to for taking pictures”. Having a scene from the Gràcia festival is always a good attraction for a neighborhood so proud of its history and past. And if it also adds beauty and joy to the streets, all the better.

That is, in their opinion, the great contribution of urban art to Barcelona. “Something that is already happening in Rome, a true free urban museum to enjoy street by street without paying an entrance fee. In that sense, Barcelona is the European capital of graffiti as New York is the capital of America”. This excellent state of health has been aided by an exponential increase in the quality of muralists and graffiti artists “thanks to the incorporation of many artists who come from Fine Arts. Their presence has raised the level of urban art”. In their opinion, the only thing missing is more institutional support and from companies, “which would value the artist's work, which is not sufficiently recognized”. An example of this is the NN Wallery project: “It's something incredible and I have loved it, because normally private companies do not usually have these initiatives. Núñez i Navarro is giving their all in this project by bringing together comic illustrators and urban artists. I have never seen anything like it”.