Tots junts podem aturar la Sida (Together, We Can Stop AIDS) mural

Keith Haring was one of the most influential street artists and he left his mark on Barcelona's Raval neighbourhood in 1989. It took him just five hours to create a work that has become one of the city's iconic pieces of street art. Entitled Together, We Can Stop AIDS, it was created just after the artist had been diagnosed with the disease. He died a year later.

The frieze, which is 30 metres long and 2 metres high, features characters in Haring's trademark style surrounded by a serpent, the symbol of evil, among pairs of scissors, syringes and condoms. Children are depicted trying to run away from the threat of a disease that was having devastating effects at the end of the 1980s and stigmatised its sufferers.

The original mural was lost during the regeneration of the area in 1992. A template was taken that made it possible to recreate it next to the Museu d'Art Contemporani de Barcelona (MACBA), where it shares the limelight with Eduardo Chillida and Jorge Oteiza.

Haring's choice of the colour red alludes to blood and the suffering caused by the disease. Notwithstanding this, it is a cry of optimism to tackle AIDS and encourage everyone to get involved. While Haring was working on the mural, the music from a portable radio-cassette player and the kids who had gathered round to watch were a great source of inspiration that helped him finish it in record time.