Banksy

Street art  to jeden z fenomenów współczesnej sztuki. Uwodzi rozmachem, oryginalnością, jest wyrazem nieskrępowanej wyobraźni i nieograniczonej pomysłowości twórców. Łamie konwencje, niesie ze sobą posmak rebelii, pewnej nielegalności, czy wręcz zakazanego owocu. Zaskakuje formą i często pojawia się w najmniej oczekiwanych miejscach. Jako zjawisko dynamiczne wciąż jeszcze jest słabo opisany – niniejszy album stanowi próbę wypełnienia tej luki. Autorka w pasjonujący sposób opowiada o rozwoju sztuki w przestrzeni publicznej – od malowideł w jaskiniach naszych prehistorycznych przodków po  czasy, w których żyjemy. Prezentuje najważniejsze nurty i jej twórców – nie tylko tych najsłynniejszych, jak Banksy i Basquiat. Prowadzi czytelnika przez ulice miast (w Polsce i na świecie), zwracając uwagę na najciekawsze przejawy tej fascynującej dziedziny sztuki: murale polityczne, reklamowe, artystyczne, zaangażowane społecznie, a także pomniki, instalacje, plakaty, szablony itp. Poświęca także uwagę graffiti, z którym szeroko rozumiany street art jest związany. / z noty wydawcy

Özet: Küreselleşme çağında enformasyon zaman ve mekân hızını aşmıştır. Küreselleşme sürecindeki yaygın medya söylemi savaşları, özgürlük mücadelelerini, ekonomik çelişkileri, gelir dağılımındaki eşitsizlikleri vb. görmezlikten gelmektedir. Buna karşın sokağın sesi olan grafiti başka bir mecra olarak yeni olanaklar yaratabilir. Graffitinin çıkış noktası olan duvarlar aynı zamanda direnişin de temsili ve çıkış noktasıdır. Kamusal alan olan duvarlar illegal olarak sembolik, politik ve sanatsal şekilde yeniden düzenlenir. Bu bakış açısından yola çıkan çalışma, grafik sanatçısı Banksy'nin eserlerini ele almıştır. Çalışmanın amacı graffitinin egemen yeni dünya düzenine karşı 'başka bir anlam yaratma' ve 'başka dünya tahayyüllerine' olanak sağlayıp sağlamadığını incelemektir. Bu bağlamda graffiti nasıl bir iletişim aracıdır? Küreselleşmiş dünyamızda televizyon, gazete, internet gibi kitle iletişim araçları ile yoğun bir şekilde sisteme uyum çağrısı yapılıyor. Kamusal alan olan sokaklarda yer alan duvarlar, graffiti aracılığıyla sisteme karşı kullanılabilir mi? Graffiti başka ifade alanlarının yaşamasına olanak yaratan yeni bir mecra olabilir mi? sorularına bu makalede cevap aranacaktır. Graffitinin yeni söylemlerin üretildiği bir direniş zemini olup olmadığı makale üzerinden sorgulanacaktır. Anahtar Sözcükler: Graffiti, Aktivizm, Banksy Extended Abstract: Globalisation is one of the phenomena that has a big impact on the world. The effect of globalization can often be seen on various areas such as economy, politics, culture, science, technology and media. Anti-globalization movement, on the other hand, claims that globalization is a new way of imperialism and that individuals are being pacified by it. Opponents of globalization have been endeavouring to make a stand against this kind of new life style and have come up with new ideas. Anti-globalization activists have been questioning the possibility of this new world formation. The word activist can be defined as someone who campaigns for a social or political change. Activists stand out with a large variety of possible actions, such as organising meetings, boycotts, guerrilla demonstrations, strikes and meetings. Graffiti is also one of these actions which activists use. Walls, which are the starting point of graffiti,

Defiance, independence and transgression for sale. On social rituals of creating and receiving the "difficult" art.

According to Marshall McLuhan: "Art is anything you can get away with". To what extent is this statement correct nowadays? Is there any space for true defiance, a niche left for the last outsiders and contestators in today's art world, or perefably, as Howard Becker would say - simultaneously functioning art worlds? Perhaps it is street art, as a kind of paradoxically rebelious "arier-garde" ( the notion developed by Teresa Pękala), that  still has the power to draw public attention and "seduce".
In this article, the author argues that ostensibly "difficult", rebellious and transgressive art is, as a matter of fact, a part of certain social rituals, (particularly media rituals). Even an open disapproval, a negative response from the public, to shocking forms or iconography, serves as a part of those rituals. In the described process of social creating the art celebrities and superstars (e.g. Damien Hirst), influential collectors and art dealers play a predominant role. It is significant that art critics tend to turn toward quasi-religious rhetoric, which helps them explicate meanings of the most "difficult" and shocking activities or artefacts.
The author also investigates some of the popular strategies applied and developed by contemporary artists. The strategy of being the most famous anonymous artist - Banksy's case - seems to be the most interesting.

