Monumental. Art in the streets of Santander, an initiative awarded in the call for aid Culture Emprende of the Santander Creative Foundation (FSC) and designed by Creating Graphic Studio, proposes three urban safaris to learn about the different artistic expressions that exist in the city and generate between the walkers a new account of the streets, squares and corners.

For several weeks, more than twenty people have attended different collective mapping workshops to identify and catalog those valuable artistic pieces found in the urban space. They have taken about two hundred photographs and have collected comments on little known elements so far. Sculptures in gardens, monuments, plaques, signs, ornamental motifs, paintings, murals, curiosities and graffiti in hidden areas.

Thinking about public art as an ephemeral and changing space has been one of the premises of the mapping process, a process in which the importance of festivals such as Desvelarte, Arte Santander or Santatipo has been highlighted, an initiative that emphasizes the value of labels as visual and graphic heritage and as identity and collective memory of history.

In addition to the work that has been developed in the workshops, a total of twenty-five people have participated in the #SantanderMonumental contest, publishing 145 photographs of artistic expressions found and published through the social network Instagram. Among all, the image captured by Isabel Sandoval has been awarded.

On the other hand, about twenty people have sent images spontaneously to the organizers of the project. In total, more than 350 photographs have been registered. Now, to know the works, who are their authors, what techniques have been used or what details are part of each of them, Monumental proposes three "urban safaris" in August directed by David Peña, project coordinator. Peña studied Fine Arts at the University of the Basque Country (UPV) and did a PhD on "Public space and urban regeneration" at the University of Barcelona (UB). Currently, he teaches printing classes at the Graphic Design Degree of Cesine.