Contemporary art brings old Pyrenees church back to life

An autumn visit to the Vall d'Àssua, in the Catalan Pyrenees, is like entering a universe of color. And now, the small church in the village of Saurí has all of this universe inside it, thanks to world-renowned Catalan artist Santi Moix.

Moix, who established himself in New York 32 years ago, has painted the walls of the Saurí church with the landscape of this Pyrenean valley.

And the project, which blends tradition with contemporary art, works magically.

Animals, flowers, insects, plants, trees, all in different colors and tones, transform the usually dark and grey stone walls of the Pyrenean churches into an explosion of life.

Artist Moix, who created a temporary large-scale mural in a Prada store in New York's Soho, has brought life back to a church of a town with only 12 inhabitants. And they hope the project can attract world attention.

"It's a small village with a small church, but we have to think big!" said Moix. "Who cares where the church is, or how big it is, the important thing is its capacity to bring energy and optimism to people, to talk about beauty and nature; that is unstoppable," the artist added.

Moix has been working on the project for five years, and he chose it because Saurí is the town where he has always spent his holidays.

The artist admits that one of the "beautiful things" about the project was transforming his draft designs into actual fresco paintings. "In my Brooklyn studio I had all the walls planned and painted, but once you start the real thing, with the fresco technique, the spaces, volumes and the stone, it's not the same as on paper, and you need to adapt the project as you go," he explained.

And since 2015, when he started working on the mural paintings, many people traveled to the town trying to get a glimpse of the final result. Only now, however, have the doors been opened to the public, in a new attraction that locals hope will revitalize the village and the area. In fact, Moix thinks that many small churches and hermitages in the Pyrenees that are currently closed should be reopened again as spaces for art and culture.

"This cannot be the last project. All the dark and wet churches all around these valleys should be reopened, we have to get the self-esteem of the people of this area back," he said. According to Moix, transforming eight or nine churches could help create a "route" that could attract people from all around the world. "We need to think big, to reopen churches with contemporary art, as they did in the 11th, 12th and 13th centuries," he added.

Now, the colorful church of Saurí has become "the first and only" one to celebrate the full scope of "nature," from "big things like mountains, to smaller ones, such as mosquitos or animals," explained Moix. The artist wants the church and the valley to become a beacon of "optimism, respect, beauty and nature."