CREATION PROJECT OF THE OUTDOOR MUSEUM OF PIORNAL ARTISTIC FACADES

Since 2012, Piornal´s Council is carrying out a novel project called "One Village One Museum", which consists of embellishing the facades of "uralita" that protect Piornal´s houses from the harsh mountain winters.

With this project, two objectives are pursued:

• On one hand, minimizing the negative visual impact of dozens of facades distributed throughout the municipality, using them as giant canvases where artists capture their works of art.
• On the other hand, to create a tourist resource for tourists and visitors who come to Piornal.

The first part of the project was carried out, through an agreement, with the University of Fine Arts of Seville. Fruit of this period of 5 years emerged 11 artistic facades made by the "Amalianos".

The collective "Amalianos" is a group of artists consisting of: Alberto Prats Téllez, José España Martín, Aida Hernández Blasco, Ana Domínguez Corrales, Pablo Castañeda Santana, Pau Para Moreno, Manuel Zapata Vázquez, Diego Sánchez Márquez, Claudia Suárez Pérez, Fernando Martín Vega, Concha Gavilán Méndez, Millán García Real and Marian Robles Viaña. All of them under the artistic direction of Mª José García del Moral.

The project was continued in the following facades with an artist of international recognition, MisterPiro and with a local artist, Jesús Ramos Valencia.

Currently, the "Open Air Museum" is composed of 13 painted facades, enlarging it each year with 2 or 3 facades and with the intention of painting them all or the great majority, thus creating a museum of more than one hundred works of art.

The themes represented are based on the iconography, culture and landscapes of Piornal and the Jerte Valley: Cherry blossoms, autumn landscapes, Jarramplas, Sierra de Tormantos are some of them. Or even hot topics, such as Gender Equality.

The "Art Facades" of Piornal won the San Pedro de Alcántara Prize within the category "Aesthetic care of the people that favor their tourist appreciation" granted by the "Diputación of Cáceres".

The "Art Facades" of Piornal were also present as a "success story" at the International Congress of Mayors & Innovation of Segovia 2017, held in the Castilian city of Leon on November 9 and 10, where the mayor of Piornal presented the project of the Outdoor Museum as an example of revaluation of the heritage of our municipalities using the creativity of artists from different places.