Teresa Caldeira on Urban Practices and Ethnographic Intimacy (original) (raw)
Related papers
Interpretations of Pixação: The street art everyone sees and no one understands
Pixação is a street tagging aesthetic with roots in current day São Paulo, Brazil. Pixação covers São Paulo from head to toe and continues to spread. Pixadores (those who engage in pixação) are almost exclusively young men, often afro-descendant, living in the peripheries of São Paulo. Pixadores tag the most visible spaces in the city, the tallest buildings, and the most famous monuments ensuring their work will be seen. Attempts to create representations and a definition of the movement are rapidly appearing as pixação grows. São Paulo residents, the Brazilian government, and the mass media define pixação as destructive, criminal, and dirty. Scholars and artists frame pixação as a heroic, revolutionary art form that has the power to combat the evil that exists in Brazilian society and transform the international art world. These interpretations do not define the street tagging but instead create misunderstandings and demean and threaten pixação. In this paper I argue that after examining the claims made by outsiders of pixação, it becomes clear that these definitions are simply part of larger limits of created representations of marginalized movements that threaten dominant society. These representations then say more about the dominant culture than the expression actually being discussed. The attempts to capture the movement within these unjust frames contribute to attempts to co-opt, appropriate, and commodify pixação pulling it into a mainstream, dominant culture production with price tags instead of pushing it into a space where the movement is free to define itself.
Survival Arts: Peripheral Urban Cultures in the City of Rio de Janeiro
Antropologias do sul: anais da XIII Reunião de Antropologia do Mercosul, 2019
‘Peripheral Urban Cultures in the City of Rio de Janeiro: Survival Arts’ results from fieldwork on funk carioca, rap and xarpi conducted in the greater Rio de Janeiro city. It brings together Michel de Certeau’s, Homi Bhabha’s and Jacques Derrida’s ideas to sketch the category of ‘survival art’. Funk carioca, rap and xarpi (graffiti) are presented as musical and visual instances of such art. The category is proposed as applicable to other artistic expressions of present-day Brazilian youth that ‘engage in conversation with contemporary languages while revering their ancestry’.
Memory Written on the Streets: Graffiti and Pixação as Knowledge Production in Rio de Janeiro
STUDIES ON HOME AND COMMUNITY SCIENCE
In this paper the author introduces graffiti in Rio de Janeiro as a method for creative activism, drawing on scholarly work and her experience since 2015 as a graffiti writer. Combining these elements, the author demystifies graffiti and untangles the multiple prejudices attached to this peripheral artistic culture. Locating graffiti within its roots in Hip Hop culture and drawing upon the memories and experiences of seven graffiti artists she introduces theories of memory and knowledge production to analyze the role of graffiti in constructing and deconstructing the city and its culture. The artists in this paper recount stories of how gender, race, and class have structured Brazilian graffiti and the reactions that it provokes, constructing a storyline stretching from the 1990s until today, a registry of knowledges about the culture of the city which have been constructed through an art which is always and already a form of activism from the periphery.
Antípoda. Revista de Antropología y Arqueología, 2025
Abstract: Urban anthropologists are shifting from traditional approaches that treated the city merely as the “object” or “context” of research, focusing instead on the city as a dynamic process, shaped and reshaped by city-making practices implemented by its inhabitants. This paper analyzes street art as both a city-making practice and as an anthropological tool for studying contemporary cities, not as “object” or “context” but as dynamic processes. The analysis is based on ethnographic fieldwork carried out between 2022 and 2023 in Medellín’s Comuna 13. The purpose of the research was to study the impact of street art on the residents’ life experiences. Drawing on walking and photographing ethnography, the research employed a novel method leveraging the local practice of the Graffitour–a guided walking tour based on narrating Comuna 13’s history through street art. The author participated in 10 Graffitour sessions, recording the guides’ narrations and photographing street artworks. This article will present five of these street artworks, along with their respective narrations, each reflecting a different period in Comuna 13’s history. Analyzing these five street artworks will provide readers with an image of Comuna 13 not as a static object or a mere context but as a dynamic process, while simultaneously revealing street art as a powerful resident-driven city-making practice. While street art is a globally widespread form of artistic expression, its deep contextual and situated characteristics can offer