Understanding Walls on the Periphery: Street Art and Graffiti between Commodification, Dissent and Oblivion

This thematic issue is a direct result of the international conference “Periphery of Street Art / Street Art on the Periphery”, held as part of the Ljubljana Street Art Festival in 2022. The two-day event merged the rigor and freshness of academic papers with the multimodal artivist interventions, including artists’ presentations, film screenings, installations and photo essays. It took two years after the initial call for papers to ripen and recompose into a collection of contributions that deal with the interplay of street art and peripheries, both in terms of space-power relations and from the perspective of liminal, extra-institutional street art practises and historically significant, but marginalized and neglected, graffitiscapes. 

This special issue delves into the profound and transformative influence of a variety of artworks within urban environments characterized by political contention, with a particular emphasis on their capacity to facilitate activist engagement and dialogue. By challenging prevailing power structures, advocating for inclusivity, and reshaping the dynamics of public spaces, street art emerges as a potent political force in the process of democratizing public spheres. These unconventional modes of artistic expression, when situated in the public domain, serve as influential platforms for amplifying the voices of marginalized communities, thereby promoting civic engagement and reimagining the contours of the public sphere. Through an in-depth exploration of the communicative, participatory and political potential of street art this thematic issue entitled Street Art and Political Aesthetics in the Contested Urban Contexts seeks to shed light on the intricate interplay among. art, urban culture and civic rebellion. This exploration delves into the unique capacity of art to thrive within urban spaces that are perpetually fraught with uncertainty, challenges, and political instabilities. It encompasses discussions pertaining to the critical domains of freedom of expression, public protests, social critique, political engagement, aesthetic tactics, and urban commons in the realm of street art. These discussions underscore the remarkable ability of street art to nurture the aesthetic foundations of political and social actions within the public sphere. 

The current editorial year has been marked by significant shifts and transformative changes within the SAUC journal landscape. As we look ahead to the forthcoming editorial year, we are poised to embark on a transitional journey that will encompass both structural modifications and thematic realignments.

Anticipate a discernible shift in the direction of the SAUC journal, as we navigate through these evolutionary phases. While the scientific board and subject matter of the journal undergo a metamorphosis, it's imperative to underscore that the rich publishing history, which stands as a testament to our scholarly contributions and achievements, will remain intact and continue to serve as a foundational pillar of our legacy.

This edition showcases an eclectic mix of authors and articles that encapsulate the rich tapestry of topics within this vibrant field.

This particular issue titled "Public Spaces on the East" features a collection of articles from authors hailing from Turkey, Iran, and various other countries in the East (with some exeptions). This edition delves into the rich tapestry of public space, somehow transcending boundaries of street art and urban creativity and providing a broader scope.

The issue focuses on philosophies and designs that shape our cities on a broader scale; exploring different approaches between architecture, built environment, and nature;  from material to medicinal plants, from plant scale to urban and social sciences. The issue examines the natural and built environment in Istanbul through the relationship between urban planning, urban space, architecture, and landscape architecture. It focuses on designs made in different parts of Istanbul between natural areas and built areas in the city.

The urban landscape is an effective and important design process that includes the interaction of architecture, city planning, and landscape architecture disciplines and creates the living environment of people within and between buildings. It has a complementary and important effect in the process of providing and maintaining the physical, physiological, psychological, and social needs of its users. It covers structural design and furniture location selection and design as well as planting. The special issue on Urban Landscape covers this concept; It has a content setup that starts from the upper scale and shrinks towards the building scale.

As a part of this year’s call for submissions to the journal, we invite contributions that reflect on the role of street art, graffiti and general urban creativity studies on the current "Liminal" times. Questions of interest include, but are not limited to, the following:

• Were and how do urban creativity, graffiti and street art relate with a polarized world?

• Which/whose are the limits of the graffiti and street art concepts and how this discussion contribute to the present global challenges?

• What methodological experiments are you undertaking and what methods are being developed?

• Which novel theoretical insights can we draw upon to bring the street art and graffiti studies forward?

In addition to this specific themed call for submissions we also welcome contributions that deal in a more general way with issues pertaining to urban creativity.

