Your search

What is the role of art in the reinforcement or rejection of current models of public space management in our cities? To answer this question, we must attend to the ties of all artwork with public institutions, and whether or not it questions the dominant order. In this article, I will focus on the works of the Ana Botella Crew, a group of artists from Madrid, as an example of “artivism” that challenges the City Council’s management of public spaces in Madrid. My aim is to explore how useful internet tools can be to articulate artistic interventions that challenge the hegemonic uses of public space, in what Sassen has called the global city.

This article primarily investigates the city of Berlin on two levels: as a totalizing vision in which a specific perspective of urban space is imagined and built into the city and as a layered and disparate space in which urban objects are catalysts for associative narratives for rethinking the urban environment. It concentrates on two primary areas of Berlin: the Kulturforum and Bebelplatz. Looking to a creative experience of the city, the author collaborates with the artist Knut Eckstein to explore the idea of subversive space based on a performative transgression of barriers in architecture.

The phenomenon of urban art is one of the forces shaping contemporary urban spaces. Historically fought as vandalism in its “writing” component (the “black sheep” of the urban actors performing in the contemporary city), urban art has recently become more appreciated as an artistic expression, especially when regarded as a stage in the historical evolution of muralism. As several examples worldwide have shown, in the context of urban renewal, urban art can set off positive dynamics. Focusing on the Italian scene, I recognize the importance of past Italian interventions realized both in big cities, such as Rome, Turin and Bologna, and in small cities, such as Grottaglie (Taranto), Gaeta (Latina), Catanzaro, and Dozza (Bologna). In addition, the growing number of urban art festivals and public interventions seems to voice the citizens’ will to take the streets back, particularly where institutions are unable to intervene effectively in the urban domain due to political short-sightedness or lack of financial resources. The first aim of this paper is to illustrate and analyze some collective projects and informal actions through which citizens, associations, and institutions have given added value to the urban space. I will focus particularly on Turin, which has become one of the most interesting and rich urban art territories, thanks to public projects such as Murarte, Picturin, Nizzart and B.Art: Arte in Barriera. This study offers insights on how, by way of artistic deeds and apparently “weak” transformation systems, urban art may take innovative action so as to regenerate the city’s architectural heritage. The second aim of this paper is to propose a methodology for architectural surveying techniques applied to urban art. isIn current critical analysis, as well as in the representation and documentation of this type of work, the fundamental importance of the physical, architectural and urban environment in which the work is placed is often overlooked, if not completely omitted. In acknowledgment of these limitations, this paper proposes a documentation methodology that respects both the values of the process and the work itself. In this regard, painted walls must be considered as inseparable from the space in which they are located, from the material substrate supporting them, and from the time conditions in which they were realized. The process of examination and documentation therefore requires observation in situ, new digital and traditional survey techniques, and a variety of representations at different scales; with a view to understanding the reasons that led to the selection of a particular place in the city, and the way in which artistic action arises in relation to the historical environment and the social and political system that influenced its creation.

It is the goal of this paper to aesthetically rethink Street Art’s artistic process and question its narrative in urban and public space. We intend to highlight the anonymity, ephemeral, and transitory element as a key feature of its artistic creation. To this end, we will use as a starting point the relationship between the street artist and Baudelaire’s flanêur, to reach Foucault’s point of view, which somehow finds the key to the street artist’s aesthetic features, synthesized in the understanding of Baudelaire’s modernity, understood not as a mere historical period, but rather as an “attitude.”

What is the role of art in the reinforcement or rejection of current models of public space management in our cities? To answer this question, we must attend to the ties of all artwork with public institutions, and whether or not it questions the dominant order. In this article, I will focus on the works of the Ana Botella Crew, a group of artists from Madrid, as an example of “artivism” that challenges the City Council’s management of public spaces in Madrid. My aim is to explore how useful internet tools can be to articulate artistic interventions that challenge the hegemonic uses of public space, in what Sassen has called the global city.

