Graffiti Art - Issue 59 | October - November 2021

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From the letter to the spirit of Street Art
Urban Art has landed on its feet. Festivals, murals, and solo shows are back on! But what purpose is Urban Art pursuing now?
Spirit of Street Art, are you here?
Through the letters, scattered words, and biting sentences they disseminate on the walls of our towns, urban artists shout political and poetical statements using sometimes sophisticated, sometimes brute designs that all seem to emphasise the importance of conveying a message. In this issue, we add our contribution to the endless debate about form and content, meaning and aestheticism, especially through the The City Spelled Out focus and the NEON inaugural exhibition in Athens, which shed light on the lettering works that increasingly shape our urban life in times of doubt.
Then, we will leave Athens for London, where the public space (walls, passageways, subways, etc.) has become a land of conquest and ephemeral artistic and political expression with various cultural influences. In order to last, murals are becoming institutionalised and transforming the city.
A bit like what Napoleon Bonaparte did. This issue will also explore the possible parallels between the French Emperor and the Street Art movement on the occasion of the masterful appropriations of Jacques- Louis David’s Napoleon Crossing the Alps by Banksy and Tristan Eaton.
There are, though, many other sources of inspiration and regeneration that fuel Street Art: WiseTwo draws from local traditions, and Francisco Bosoletti from romanticism and Renaissance art, while Swoon resurrects the ghosts of her past and ventures into the realm of new media. Peeta likes to trick our visual perception using geometry, while DEIH and Brusk build fantastic worlds that follow their own self-generated rules.
Spirit of Street Art, you are here!