Artists from four continents leave their mark on the façades of a town in the Serranía de Ronda

A total of 27 artists from many different countries across four continents will be working this month of May in Cortes de la Frontera, a town in the Guadiaro valley, part of the Serranía de Ronda. They will create different artworks outdoors on the front walls of several houses and other buildings in this small town.

These young artists are taking part in 'Coloring for the future', a volunteering project that is included in the European Solidarity Corps programme of the European Union (EU). This project has also teamed up with the non-profit association Amigos de Europa, which promotes opportunities for young people, bringing European programmes closer to this age group and especially to create links between local places and international input. These activities also take place with town hall support.

So far they have been doing retouches of famous Spanish poems that have already been painted onto several walls. Meanwhile planning is in progress to paint, in principle, a large-scale mural and other artwork based on silhouette designs that are dedicated to local people and their trades, and possibly some other work. The artists come from Serbia, Ukraine, Morocco, Germany, Argentina, Spain and Armenia, to name a few.

"After several days of getting to know Cortes, its inhabitants and their customs, our volunteer artists have already started to colour the future. They can already be seen in the streets touching up the poems that need to be made beautiful again as the sun had eaten away at their shiny paint over the past year. Many of them are already trying out techniques and looking for colours to break the homogeneity of the white of the town's façades. We have already seen their sketches and their ideas and their creations and they are going to give us lots to talk about", explained the association's spokesperson.

This project follows on the back of other urban art in Cortes de la Frontera. The international street artist Sake Ink has already created seven, huge murals on façades dedicated to the old traditions of the washer-women, the famous local train line, the cork-cutters, local fauna and flora (a roe deer and chanterelle mushrooms), and the 'matuteras' (local women who resorted to smuggling essential items last century during food rationing). Sake also left his mark at the local school with a mural dedicated to childhood. Four other artists created the remaining murals on view in this small town today.