The problem with street art: it's stuck in one place. Jaime Colsa, CEO and founder of Spanish trucking company Palibex, decided to give the façades of his fleet over to street artists to tour their work around the country.
The Truck Art Project drives street art all over Spain. "We want to surprise viewers while they're walking down the street, by bringing art to the neighbourhoods that don't have art galleries," explains Colsa, 44. "It's like a kind of social work,"
Artist Okuda San Miguel, for instance, painted both sides of a lorry as a "mirage": one side shows a panorama, the other with three heads looking out. "It's a dialogue between the truck and the world, he says. "My artwork will take a look at different landscapes around the country."
Since the project's launch in Madrid in November 2015, The Truck Art Project has helped seven Spanish artists paint canvases on ten lorries, each up to 13 metres long by 2.8 metres wide. "It forced me to understand the artwork surface in a new way," explains artist Daniel Muñoz. "It's like drawing in 3D."
Colsa partners with two art curators and personally covers the costs of the makeovers - about €20,000 (£15,000) per lorry, including the artists' fees. He's also planning to refit trucks for use as mobile cinemas and venues to host photographic exhibitions or music events.
With ambitions of a fleet of 100 mobile art creations, Colsa is currently looking for sponsors to extend the project outside Spain and his company. "If we paint 50 lorries from every other company's fleet instead of painting all of Palibex's, the art will go everywhere," he says. "It's just a question of sharing." Let them truckers roll, 10-4.
This article was originally published by WIRED UK