This article sets out to show how a sociological research project on the production of street art in Lisbon was built, from the construction of an object of research to the development of a methodological approach that enabled the collection of a diverse set of expressive data. The notion of 'route' serves not only as a valuable instrument of research in the first stages of an investigation in urban sociology, but also as a powerful visual depiction of the development of a specific methodology and the set of techniques adopted. The diverse set of interrogations about the object that stem from these incursions, as well as the specific urban context at hand, allowed the researcher to conceptualize street art as a component of contemporary urban space and as a visual means to reveal social dynamics between the several actors involved in its production, and the city itself. Therefore, in this paper it is briefly shown how this object is theoretically framed, namely in what concerns the street artists and the way they build an artistic path and attribute meaning to the act of intervening artistically in the streets of the city, and how this connects with the worlds of contemporary art and the several contexts of production of street art; the contexts in which street art is currently created in Lisbon, from individual initiatives to the actions of associations or collectives, and the municipality; and the way in which the city, through its institutional powers, can instrumentalize street art as a way of creating 'images of the city', and how this can be explored in terms of tourism and the marketing of cities, and the conflict or opportunities that these processes reveal for the actors involved.

La polémica que reviste actualmente al tema del graffiti incide en no percibir con plenitud y detalle la complejidad social y cultural que contiene. Su consideración como un subproducto y una tara urbana no ha impedido que se hable sobre él, pero con frecuencia ha influido en que se plantee de un modo inadecuado. Incluso, los intentos por reconsiderar su valía cultural incurren también en generar una imagen excesivamente romántica y situar el debate entre la falacia del graffiti como arte o como vandalismo. No obstante, primero conviene, para comprender lo que representa, observar su dinámica histórica y su estrecha relación con la evolución de la ciudad como ente social.

INTRODUÇÃO / 01 1° Capítulo: Percursos Urbanos na Arte de Rua / 06 1.1 O Berço da Arte de Rua / 07 1.2 Filhos dos Guetos / 12 1.3 Passos para a Fama / 16 1.4 Guerra de Estilos / 18 1.5 A Expansão nas Mídias / 24 1.6 O Mercado do Graffiti / 27 2° Capítulo: 2 Ato Transgressor: O Artista na Rua / 32 2.1 O Risco Vale a Pena / 33 2.2 “Declare o Seu Amor à Cidade, São Paulo 450 anos” / 34 2.3 Caminhos na Contramão / 38 2.4 XARPI, Profissão Perigo / 42 2.5 A Pixação pela Porta da Frente / 50 2.6 Escrita Urbana / 57 3° Capítulo: 3 Circuitos Locais / 60 3.1 Graffiti Made in Brasil / 61 3.1.1 Artistas do Graffiti / 64 3.2. O Graffiti com Sotaque Carioca / 70 3.2.1. Graffiti de Periferia / 75 3.3. Antídoto Contra a Pixação / 77 CONSIDERAÇÕES FINAIS / 84 APÊNDICES / 90 Circuitos Locais - Galeria de Fotos / 91 REFERÊNCIAS BIBLIOGRÁFICAS / 102 *** Resumo Este estudo tem como objetivo contribuir para a compreensão da origem das intervençõesurbanas através do grafite contemporâneo, sua expansão no Brasil e de que forma aporta aocircuito das instituições oficiais da arte. Orientamos o escopo de nossa pesquisa no sentido deacompanhar a expansão do fenômeno do grafite como arte de rua no Brasil desde anos 1970 até o presente momento; o processo de crescimento dos dois vieses do grafite (pichação egrafite) nas cidades de São Paulo e Rio de Janeiro; de que forma o grafite se consagra comoum novo gênero artístico junto ao circuito institucional; e como o ensino do grafite vem sendovinculado a projetos sociais. Partindo desse recorte recorremos à análise da origem desse movimento nos Estados Unidos; a expansão da pichação nas grandes cidades brasileiras apartir de um contexto urbano, e o grafite como uma expressão juvenil que se impõe nessecenário; assim como aspectos e características da pichação em São Paulo e os processos demidiatização e hibridação cultural. Partindo de uma pesquisa documental, bibliográfica e decampo, buscou-se verificar as diferenças e contrastes entre a pichação e o grafite; quais osmétodos de intervenção, técnicas, materiais e estilos; a análise histórica dos artistas pioneiros no grafite na década de 1970 em São Paulo; assim como, o início do grafite no Rio de Janeironos anos 1980. Por fim, procurou-se entender o propósito de iniciativas que visam a oferta decursos e oficinas de grafite em projetos destinados aos jovens de comunidades de baixa rendano Estado do Rio de Janeiro. Abstract This study aims at contributing to an understanding of the origin of the urbaninterventions through the contemporary graffiti, its development in Brazil, and how itcontributes to the circuit of the official institutions of Art. We have decided to carry out ourresearch in order to monitor the expansion of the graffiti phenomenon as a street art in Brazilfrom the 1970s up to the present time, the process of the growth of the two types of graffiti(writings and picture graffiti) in São Paulo and in Rio de Janeiro; how graffiti has establisheditself as a new artistic genre within the institutional circuit; and how the teaching of graffitihas been connected to social projects. Considering the information collected, we have done ananalysis of the origin of this movement in the United States; the expansion of the graffiti inbig Brazilian cities from an urban context, and the graffiti as a youth expression which hasimposed itself in this scenario; as well as aspects of the writings ( pichação)in São Paulo, andthe processes of mediatization and cultural hybridization. From a documental, bibliographicaland field research, we have attempted to point out the differences and contrasts betweenwritings and picture graffiti; which were the intervention methods, the techniques, thematerials, the styles; the historical analysis of the pioneer artists in the 1970s in São Paulo; aswell as the beginning of graffiti in Rio de Janeiro in the 1980s. Finally, we have tried tounderstand the purpose of the initiatives which aim at offering courses and workshops aboutgraffiti in projects for young people from low-income communities in the state of Rio deJaneiro.

