Grafficity. Visual Practices and Contestations in Urban Space (original) (raw)
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GRAFFICITY. Visual Practices and Contestations in Urban Space, 2015
In order to explore the tensions in the use of graffiti in urban spaces, this article approaches the topic of the image of the city from an Urban Cultural Politics perspective. Firstly, this strategy allows the application of actor-centered concepts which conceive of the city as a space of action. In these approaches, the city is a space of action and performativity in which individuals and groups of individuals communicate and interact with one another and position themselves socially and ethnically. The cultural politics approach thus makes it possible to articulate politics in the sphere of daily life. From this starting point, the article discusses the use of graffiti in post-Fordist urban cultural politics in the Americas with regard to a vast range of distinct actors, running from highly institutionalized and financially strong organizations, cultural producers, and social movements, through to actors of the everyday world. Secondly, the city can be understood as a system of symbols, whose integral parts are used by actors struggling about the representation of the city. Combining these two aspects, the city can be thus understood as a dense space of signs and symbols in and through which individual and collective actors articulate themselves and, by means of different cultural practices, engage in a struggle to implement their principles of vision and division of the social world. Before exploring the two case studies of Vancouver and Oaxaca, the article offers a short introduction to the theoretical background of urban development in multiply fragmented cities and the growing importance of the production of urban imaginaries.
SAUC Street Art & Urban Creativity, 2023
In the social mobilizations (2020-2022) during and after the COVID-19 lockdown in Colombia, the graffiti-projections produced, projected, and published by La nueva banda de la terraza played an essential role in visualizing, nurturing, and accompanying the social protests and the demands. As part of an unparalleled visual activism in Colombia, the graffitiprojections, which began in Medellín and soon expanded to other cities and beyond the country's borders, created an expanded para-cinema of protests, played an essential role in a complex web of actions and practices that made it possible, for the first time in the republican history of Colombia, to create a comprehensive, multivocal, and diverse social movement. The present analysis discusses how the graffiti-projections catalyzed engagement and dialogue and strengthened the democratization of the public sphere by developing an expanded para-cinema that involved textuality and social media, reenergized graffiti, street art, and communal Do-It-With-Others, and developed emancipatory strategies and networks. [En las movilizaciones sociales (2020-2022) en Colombia, durante y después del confinamiento por el COVID-19, las graffiti-proyecciones producidas, proyectadas y publicadas por La nueva banda de la terraza jugaron un papel esencial para visualizar, nutrir y acompañar la protesta y las demandas sociales. Como parte de un activismo visual sin igual en Colombia, las proyecciones que comenzaron en Medellín y pronto se expandieron a otras ciudades e incluso más allá de las fronteras del país, crearon un para-cine extendido de protestas, jugaron un papel esencial en una compleja red de acciones y prácticas que permitió, por primera vez en la historia republicana de Colombia, crear un movimiento social incluyente, multivocal y diverso. El presente análisis analiza cómo las proyecciones de graffiti catalizaron el compromiso y el diálogo y fortalecieron la democratización de la esfera pública mediante el desarrollo de un para-cine expandido que involucró la textualidad y las redes sociales, revitalizaron el graffiti, el arte callejero y el "Hazlo-con-otros" comunitario, y desarrolló estrategias y redes emancipadoras].
Political Graffiti in Critical Times, 2022
This chapter employs a comparative analysis of visual politics in four exemplary countries of South America (Argentina and Bolivia) and Southern Europe (Greece and Spain), all with long-standing traditions of political graffiti during turbulent times. From the Second World War era to the recent decades, all these countries have experience civilian and military rebellions,Walls of Resistance in Critical Times | 75 dramatic political upheavals, social tensions and significant crises that have led to the de-alignment of political systems. Despite the differences in terms of political setting and the forms of visual protest, what is common among these countries is the use of street art and graffiti as an aesthetically affective tool of communication by multiple political actors in efforts to mobilize popular support and make their voices heard. In this sense, these countries constitute a fertile ground for scholarly investigation into infrapolitical forms of expression and visual protest in struggles over authority and recognition during periods of social tension. Drawing from existing literature on political graffiti and selective fieldwork material, we offer an empirically grounded understanding of graffiti activism used by emerging social movements in these countries.
art and Urban Politics-political impact of graffiti politics toward neoliberal urban development.pdf
This study aims to explain the social and political impact of creative-protest movement organized by artists as alternative/informal politics of young people by installing graffiti, mural, white space, zine and poster in city spaces. This collective movement as respons to the environmental degradation and ecological security caused by neoliberal planned-urban development led by market and the city government. By narrative analysis if qualitative data this paper criticizes how art as life style and contemporary means of social expression challenge the hegemony of planned-development in the city in lower income country like in Yogyakarta, Indonesia. Intensively observation, interviews and documentation were conducted during the research and critical discourse analysis has been used to making-meaning of this new social movement. The findings of this political ethnographic research are as follow. First, a widespread politics of graffiti is influenced by the cultural and art as social and traditional Infrastructure of Yogyakarta society. Second, protesting any practice of neoliberalism in city development is almost as everyday politics among young people both privately and publicly, direct and indirect with creative media as a means of power. Also, it is good to notice that in democratic system, there are many citizen’s aspiration still remains underground as the method of expression. In addition, by employing social media this art-based movement able to transform its method from covert to overt, spontaneous to more systematic and making viral as political pressure to negotiate and refuse many form of development agenda event stop several city projects of private building in the last five years. keywords: Developmentalism, Graffiti, Protest movement, everyday politics, resistance
Mexican Neo-muralism. The wall as a sign of resistance
This thesis focuses on the visual message made by the new Neo-muralist movement in México City, taking as a protagonist the collective of art Germen crew. The study asks: What is the message behind Mexican Neo-muralism, taking into consideration the visual elements involved, such as Indigenous and Pre-Hispanic images in a social context marked by exclusion toward indigenous communities and persons with indigenous background. The material for this ethnographic study is based upon semi-structured interviews and observations made through fieldwork in México. The collected material is later analyzed by framing theories. The results made by this study show that Neo-muralism movement is trying to preserve and rebuild denied Indigenous identities through an artistic narrative and non-violent practice. The contribution made by this movement as a non-violent group in resistance has made Neo- muralism the voice of those who have been silenced over time under conditions of exclusion.
Graffiti, Street Art, and Culture in the era of the Global City
2018
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.
Gráfica callejera y post-graffiti: el papel del muro
Grabado y Edición [Print and Art Edition Magazine] , 2019
Lo impreso, como medio de comunicación, ha tenido siempre importancia en los espacios públicos de todas las épocas. Superada la finalidad comunicativa, como característica exclusiva, el arte contemporáneo encuentra en la estampa -y en su capacidad reproductiva- un potente medio de expresión y denuncia.