The field of urban creativity studies has a broad range of interests including, but not limited to, street art, graffiti, urban foraging, parkour, skateboarding and guerrilla gardening. However, as with any field, once it starts to settle, a dominant paradigm tends to emerge. This will to some degree influence what is considered the core of the field, not only in terms of objects of study, but also in terms of method and theoretical approaches.

As a part of this year’s call for submissions to the journal, in addition to our general call (see below), we invite contributions that reflect on the current status and the future of the transdisciplinary academic field of urban creativity studies that has emerged over the last two decades.

The field of urban creativity studies has a broad range of interests including, but not limited to, street art, graffiti, urban foraging, parkour, skateboarding and guerrilla gardening. However, as with any field, once it starts to settle, a dominant paradigm tends to emerge. This will to some degree influence what is considered the core of the field, not only in terms of objects of study, but also in terms of method and theoretical approaches.

As a part of this year’s call for submissions to the journal, in addition to our general call (see below), we invite contributions that reflect on the current status and the future of the transdisciplinary academic field of urban creativity studies that has emerged over the last two decades.

Here can be understood the maturity of the academic and pedagogical field that graffiti, urban and street art, well, urban creativity in general have. On the 2020 conference was in fact proven that the consistency of knowledge and structure of thought in the several disciplinary areas regarding the urban creativity topics, are giving way to multiple approaches to classes integrated in master courses, informing the teaching of art historians, the work of designers, and research of cognitive scientists and educators. It was evident that this trend will continue in multiple forms including experimental ones bridging theory and practice, sometimes inverting the role of researchers and authors, but always enlarging audiences, practitioners and studious.

With contributions from Australia, France, Italy, Greece, Belgium, Austria, USA, Netherlands, Sweden, Norway, England, Spain, Japan, China, Russia and Portugal.

We place here in discussion the maturity of the academic and pedagogical field that graffiti, urban and street art, urban creativity constitute. It’s in fact identified a consistency of knowledge and structure of thought in the several disciplinary areas. As we are convinced that this trend will continue in multiple forms including experimental ones bridging theory and practice, here’s the result of the invite for participation in this reflection.

With contributions from Australia, France, Italy, Greece, Belgium, Austria, USA, Netherlands, Sweden, Norway, England, Spain, Japan, China, Russia and Portugal.

The SAUC V5 Issue 1, “Desire Lines: Literal” is about:

Street art and heritage conservation: From values to performativity; Development of art in Kosovo after World War II “The artist’s Art Works after the Second War and their similarities with the famous painters” ; The Local text of a city and public art: in search of a post-Soviet identity; The Brigada Ramona Parra and the art of muralising protest during the Pinochet Regime; From the street to the walls: the “yellow vests” movement in France; Red Army Gra ti: Reconstructing a lieu de mémoire; Con icts of Memory: Red Army Gra ti in the Reichstag 1945-2015; Street Art in Lisbon.

With contributions from Norway, Kosovo, Russia, UK, France, Germany and Brasil.

The SAUC V5 Issue 2, “Desire Lines: Metaphorical” is about:

The Disappearance/Virtualisation of Graffiti and Street Art – From Urban to Institutional to Virtual Space; Whose Wall is it Anyway? Using street art to navigate the private and the public in a community; Polysemiotic Communication vs. Multimodality: a conceptual and terminological distinction applied in street art; The Past in Public Space “Der Jahrhundertschritt”: A Lieu de Memoire As An Urban Intervention of Memory (2018); Zero Tolerance = 100 New Techniques Swedish / Nordic Street Art; Contextualizing graffiti and street art in suitable museum settings: Street Art Today’s upcoming museum in Amsterdam; There and Back Again: Redistributing Visibility between the Virtual and Real Alleys of Graffiti; From Post-Posters to Un gilet; Streetness & Inopinatum: the “sense of the street” and the “unexpected impertinence”. For a binary code in street art.; Street Art is dead. Again and again. Brief State of the (Urban) Art.

With contributions from Sweden, Switzerland, Canada, Netherlands, Spain, China, France and Italy.