novel avenues for studying complex urban phenomena. Nevertheless, its potential for anthropological understanding has yet to be fully explored. This paper proposes to fill this gap by offering urban scholars new and fascinating possibilities to study contemporary cities through the lens of street art. Keywords: Comuna 13, street art, urban anthropology, visual anthropology, walking ethnography. Antropología y ciudad. Arte callejero en la Comuna 13 de Medellín: una práctica para hacer ciudad y una herramienta etnográfica Resumen: actualmente, los antropólogos de lo urbano han comenzado a alejarse de las aproximaciones tradicionales a la ciudad como un simple “objeto” o un “contexto” de investigación, para dar paso a un enfoque que entiende la ciudad como un proceso dinámico que es configurado y reconfigurado por las prácticas de hacer ciudad de sus habitantes. El objetivo de este artículo es analizar el arte urbano como una práctica para hacer ciudad y una herramienta antropológica para estudiar las ciudades contemporáneas en calidad de procesos dinámicos y no como simples “objetos” o “contextos”. Este análisis se basa en el trabajo etnográfico de campo que se llevó a cabo en la Comuna 13 de Medellín, Colombia, entre 2022 y 2023. El propósito de la investigación era estudiar el impacto del arte urbano en las experiencias de vida de los residentes de la comuna. Para tal fin, el estudio se valió de la etnografía de los caminos y la fotoetnografía para implementar un método novedoso que aprovecha e integra la práctica local del Graffitour —un recorrido guiado, el cual narra la historia de la Comuna 13 por medio del arte urbano—. El autor participó en diez de estos recorridos, durante los que grabó las narraciones de los guías y fotografió las obras de arte urbano. En este artículo se presentan y analizan cinco de estas obras —cada una de las cuales encarna un periodo particular de la historia de la comuna—, así como las narraciones que las acompañan, con el fin de permitirles a los lectores observar la Comuna 13 más como un proceso dinámico y menos como un objeto estático o un simple contexto. De manera paralela, el texto busca destacar el arte urbano como una poderosa práctica mediante la cual los residentes hacen ciudad. Más allá de su extendida popularidad a nivel mundial como una forma de expresión artística, el arte urbano tiene unas profundas características contextuales y situadas que aportan nuevas vías para el estudio de fenómenos urbanos complejos; sin embargo, su potencial para la comprensión desde la antropología está aún por explorarse. En este sentido, el artículo busca aportar a ese vacío y ofrecerle a la academia nuevas y fascinantes posibilidades para el estudio de las ciudades contemporáneas a través del lente del arte urbano. Palabras clave: antropología urbana, antropología visual, arte urbano, Comuna 13, etnografía del caminar. Antropologia e cidade. Arte de rua na Comuna 13 de Medellín: uma prática para fazer cidade e uma ferramenta etnográfica Resumo: atualmente, os antropólogos do urbano começaram a se afastar das abordagens tradicionais da cidade como simples “objeto” ou “contexto” de pesquisa para uma abordagem que entende a cidade como um processo dinâmico que é configurado e reconfigurado pelas práticas de fazer cidade de seus habitantes. O objetivo deste artigo é analisar a arte urbana como prática de fazer cidades e uma ferramenta antropológica para estudar as cidades contemporâneas como processos dinâmicos, e não como meros “objetos” ou “contextos”. Esta análise se baseia em um trabalho de campo etnográfico realizado na Comuna 13 de Medellín, Colômbia, entre 2022 e 2023. O objetivo da pesquisa foi estudar o impacto da arte urbana nas experiências de vida dos residentes da comuna. Para tanto, o estudo utilizou a etnografia de percurso e a fotoetnografia para implementar um novo método que aproveita e integra a prática local do Graffitour — um percorrido guiado que narra a história da Comuna 13 por meio da arte urbana. O autor participou de 10 desses tours, durante os quais registrou as narrações do guia e fotografou as obras de arte urbana. Neste artigo, são apresentadas e analisadas cinco dessas obras — cada uma delas representa um período específico da história da comuna —, bem como as narrativas que as acompanham, a fim de permitir que os leitores observem a Comuna 13 mais como um processo dinâmico e menos como um objeto estático ou um simples contexto. Paralelamente, o texto procura destacar a arte urbana como prática poderosa por meio da qual os moradores fazem cidade. Além de sua ampla popularidade em todo o mundo como forma de expressão artística, a arte urbana tem características contextuais e situadas profundas que oferecem novos caminhos para o estudo de fenômenos urbanos complexos; no entanto, seu potencial para a compreensão antropológica ainda não foi explorado. Nesse sentido, o artigo busca contribuir para essa lacuna e oferecer à academia novas e fascinantes possibilidades para o estudo das cidades contemporâneas por meio das lentes da arte urbana. Palavras-chave: antropologia urbana, antropologia visual, arte urbana, Comuna 13, etnografia do caminhar.
