Six new murals in Argana Baja: the district paints the water you cannot see

In Argana Baja, a district of Arrecife, six new large-format murals have appeared. They come with the third edition of the Festival Desidia, titled this year El aljibe. Memoria subterránea — the cistern, underground memory.

Water as the thread

The starting point is Lanzarote's historic relationship with water and the structures that made life possible here: the aljibes and maretas, the buried tanks where for centuries the island stored the only water it had. From there the festival draws its metaphor: what stays beneath the surface and goes unseen — collective memory, diverse identities, experiences that have not always had a visible place.

Who painted

The walls were painted by Keeenue, from Japan, Nulo, from Uruguay, and Canarian artists Luismi Sánchez, Cristina Reyes, Kant and JUIN.

The festival is run by the Colectivo Desidia, a group of Canarian street artists, and combines art, neighbourhood participation and public engagement. It is backed by Arrecife town hall, the Cabildo of Lanzarote and La Graciosa and the island's art and culture centres.

For Argana Baja this is no small thing: a working-class district has spent three years turning into an open-air museum, and it looks at itself differently now that the walls talk.