Montserrat Museum transformed with mural painting paying homage to art itself

Lleidan street artist Lily Brick is painting a mural this week on one of the walls of the entrance to the Montserrat Museum.

The idea came from the museum management wanting to make the entrance more visible. Until now it went largely unnoticed by visitors, but the mural will now attract more attention.

On the wall, Brick will paint people looking at art, just as people do in museums. As she explained to the Catalan News Agency, it's an ode to falling in love with art, and intentionally doesn't show any cell phone or any kind of screen.

"We have to forget the screen. We have a desire to preserve and keep, and I think it's very important to keep the memory, because if we don't, we deprive ourselves of the gift of feeling and moving," she said.

A dream come true

Lily Brick is an internationally recognized street artist with murals in France, Germany, Netherlands, England, United States, Morrocco, South Korea, and many in Catalonia and Spain, but the new piece in Montserrat is "a dream come true" for her.

She said that the chance to paint at Montserrat is an honor for her as the building was designed by the Catalan modernist architect Josep Puig i Cadafalch, whom she greatly admires.

In addition, her mural will be the welcome for visitors in a museum hosting works by Caravaggio, Miró, Fortuny, Monet, Picasso, Dalí, and many more. 

First street art in Montserrat

Brick's mural will also be a new venture for the museum and Montserrat Monastery. " It will be our first street art work. Not only in the museum but in the whole of Montserrat," explains the director of the museum, Xavier Caballé.

The mural "will be incorporated into the artistic heritage of the sanctuary," he added.

Stories on the wall

The mural is full of little stories, and the objective is for the public to see not just a painting, but a story.

In the mural, audiences can see a girl admiring the sculpture of Moreneta, the Montserrat Madonna, and the scene of a wheelchair-bound grandfather and his granddaughter looking at a painting.

The Catalan artist, who is only 34 years old, admits that her career is "very intense" currently.

Yet, the experience in Montserrat has given her the opportunity to meditate and prepare a work with sensitivity and dedication, something she was missing for a long time. "Montserrat gave me a sense of calm," she said.