The ‘Mural Encyclopedia’ is a project that started connecting the artistic, educational and environmental elements within the villages of Ivars d’Urgell and Vallverd. Nowadays, the project is growing around the globe, painting large murals around each landscape, explaining and connecting diverse natural environments.

In 2019 it started as a creative bond between the natural environment of the Ivars and Vila-sana lake and the municipality of Ivars, a didactic discovery within the villages that helps to discover and share the knowledge of the species found in the reservoir.

It is an initiative proposed by local artist Swen Schmitz Coll and collaboration with the municipal administration in each location. It is based on the creation of this “encyclopedia” through large -format murals representative of the fauna of the lake or the natural environment of the villages, distributed on walls of the towns: on the street, to be enjoyed and viewed by all audiences, and with the basic information scored on information panels and linked in web space.

It gives the municipality an artistic identity, bringing the scientific, informative and naturalistic fields closer to the knowledge of the nearest natural environment. It creates real and perpetual interest, that can be visited throughout the year.

WHY DO IT??

Culture

Because it is a project that cultivates. It informs us and allows us to grow with the knowledge of the closest natural environment in an attractive and renewed way.

Interest

Because we generate a "perpetual" interest in the municipality.

Bond

Because the proximity of the wetlands allows us to create this bond in order to bring the village closer and relate to the lake in an artistic and different way.

Knowledge, care and preservation of the environment

Because by building the project in a didactic way we offer to curate, take care of and preserve the natural environment available to us. To know the importance of our fauna in the natural chain and our role as individuals, and as a society, in natural balance.

WHAT WE DO?

By painting these beautiful and informative murals in specific places around the village we generate renewed motivation to walk and travel the streets.

We offer visitors of the villages of Ivars and Vallverd as well as the lake and local art a new way to see our locality.

Creation of teaching possibilities with the youngest members of our society through activities coordinated with schools. For example: visit to the lake and route of murals through the village.

Offer the local people activities and work on ornithology and knowledge of the nearby natural environment through the murals.

Artistic continuity. Murals as a basis facilitate artistic development towards other creative disciplines.

Creation of a web space to provide information to visit the village, as well as the creation of a paper map, and digital accompaniment, which allows interested parties or visitors to locate the painted murals.