“Changing times: Resilience” gather contributions about Resilience and adaptability through institutionalization, formal aesthetic shift , Graffiti as a Palimpsest, Framing Poetical Expression, Poetic Objects in Public Space. Geographically framed approached as The “black-and-white mural” in Polytechneio in Athens, The Evolution of Street art and Graffiti in India, Shark Graffiti On Reunion Island Russia - Specifics of Periodization in Russian Street Art . Temporal overview looks upon: strategies for creating village identity symbols using street art tactics, The commodification of alternative cultural spaces, English Language Video Documentaries On Contemporary Graffiti And Street Art, A brief history of street art as a term up to 2000. And finaly an article review of Glaser, K., 2017. Street Art and New Media. And the invited contribution of OPNI Group - Grupo OPNI graffiti and urban violence in present-day Brazil.

With contributions from Switzerland, Finland, Spain, Sweden, Greece, Poland, New Zealand, USA, Austria, UK, Russia, and Brazil.

“Changing times: Tactics” gathers contributes about the Displacement of the Street Art Aesthetic (OSGEMEOS in the white cube), looking at a City-wide Art Gallery or The Pixed City the Body-Landscape, Aesthetics of Change with Multiculturalism. Also Sustainable Graffiti Management Solutions for Public Areas and street art and Copyright hard areas of approach. And more soft approaches (based on human sciences) on and Against Street Signs: On Art Made out of Street Signs, Work and play, in Line or within Graffiti-Writing traditions and Street Art innovations. Visioning with the posturban paradigm and where street art and graffiti are not (going to be), the evolution of Halls of Fame, and as a statement: No Tags. No Masterpieces, but also the duality of Image versus writing: from post- graffiti and murals’ assault to gra ti’s scriptural riposte. Also Gra ti as a catalyst of individual creativity and more broad contents about Documenting graffiti culture. All brave Paths also documenting Graffiti on trains, photography and Subterráneos.

With contributions from Germany, Iran, Brazil, Australia, UK, Spain, Italy, Ukraine, Austria, Portugal, and France.

Practice-based approaches from the professional fields of public art and urbanism augmented the academic debate. The Lisbon council’s experience was a particularly relevant contribution for the clarification of the difficulties and opportunities associated with the institutional practice. Several participants emphasized the incompatibilities that may arise when graffiti and street art are developed in an institutionalized manner. It was argued that these forms of urban creativity have a valuable capacity for resilience in adapting both to attempts to institutionalize, and attempts to oppose, these forms of practice.

The intangible dimensions of the conservation of graffiti and street art were regarded by most to have a broader capacity for dealing with graffiti and street art as heritage, albeit mainly through documentation. Although physical conservation was regarded by some as a ‘non-issue’ this is, in fact, conceptually where we may find the greatest contemporary challenges – in response to which a range of possible solutions is suggested, such as self-preservation by the creator’s communities. 

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In the aftermath of the Lisbon Street Art & Urban Creativity International Conference (June 2015) the Executive Committee of the conference intends to promote and foster the existence of broader approaches to the conference's outcomes. The Street & Urban Creativity International Research Topic will develop actions to generate stronger articulations between researchers through collective applications, applied researches and publishing material.

Center and Periphery issues of practical nature, texts directly related with authors and pieces, including distinct cities, and supports of creation such as photo and video, here's also included a very useful and of practice nature article about research ethics.

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In the aftermath of the Lisbon Street Art & Urban Creativity International Conference (June 2015) the Executive Committee of the conference intends to promote and foster the existence of broader approaches to the conference's outcomes. The Street & Urban Creativity International Research Topic will develop actions to generate stronger articulations between researchers through collective applications, applied research and publishing material.

Theoretical approaches to Center, Periphery. Addressing tangible geographies like Uruguay and Brazil, methodological geographies centered in values, also about digital geographies, having space also for one philosophical essay and one book review.

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Research concerning street art & urban creativity assumes quite different methodologies according to the scientific background of the researchers and the scientific area it is being developed. As there is still no consensus regarding a methodological approach towards such issues and in the aftermath of the first international conference regarding street art & urban creativity, this issue brings forward the insight of several researchers on their own methodological approaches towards this thematic.

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Does street art & urban creativity contribute to settlement and establishment of places or non places? Do such artistic practices transform non places into places and/or vice-versa? Taking on a methodological research towards such questions this issue brings forward original research concerning these artistic practices in the contemporary background. Whether exploring street art & urban creativity in specific urban contexts or discussing its own rightful place, this issue sheds some light on such questions and contributes to the current scientific debate.