Roundabout art

March 12, 2009 by Ann Larson 2 Comments

We were driving to Malaga yesterday, via Alhaurín de la Torre – mainly to check out the fabulous roundabout art for Kenton’s next Olive Press spread. (He is doing a spread on street art, which will feature ‘art in unexpected places’. More on that when the paper comes out!)

Alhaurín is very close to Malaga, and is a big commuter town. For me, it has little of the usual Spanish charm, as it is full of huge housing estates and shopping centers. Yesterday, as I sat in the car when Kenton was taking photos, we were parked by a real estate agency. You could tell that it was virtually abandoned – no cars outside, the grass was high and full of weeds, and the flowers dying from lack of water. This area has been hard-hit by the construction slowdown, no doubt about it.

But I digress. Although Alhaurín de la Torre is not really my cup of tea (crowded, traffic, chain stores, lots of ex-pats), the roundabouts there are truly wonderful. As you drive through the town, each one betters the last. I can’t quite understand why so much money is spent on them, or why they have fountains in abundance in that parched area of Spain, but for the tourist, they provide great photo opps!

Roundabout art (photo by Kenton Smith)