P[art]icipatory Urbanisms II (Interviews with urban practitioners in New Delhi and São Paulo)
P[art]icipatory urbanisms is a web publication (please also visit www.part-urbs.com) interrogating the “participatory turn” in contemporary urban studies, performance studies, and art practice. The bracketed [art] in the title of this publication refers to participatory urban aesthetic practices which could include community, social, or relational art initiatives, but also more general claims by city residents, city workers or activists on the visible and sensible aspects of public space. Bracketing the [art] in ‘participation’ also suggests a blurring of the conventional separation between the aesthetic and the political dimensions of urban participation. The publication has two components. The first, is an interactive platform of interviews featuring the praxes of twenty participatory urban practitioners and collectives in the cities of São Paulo, Brazil and New Delhi, India. The interviews map the multiple and disjunctive ways in which ‘participation’ is enacted—from mobile performances of poetry and theater, to citizen journalism on gentrification in Sao Paulo’s old city center, to radical neighborhood pedagogical initiatives in Savda Ghevra, a New Delhi resettlement colony, and in Grajau, a southern periphery neighborhood of São Paulo. The interviews trace how urban actors create politico-aesthetic ruptures; experience and experiment with the material and affective force of participation; and potentially reshape the urban imaginary. The interviews also speak to the limits of participatory working processes in the face of small budgets and divided spaces. The cities of São Paulo and New Delhi were chosen as sites for this project for the comparisons that their similar size and positions in global urban imaginations and political economy enable, and for the enduring histories of participatory urban activity in both spaces. A second element of this publication is a peer-reviewed anthology of twenty articles expanding methodological and theoretical debates around the themes of urban participation and its entanglement with state power, aesthetic praxis, racialized and queer spaces, citizenship, temporality, publics, and infrastructure. Contributions to the anthology span a broad range of disciplines and engage research from diverse geographic and temporal sites–from the occupation of a theater in Athens amidst the Greek economic crisis, to agonistic politics and participatory video art in a New Delhi urban village, to the cartographic interventions of a Harlem mailman in Jim Crow-era America. The form of writing extends beyond traditional scholarly articles to include ethnographic reflections, case studies, and photo essays.
Global Hip Hop Studies, 2024
Graffiti writers not only acquire skills and techniques for painting but also engage in a reading activity that allows them to perceive and understand the city in specific ways. Through this activity, they observe the rhythms of urban spaces, identify police presence, choose surfaces, recognize peers and interpret the messages conveyed on walls. Based on these observations, they create maps that dissent from conventional cartographies, incorporating epistemological, ethical, political and emotional layers. These maps serve as guides, recording memories, sharing stories and fostering relationships. Additionally, these maps indicate the existence of particular knowledge about urban spaces, derived from experiences in street painting and shared through narratives. In essence, the cartographies produced by graffiti writers challenge the dominant knowledge regime that seeks to define and impose specific ways of thinking, imagining and existing within cities. This article explores various dimensions of the knowledge regime shaped by writers from São Paulo, Brazil, drawing on ethnographic research conducted by the author since 2016 and 2021. KEYWORDS epistemic justice urban epistemologies street art hip hop Latin America urban anthropology urban studies Brazil
Making Territorial Claims: Brazilian Hip Hop and the Socio-Geographical Dynamics of Periferia
In this essay I posit that the stylistic divergences in Brazilian hip hop reveal a set of social and geographical dynamics related to São Paulo, the country's largest city and supposed beacon of modernity. The case of São Paulo hip hop speaks beyond Brazil and potentially contributes to larger discussions of the contemporary city complex including the role of the working-class periphery sprawls on urbanism. This text focuses on the primacy of periferia (periphery) as an ideological and spatial concept rooted in the artistic expressions of the "marginal." In their activities, hip hoppers articulate "periphery" as not only a place but also as an epistemology, which in turn works to change the meaning of the city for the historically disenfranchised. Not without its limitations and internal critics, marginality secretes a "magic" or at least retains a pull as hip hoppers and urban, working-class Brazilians, in general, look to convince others of their value in exchange for respect. [
Drawing the city: a proposal for an ethnographic study in Rio de Janeiro
Vibrant, 2011
Drawing the city is a proposal for an ethnographic research project in Rio de Janeiro. I begin by mapping the production of an international group calling themselves ‘urban sketchers,' whose collective project extols drawing as a form of looking, knowing and registering the experience of living in cities. Next I show the connections between art and anthropology, as well as their relation to cities and to Rio de Janeiro in particular. The sources and bibliography on the themes of the social history of art, drawing, visual anthropology and urban anthropology are also discussed. Setting out from the latter area, I present the possibilities for undertaking an ethnography that contributes to our comprehension of the graphic and symbolic narratives of urban life.