Contemporary muralism has become a symbolic element of cities, and artists can respond to purely aesthetic motivations or try to capture their vision of community identity and/or social and/or political situation. Even though the murals have become identity elements of a community, knowledge about the deterioration processes affecting constituent materials is very limited. This knowledge is scarcer when it is related to deterioration processes and recommended conservative strategies. This almost absent scientific production could be explained due to the lack of consensus for the definition of urban art from the artistic, social, and legal point of view, which means that these artistic manifestations lack conservation protection. Moreover, this scarce knowledge could be also related to the complexity of the materials used in urban murals and their context: the public space. Climate change and the increase in greenhouse gas emissions cannot go unnoticed when the effect of deterioration agents such as CO₂, humidity, temperature, and sunlight radiation on these mural paintings must be evaluated. Considering this scenario, it is impossible to extrapolate the direct conservation guidelines used in heritage elements (statues, paintings, etc.) to the specific case of urban murals. In this context (urgent need for the development of conservation guidelines), this proposal occurs, with a strong multi and interdisciplinary character (the areas converge: civil engineering and architecture and fine arts).
SOS-MURALS pursues, on the one hand, the search for cleaning procedures of graffiti on urban murals more sustainable and environmentally friendly than the application of commercial chemical products. For this, low toxicity solvent ternary mixtures will be determined as cleaners. On the other hand, SOS-MURALS will evaluate the effectiveness and durability of antigraffiti systems and protectors against sunlight radiation to combat vandalism paints and chromatic fading respectively. Undoubtedly, the compositional complexity of urban murals, made up of organic paints (high compositional heterogeneity: binder, pigment, fillers, etc.) on different types of supports such as concrete or brick, will be considered when physical and chemical changes suffered by paint samples exposed to deterioration agents are evaluated. It is also necessary to know the effect caused by the protectors on the physical characteristics of the paints and their durability under outdoor conditions must be determined.
The activities carried out in SOS-MURALS would be integrated into 3 of the 6 clusters of Pillar II of Horizon Europe, since they promote the search for solutions to problems affecting cultural heritage-contemporary muralism (cluster 2) and contribute to find conservation guidelines that help to mitigate the effects of climate change on the conservation of contemporary muralism (cluster 4-Industry and cluster 5-Climate and Energy).
