Borondo Paints What the Walls Remember (12 Photos)

October 27, 2026

By Vidar

Split view of Borondo murals in Tetuán and Madrid, with two pale bound figures beside a wide-eyed creature painted across a concrete ramp

A human figure, then a memory

Gonzalo Borondo began his career as a muralist, and the street has remained central to the way he works. His official biography describes a practice built around architecture, hidden histories, heritage and the tension between the ephemeral and the enduring.

That tension is visible in these walls. Bodies dissolve into cracked plaster. Real windows interrupt painted faces. A building’s stains, scars and empty spaces are allowed to finish the image.

These 12 works were photographed in Madrid, London, Paris, Rome, Sapri, Łódź, Toruń and Fanzara. Read more on Borondo’s official website, or visit an earlier six-photo Borondo collection.

Two pale mural figures with their hands held behind their backs across adjacent weathered walls in Tetuán, Madrid

Bound Figures — Tetuán, Madrid, Spain 🇪🇸

Two figures face away from each other while the old walls remain fully visible through Borondo’s spare lines. Photo: Street Art Madrid.

Borondo painted the pair in 2013 for the Madrid city council’s “Paisaje Tetuán” project. On his blog he explains that the same city had fined him €3,000 a few years earlier for a mural on a squatted house, then offered to pay him a similar sum for this one. He dedicated it to what he saw as the weight Madrid’s residents carry on their backs under increasingly heavy-handed policing. See the original Tetuán photo series.

Long concrete ramp painted as a wide-eyed creature with black-and-white teeth by Borondo in Madrid

The Wall With Teeth — Lavapiés, Madrid, Spain 🇪🇸

An early piece: the concrete ramp becomes the body of a watchful creature. Photo: dug_da_bug.

The photographer’s original upload, taken in February 2010, places the ramp in Plaza de Agustín Lara in Lavapiés. See the original Madrid photo series.

Tangled pale human figures painted on a dark gable wall by Borondo in Shoreditch, East London

“Triade” — Shoreditch, London, UK 🇬🇧

A knot of pale bodies fills the gable end, painted with loose strokes that make the figures seem to emerge from the dark wall. Photo: Fabiano Caputo.

Borondo painted Triade, three interlaced bodies, over a weekend in April 2014 on a gable wall on Sclater Street. The title appears in the London section of his blog, and Street Art News covered the wall when it was finished. See the original Shoreditch photo series.

Large rough-painted figure with a flower wreath holding a bird with spread wings on the side wall of a building in Łódź, Poland

Figure With a Bird — Łódź, Poland 🇵🇱

Architecture, windows and eroded plaster interrupt the image, so the painted body and the building become difficult to separate. Photo: Stempij.

Painted in October 2015 for Lodz Murals, the program curated by Michał Bieżyński, on the building at Pomorska 67, the address We Heart lists. Brooklyn Street Art published Maciej Stempij’s photos of the finished wall that month. See the original Poland and Spain photo series.

Two weathered human faces painted on the side wall of a house by Borondo in Sapri, Italy

Fading Faces — Sapri, Italy 🇮🇹

The two profiles look worn into the building rather than placed on top of it.

Painted in July 2013 for the second edition of the Oltre il Muro festival. Borondo includes it in the Italian Tour post on his blog, with photos and video by Fabiano Caputo, and Street Art Avenue notes that he worked with only a roller and brush, without ladders or lifts. See the original Sapri photo series.

💡 Place Fact: Sapri is known across Italy from Luigi Mercantini’s poem La spigolatrice di Sapri, which recalls the expedition of Carlo Pisacane and other patriots who tried to raise the Neapolitans against the Bourbons.

Crowd of ghostly pale figures painted against a dark wall by Borondo in Paris, France

The Crowd — Paris, France 🇫🇷

Rows of faces advance from shadow, with red lines and drips giving the gathering an unsettled presence.

See the original Paris post.

Reclining woman surrounded by small flowers painted inside a frame-like wall recess by Borondo in London

“Adam & Eve” — Old Street, London, UK 🇬🇧

A passerby makes the scale clear: the reclining figure occupies what looks like a giant found frame in the tiled wall.

This reclining figure is one of two framed panels Borondo painted on a tiled wall on Old Street in November 2013. His blog lists the pair as “Adam & Eve” under his first London works, and StreetArtNews covered the diptych that month. See the original London post.

Faint monumental human figure painted across the broken facade of an abandoned building by Borondo in Toruń, Poland

A Figure in the Ruins — Toruń, Poland 🇵🇱

A real window cuts through the figure’s torso, binding the portrait to the damaged architecture.

Borondo painted this wall in Toruń in 2012 for the Urban Gardener project, as shown in his Poland Tour blog post. See the original 2012 archive post.

Faceless painted figure holding a portrait in front of another figure while a person stands below, by Borondo in Toruń, Poland

The Face Held Up — Toruń, Poland 🇵🇱

A small viewer stands beneath a scene in which one painted identity is literally held in front of another.

Another wall from the same 2012 Urban Gardener project in Toruń. See the original 2012 archive post.

Elongated painted woman tilting her face upward on an ochre wall by Borondo in Rome, Italy

Unveiling — Rome, Italy 🇮🇹

The stretched figure rises between old windows while two people at street level reveal its height.

One of seven veiled female figures Borondo painted between the tall windows on the side facade of the Mario Mieli homosexual culture center in Rome, during the Outdoor festival in July 2012. On his blog he describes them as caught in the moment just before their faces are uncovered. See SAU’s earlier Borondo collection.

💡 History Fact: The Circolo di Cultura Omosessuale Mario Mieli was founded in May 1983 and named after Mario Mieli, author of Elementi di critica omosessuale, who had died a few months earlier.

Vintage car and theatrical family scene painted beside the words Freak Show on a red door by Borondo at La Tabacalera in Madrid, Spain

Freak Show Truck — La Tabacalera, Madrid, Spain 🇪🇸

The doorway becomes part of a strange traveling-show scene.

Painted in 2010 for Molino Rojo, the performing-arts hall at the self-managed social center La Tabacalera in Lavapiés. On his blog, Borondo explains that he chose the look of a 1930s circus to suit the space and its walls. See SAU’s earlier Borondo collection.

Painted wreath of red and white flowers beneath an arched bundle of reeds by Borondo in Fanzara, Spain

Flowers and Reeds — Fanzara, Spain 🇪🇸

Paint and gathered reeds meet in a work that steps away from the human figure.

Painted in July 2015 during MIAU, the Museo Inacabado de Arte Urbano in Fanzara, Castellón. Brooklyn Street Art’s photo from the festival shows the wreath before the reeds were woven over the metal arch above it. See the original Poland and Spain photo series.

💡 Festival Fact: MIAU began in 2014 as an idea from Fanzara’s new town council to bring residents together after a dispute over a proposed waste facility had split the village into two camps, each with its own bar.

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Borondo Paints What the Walls Remember (12 Photos)