As a part of the IN EQUALITY edition of the Calle Libre Festival.
“Older people often inhabit the margins of the visible. They walk along the streets, sit on park benches, wait in waiting rooms… and yet, far too often, society looks right through them. This mural is born from the desire to bring them back into the foreground.
In Equality proposes a double gaze: that of rights and that of bonds. Because equality is not only a matter of access - to healthcare, to culture, to civic participation - but also of recognition. Of treating a long life with the same dignity as any other. At the same time, the mural reclaims the value of mutual care, of the community that holds us up, of the hands that accompany us. Home not as a place to withdraw from the world, but as a root from which to keep belonging to it. Visibility, rights and care.”
— Virginia Bersabe
The Project
The primary goal of the project was to raise awareness around mental health, especially mental health of elderly women — a matter quite overlooked in our everyday life. Virginia Bersabe, a Spanish mural artist, painted the mural as a part of Calle Libre “In Equality“ edition. Her work centres on older women, their relationship with space, and the physical and pictorial manifestations of their memory and identity.
The motive came from a project in Ukraine organized by Medecins sans Frontières and focused on socio-psychological health. Its mission is to support those who have been displaced, those who have lost their loved ones to war and conflict or those struggling with complex trauma.
Medecins sans Frontières / Doctors without Borders
“Psychological support is essential in our projects. Whether in war and conflict zones like Ukraine, for people fleeing their homes, in the aftermath of natural disasters, or for people living with diseases like tuberculosis—we offer a wide variety of support services. In 2024 alone, we conducted over 506,300 individual mental health consultations.
Wounds that are not visible at first glance need to be addressed just as much as physical injuries. Because they are real. We need to talk more about them and bring them to light — just as this artwork symbolically does” — Ärzte ohne Grenzen, 2026
