Madrid, May 19, 2026. The art collective Boa Mistura has been awarded the 2026 idealista Contemporary Art Prize for their project “Libertá,” an intervention in the San Siro neighborhood of Milan that reflects on identity, community, and urban transformation. The work has been recognized for its visual impact and its ability to generate a critical reading of the contemporary social environment. Curated by Elisa Hernando Calero and coordinated by ArteGlobaL, the award highlights artistic proposals that engage with the city and foster new ways of thinking about the urban and social environment.
The awarded project, “Libertá,” is located in the San Siro neighborhood, in western Milan, a social housing area marked by a strong community identity and, at the same time, by dynamics of urban isolation. Bounded by large roads that act as physical borders, the neighborhood presents a complex social reality, with a high presence of migrant population and a stigma associated with marginality, but also with intense cultural vitality linked to the contemporary urban scene. In this context, Boa Mistura intervenes on the facade of “Case Nuove – Fondazione Terzoluogo,” an old 17th-century building currently undergoing transformation into a cultural and educational center. The work is articulated from a mural initially created in the artists’ studio in Madrid, which is then transferred and reconfigured in the window openings of the building in Milan.
Fragmented by the architecture, the word “Libertá” appears and disappears, interrupted by the wall itself, generating a visual and conceptual tension between openness and closure.
The piece positions culture as a device of symbolic emancipation, opening spaces of freedom especially in peripheral contexts such as the San Siro neighborhood.
“Libertá is born from listening to the neighborhood and working with its own contradictions. We were interested in talking about the limits—physical and symbolic—that define life in the periphery, and doing so from our own language: the wall, the gesture, and the word,” says the Boa Mistura collective.
In the words of Elisa Hernando, curator of the project, “Libertá generates a powerful aesthetic experience and, at the same time, activates a critical reflection on urban space, its limits, and its possibilities for transformation.”
Boa Mistura is an art collective whose practice is rooted in graffiti and public space intervention. Their work explores the wall as a medium for expression, identity, and dialogue with the city, developing projects that combine action, repetition, and participation in diverse urban contexts. Throughout their career, Boa Mistura’s work has been part of major international events such as the Dakar Biennale, Senegal (2022), the Shenzhen Urban Biennale, China (2017), the Cali Mural Painting Biennale, Colombia (2016), the Havana Art Biennale, Cuba (2015), and the Venice Architecture Biennale (2012) in the Spanish Pavilion, among others. They have also participated in exhibitions in institutions such as the Reina Sofía Museum in Madrid, the MAXXI Museum in Rome, the Hyundai Museum ALT1 in Seoul, the CAC in Malaga, the Palacio de Bellas Artes in Santo Domingo, the Centquatre-Paris, the Conde Duque Cultural Center, the Weltmuseum in Vienna, and the Bauhaus-Archiv in Berlin, among others. The art collective is represented by the Ponce+Robles gallery in Madrid, Spain.
The idealista Contemporary Art Prize is an initiative of the leading real estate marketplace in Spain, Italy, and Portugal, through which the company aims to recognize talent and artistic vision and seeks to promote and support contemporary artistic production. In its first edition, 2018, the prize was awarded to the Basque artist Ismael Iglesias (Durango, 1974), with the work "Streetfighter"; the second, in 2019, was won by the artist from Huesca David Latorre (Huesca, 1973) with his project “Architecture, Body and Clothing”; in 2020 there was no call due to the pandemic and in 2021 Jorge Yeregui (Santander, 1975) won the award for “Communities”. The Cuban artist Hamlet Lavastida (Havana, 1983) was awarded the idealista prize in 2022. In the 2023 edition, Mónica de Miranda (Porto, 1976) was awarded for her project “South Circular”, in 2024 the winner was the Madrid artist Diana Larrea and last year it went to Cristina Lucas with her project ‘Mountains’.
Why the idealista prize?
idealista has been supporting national and international artists for years and promoting the artistic production of contemporary art through the acquisition of artworks that reflect the impact of “urban planning” on people's lives. Its collection includes pieces by artists such as Alejandro Cartagena (Santo Domingo, Dominican Republic, 1977), Gabriele Basilico (Milan, Italy, 1944), Francesco Jodice (Naples, Italy, 1967), Teresa Margolles (Culiacán, Mexico, 1963), Nick Brandt (London, United Kingdom, 1964), Olaf Breuning (Schaffhausen, Switzerland, 1970) or Massimo Vitali (Como, Italy, 1944). The works participate in a traveling exhibition between the company's offices in Barcelona, Lisbon, Madrid, Malaga and Milan. The inaugural exhibition of the idealista collection was held at the Serrería Belga cultural space in Madrid, from December 17, 2025, to March 8, 2026, and featured 120 works by 58 artists. For the creation and implementation of the "idealista Award", and the coordination of future editions, idealista has chosen Elisa Hernando, director of ArteGlobaL. Elisa Hernando is also the curator of Boa Mistura's intervention at the SIMA Madrid fair.