He is the outlaw who has been dragged reluctantly, but relentlessly, ever closer to the art establishment. He is the artist who mocked museums and art galleries alike. Yet he chose to mount his first major exhibition in one of the crustiest museums imaginable – amidst the stuffed animals and the antique pianos of Bristol City Museum and Art Gallery – and made a huge success of it. When, in 2010, Time magazine selected him for its list of 100 most influential people in the world, along with the likes of Barack Obama, Apple’s Steve Jobs and Lady Gaga, he supplied a picture of himself with a paper bag (recyclable of course) over his head. For he is an artist unique in the twenty-first century: famous but unknown. He claims he needs this anonymity to protect himself from the forces of law and order. This was true in the past, but at this stage in his career most cities would welcome a new Banksy on the wall. The argument would be how best to preserve it, not how to lock up its creator. This book does not attempt to unmask him. Tales of scuttling around his home town of Bristol trying to convince childhood friends to reveal his identity would not make for very interesting reading. More important is the fact that fans, followers and even those who are just vaguely aware he exists, don’t want to know who he is. The New Statesman critic who derides it all as ‘ostentatious anonymity’ is very much in the minority. We all enjoy the mystery of the man who has somehow managed to get himself described as ‘Robin Hood’ even though he is hardly robbing the rich to feed the poor. What this book does do, however, is to follow his upward spiral from the outlaw – just one of many – spraying the walls of Bristol in the 1990s to the artist whose work commands hundreds of thousands of pounds in the auction houses of Britain and America. The outsider who has become an insider.

First of all, PICHACAO; is not graffiti. It is something distinct that only happens in Brazil. What a subversion is to sign the city with your own made-up name, especially a city that seems not to be projected for you? Lights, Ca...

O artigo que aqui se inicia parte de uma reflexão mais genérica sobre a imagem e a visualidade na cidade, para se centrar num exemplo que considero particularmente interessante para o estudo das dinâmicas contemporâneas de apropriação do espaço urbano que recorrem a dispositivos de natureza visual. A cidade é, neste contexto, tomada como artefacto cultural, uma fabricação histórica participada por agentes com poderes e desejos desiguais. Nesta arena conflitual habitam pessoas e comunidades com condições, vontades, práticas e representações, dissemelhantes. A cidade espelha esta multiplicidade ontológica com propensão a revelar-se na matéria visível do quotidiano. À tona emergem sinais, social e culturalmente significativos, que contribuem para a fundação de um ecossistema simbólico e comunicativo particular. Podemos, eventualmente, encarar a existência de uma cultura visual urbana (Wells, 2007) dada a especificidade de agentes, gramáticas e mecanismos de comunicação que conseguimos antever neste território.