{"id":89239,"date":"2017-04-03T12:00:55","date_gmt":"2017-04-03T11:00:55","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/?p=89239"},"modified":"2017-03-26T15:27:13","modified_gmt":"2017-03-26T14:27:13","slug":"street-art-controversy-crime-or-urban-renovation","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/2017\/04\/street-art-controversy-crime-or-urban-renovation\/","title":{"rendered":"Street Art Controversy \u2013 Crime or Urban Renovation?"},"content":{"rendered":"

Since ancient times, human existence has been recorded on murals. From cave painting to street art, people have been using walls as a means to communicate and leave a sign of their own existence. Thanks to studies of ancient cave art, we have learnt a lot about our ancestors and how they lived, as well as today, graffiti can be perceived as a mirror of our society.<\/em><\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a>

Street Art in Italy | Image reproduced from Wall Street International<\/p><\/div>\n

27 Mar 2017 – <\/em>Seen through the eyes of a street artist, our cities are like a multitude of canvas where ideas can be expressed freely. In contrast with economic interests for which every piece of land \u2013 or wall \u2013 is an opportunity to make profit, street artists reclaim those areas that have been either neglected and \u201cforgotten\u201d or sold off to advertiser.<\/p>\n

They cross the line of legality, slipping away from regulations. Whereas in the conventional world, some artwork can be sold for millions of dollars, street artists give away their creations for free.<\/p>\n

Despite the stationary condition that characterize street arts \u2013 if you want to see them, you have to go where they are located \u2013 the advent of technology has transformed some of them into iconic images.<\/p>\n

Today artists like Bansky, Blue or Shepard Fairey (Obey) are known and appreciated worldwide, and this is intensifying the controversy over the most unconventional among art forms. Is street art a crime or an art form? An act of vandalism or urban renovation?<\/p>\n

These questions remain unanswered. Probably because it is difficult to trace the line between right or wrong.<\/p>\n

We might like some coloured tags on the walls especially in those abandoned areas along the railway, but we are less happy to see graffiti on a train, especially if they cover the whole window and we can\u2019t see through it.<\/p>\n

Recently, the administration of S\u00e3o Paulo has put in place new measures to \u201cclean\u201d the city. In an effort to renew the urban landscape, some of the colourful graffiti walls have turned into grey ones.<\/p>\n

Apparently, the new major \u2013 Jo\u00e3o Doria \u2013 literally repainted some of the walls, declaring in an interview that \u201cthe city is dirty, poorly cared for and covered in pray-paint tags\u201d.<\/p>\n

Besides his showman\u2019s approach to promote the project \u201cCidade Linda\u201d as a priority of his administration, there has been diverse reactions by the residents. Some are on board with the new programme while others see graffiti as a form of expression and as a distinctive sign for which the city is known.<\/p>\n

Among the many, the new administration has covered a graffiti that had been commissioned by its predecessors. In an attempt to capture the consensus of those complaining with the \u201ccleaning programme\u201d, Doria\u2019s administration has identified a few areas in the city designated as legal graffiti spots. According to it, spray painting is allowed but only within certain boundaries which is not exactly in line with the roots of street art movement.<\/p>\n

Institutions are not the only one unable to deal with graffiti, the conventional art world seems to have some difficulties, too. Last year, Bologna (Italy) hosted a temporary exhibition on Street Art, just a few months after the same city had launched a \u201cno tag\u201d project that aimed at cleaning the \u201cdirty\u201d walls.<\/p>\n

The paradox of the exhibition is that basically all art pieces had to be removed from their original location.<\/p>\n

The permission to do it was usually asked to the owner of the wall and not to the author. Blue, one of the most famous street artists in the world, have publicly complained with this initiative and has tried to covered up his graffiti before they were taken away.<\/p>\n

Street art is about transgression, breaking the rules and slipping away from what is conventional. Trying to trap it within boundaries is nonsense and it would deny its essential characteristics.<\/p>\n

_____________________________________<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a>Giulia D\u2019Ettorre<\/a>\u00a0is an architect with interests in sustainable design and urban planning strategies to build resilient cities.<\/em><\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

Go to Original \u2013 human-wrongs-watch.net<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Since ancient times, human existence has been recorded on murals. From cave painting to street art, people have been using walls as a means to communicate and leave a sign of their own existence. Thanks to studies of ancient cave art, we have learnt a lot about our ancestors and how they lived, as well as today, graffiti can be perceived as a mirror of our society.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":4,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[167],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-89239","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-arts"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/89239","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/4"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=89239"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/89239\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=89239"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=89239"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=89239"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}