Art transforms Besòs into open-air museum

BesArt – The River Museum in Santa Coloma de Gramenet is marking two years since its launch, with plans to expand along the banks of the Besòs river and nearly triple in size by the end of the decade.

The large-scale murals currently stretch for 1.4 kilometres, with 61 works on both sides of the river, some extending into neighbouring Sant Adrià.

The goal is to reach five kilometres by 2030, with 250 murals and more than 20,000 square metres of art, with the expansion also bringing Montcada i Reixac into the riverside route.

The plans for the open-air museum, situated just outside the borders of the city of Barcelona, were outlined last week during a visit by Catalan president Salvador Illa, who described BesArt as an example of "transformation" and "rupture," on one of his last engagements before he was hospitalized with a rare bacterial infection.

Artists including Javier Mariscal, Aryz, Sixe Paredes, Mina Hamada, Franco Fasoli and Frank Trepax have already contributed works, which sit alongside pieces by emerging artists, children, young people, older residents and groups at risk of social exclusion.

The exhibition, promoted as the "largest open-air museum in the world," is expected to reach 1.5 kilometres by the end of 2026.

That expansion coincides with the recent arrival of the La Caixa Foundation and Aigües de Barcelona as partners in a project led by Santa Coloma City Council. Sant Adrià City Council and the Barcelona Provincial Council have also joined.

Next year, organisers aim to extend the route to 2.5 kilometres, with the intention of doubling it again by 2030. They say the expansion will preserve the concept of a "museum for everyone, for all audiences, cultures and nationalities." Director David Hernández noted that BesArt is located in an area that is home to "more than 150 nationalities, a fantastic fact."

Bridges crossing the river are set to play a central role in the next phase, with plans to turn them into "Sistine Chapels of the 21st century." 

President Illa praised the project as part of the broader recovery of the Besòs, "which is a measure of how the country has evolved over the past 60 years."

Visiting the site with minister and former mayor Núria Parlon, he recalled the river's past as a "dark area" and welcomed its transformation into a green space centred on leisure, sport and now art.

Santa Coloma mayor Mireia González said the expanding murals along the riverbank "act as a bridge between the memory of the river, the environmental present and the future as a shared space."