How a mural is made at Parees
Before the artist picks up a brush, something important has already happened. They’ve read the territory. They’ve talked to people in the neighbourhood. They understand what memory lives in that wall and why it deserves to be told. That prior work is not a formality: it’s half the artwork.
At Parees we call this mediation. And without it, the mural wouldn’t be situated. It would be decoration.
The role of mediation
Mediation is not translating what the community wants so the artist can execute it. It’s more complex and more interesting than that. The mediator operates between three languages that rarely understand each other on their own: that of the administration (deadlines, permits, budgets), that of the artist (aesthetics, process, vision) and that of the territory (memory, tensions, pride, forgetting).
Without someone to translate between those three codes, conflict is inevitable. Mediation is the shield that protects the process and the filter that catches risks before they become problems.
At Parees, this work is led by Laura Lara from Raposu Roxu, who accompanies each intervention from the initial research through to the finished piece.
Three ways of arriving at a mural
Not all Parees murals are born from the same process. Depending on the wall, the subject and the time available, mediation takes different forms. We’ve been refining them edition by edition.
Situated mural. The artist immerses directly in the territory. They visit the neighbourhood, talk to people, take part in listening dynamics with key figures from the area. The sketch emerges from those encounters, it doesn’t arrive from home. It’s the most demanding approach and the one that produces work with the deepest roots.
Contextualised mural. When budget or deadlines don’t allow for a full in-person immersion, mediation builds a prior bridge: a detailed field dossier on the chosen subject, virtual meetings with people from the territory, research materials the artist receives before arriving. The physical presence becomes shorter but more precise. It’s not the ideal model, but done with rigour it works.
Community mural. The community doesn’t just inspire the work: it executes it. In workshop format, local residents paint alongside the artist. The result is a collectively authored piece that dismantles the classic role of the artist as an isolated figure. It tends to be the intervention that takes care of itself most afterwards.
What never changes
Whatever the format, one thing stays constant: the artist doesn’t arrive with the subject already decided. The subject is discovered through the process. If in the end the proposed theme doesn’t resonate with the territory, it stops. It doesn’t get forced. That capacity to say no, to pause before imposing, is part of the method and part of the ethics.
Because a mural that hasn’t listened to the place where it’s going to live is just paint. And paint fades.
