The vast scope of the project Murcia, Piel y Memoria emerges as a gift from the present to those who will come after us. In it, contemporary art acts as a bridge between eras—past, present, and future—reviving bodies long hidden beneath the layers of time. These figures erupt from the walls to return, through the gestures they still hold, the richness that has taken root over twelve centuries in a land whose depth, allure, and beauty have never recognized any boundaries.
Lidó Rico
In this monumental mural, created by Lidó Rico to mark the 1200th anniversary of the founding of Murcia, the city encounters its own reflection in a sculptural narrative that spans centuries, symbols, and generations. The work is not merely a tribute to the past; it is also a bridge toward what lies ahead—a legacy we offer to those who will call this place home a century from now.
The mural unfolds our history like a vast contemporary frieze: the Muslim and Christian Murcia; our patron figures, la Arrixaca and la Fuensanta; the Cathedral’s imafronte; the huerta, the Segura River, and the Seven Crowns; Salzillo, Ibn Arabí, Alfonso X, Floridablanca; our celebrations, our tragedies, and our countless rebirths. Every element speaks to the others, reminding us that our identity is anything but linear—rather, it is multifaceted, alive, and always in the process of becoming.
At the heart of the mural lies a time capsule meant to be opened in 2125. Inside, we have placed a message for future generations—a snapshot of today’s Murcia and a hope: that the city remains worthy of both its memory and its future. This gesture turns the artwork into a dual act of responsibility: one toward what we have inherited, and another toward what has yet to be born.
José Ballesta Germán, Mayor of Murcia
NOT
Not flesh, but chemistry.
Not a gesture, but instinct.
Not oppression, but release.
Not barren, but a tool.
Not a bond, but tenderness.
Not fabric, but time.
Not a fold, but relief.
Not weight, but echo.
Not matter, but creed.
Not an image, but a trace.
Not mutilation, but resolve.
Not cold, but ember.
Not an object, but an idea.
Not an anomaly, but a mirror.
Not weakness, but hope.
Not artificial, but human.
And even in being nothing, my eyes cling to its magic as a fist clings to cloth, for only what is useless holds the power to shatter the barrenness of its fate—awakening that blessed sound that guides the soul along a mysterious path of folds that know only of salvation.
Lidó Rico,
Artista creador Murcia Piel y Memoria
The process
period of creation
The true weight of the work does not lie in the more than five thousand kilos that compose it, but in something far less tangible. Its real gravity comes from the immaterial emotional weight offered by the more than one hundred and twenty people from Murcian society who contributed the casts of their hands—an act that gives the piece not only its singular nature, but also its extraordinary character.
Participants
Murcia has always been a city shaped by many hands: those that watered the huerta since the ninth century, those that raised its walls, temples, and irrigation channels, those that carved immortal figures, embroidered marvels, and carried forward trades, knowledge, and traditions. In this piece, those hands return transformed into symbols. Chroniclers, artists, scholars, and figures from the cultural and social spheres have left their physical imprint here—cast forever into the shared skin of the work.
José Ballesta Germán, Mayor of Murcia
Academic text
F R A N C I S C O J A V I E R
D Í E Z D E R E V E N G A
Can hundreds of human figures, faces, and hands reveal the identity and history of twelve centuries of a city, and converge within a limited space to convey its past—through its symbols, the figures of its story, and the communal spaces of the city, its huerta, and nearby countryside—while drawing inspiration from a present frozen in an extraordinary frame of coexistence and looking forward to the twenty-second century? These are the challenges of this endeavor by a contemporary sculptor, an effort in which, alongside him, many others have held in their hands that present, that past, and that inscrutable future.