Mit dem Ziel, ein prototypisches, webbasiertes Werkverzeichnis in Form einer allgemein zugänglichen Datenbank für einen Street-Artist zu erstellen, stehen Bildwissenschaftler vor einer Reihe von Herausforderungen. Einige davon möchte ich anhand des „bekanntesten Street-Art-Künstlers Banksy“ (F.A.Z.) vorstellen.
Mit dem Durchbruch des Internets um 2000 erfolgt der von Street Art, beides hängt zusammen. Street Art wird mehrheitlich online betrachtet, durch digitale Fotos und Videos. Zuerst nahm die Qualität und Quantität der Fotos zu, bis die durchschnittliche Rechner- und Internetkapazität auch Videos in akzeptabler bis gestochen scharfer Version zeigen konnte. Neuere Bilder sind teils vom Künstler, teils von anderen bereits geogetagged. Diese in Bild/Videodateien schon vorhandenen Daten sollen für ein digitalen catalogue raisonné mit zusätzlichen Daten an der „fertigen“ Datenbank durch Laien und Wissenschaftler ergänzt werden können. Zu Einsatz kommen dabei neueste Methoden des automatischen Bildverstehens und verschiedene Ansätze der Computer Vision zum Analysieren und Vergleichen von Kunstwerken, etwa Anwendungen zur Segmentierung und Verschlagwortung großer (Bild-)Datensätze.
Da Street Artists illegal arbeiten, sind sie teils nicht kooperationsbereit, d.h. Datensätze können oft kaum „klassisch“ mit Hilfe des Künstlers, seines Nachlasses oder seiner Galerie erstellt werden. An die Stelle von Institutionen und dem Umfeld des Künstlers treten verschlagwortete Web-Bilddateien als Hauptquelle. Digitale Provenienzforschung ist mit Hilfe der Webseite des Street Artists und mit der von ihm herausgegebenen Bildbänden / Künstlerbüchern möglich. Dies bildet nur den Anfang, da z.B. Banksy oft nur die beste Version veröffentlicht, es also mehrere „Originale“ gibt, oder weil die Webseite aktualisiert wurde (wodurch frühere Informationen oft verloren gehen). Da die Bilder oft von anderen gespeichert werden und dank Internet-Archiven auch Rekonstruktionen von Webseiten möglich sind, lässt sich ein Street Artist-Oeuvre rekonstruieren.
Da „Street“ Art oft ortspezifisch ist, ist mit Google Street View ab 2007 eine Verlinkung der Werkabbildung mit dem Original-Kontext möglich. Bei älteren Werken gilt es, den Anbringungsort z.B. anhand von digitaler Verschlagwortung zu eruieren, oder durch das Analysieren von Fan-, Presse-Fotografien und solchen des Künstlers Hinweise suchen, die den Ort erschließen lassen. Es folgen zudem Fragen der Material- und Maße-Bestimmung bei Street Art sowie nach deren Betitelung. Für Street-Art-Werkkomplexe, die oft seriell und mit oeuvre-immanenten Verweisen operieren ist eine link-basierte, netzartige Datenbank folgerichtiger als ein Buch, das fortschreitend eine Geschichte erzählt.
Diese und weitere Methoden und Fragestellungen - anhand eines Street-Artist-Werkverzeichnisses entwickelt - könnten für heute zeitgenössische Künstler angewendet werden, deren Werk die Schwelle zum Digitalen überschritten hat und für die „klassische“ Werkverzeichnisse nicht mehr greifen.

Özet Postmodern dönemde sanat yapıtının müze ve sanat galerilerinden dışarıya çıkmaktadır ve gündelik yaşantıya nüfus etmektedir. Muhalif toplumsal hareketlerin ve Avangart sanat akımlarının etkisiyle birlikte sokak sanatı ortaya çıkmaktadır. Bu yeni sanat biçimi yenilikçi teknikleri, radikal eserleri, eleştirel üslubu ve farklı dallarıyla günümüzde dikkat çekmektedir. Sokak sanatı içerisinde kültür karıştırması da bulunmaktadır. Kültür karıştırması, tüketim toplumu ve onun yaratmış olduğu kültüre karşıt sosyal bir hareket olarak, medya ve onun yaratmış olduğu reklam kurumları gibi ana akım kültürel oluşumları yıkmayı ve bozmayı amaçlayan, şiddet içermeyen, yenilikçi ve alternatif bir sanatsal ifade biçimidir. Kültür karıştırması eylemleriyle tanınan sanatçılar, kamusal alanlarda reklam amacıyla bulunan görselleri çalıp değiştirerek, bağlamından kopartmaktadır ve farklı anlamların ortaya çıkmasını sağlayarak muhalif bir dil geliştirmektedir. Kültür karıştırmasının hedefinde sokakta bulunan reklam görselleri vardır ve böylelikle bu görsellerin temsil ettikleri şirketlerin, kapitalist kültürün ve tüketim toplumunun eleştirisini yapmaktadır. Anahtar Kelimeler: Kültür karıştırması, sokak sanatı, çalıp değiştirmek, reklam, tüketim toplumu.

Few direct clues exist to the everyday lives and beliefs of ordinary Jews in antiquity. Prevailing perspectives on ancient Jewish life have been shaped largely by the voices of intellectual and social elites, preserved in the writings of Philo and Josephus and the rabbinic texts of the Mishnah and Talmud. Commissioned art, architecture, and formal inscriptions displayed on tombs and synagogues equally reflect the sensibilities of their influential patrons. The perspectives and sentiments of nonelite Jews, by contrast, have mostly disappeared from the historical record. Focusing on these forgotten Jews of antiquity, Writing on the Wall takes an unprecedented look at the vernacular inscriptions and drawings they left behind and sheds new light on the richness of their quotidian lives. Just like their neighbors throughout the eastern and southern Mediterranean, Mesopotamia, Arabia, and Egypt, ancient Jews scribbled and drew graffiti everyplace--in and around markets, hippodromes, theat...

RESUMO: A diligente marca grafiteira Banksy, que circunscreve os muros do globo desde meados da década passada, está na lanterna da diáspora artística de sua geração: exposições com residência nas potencialidades, exposições com residência na volta ao mundo – em ambos os sentidos. No paradoxo, esse heterônimo retém e preserva anonimamente a autoria (individual ou coletiva) e alcança repercussão mundial e aprovação popular novidadeiras para a arte urbana. Alcança também inserção: ainda maior ineditismo encontra-se na proposta coextensiva que Banksy hoje melhor representa entre os espaços expositivos intramuros e extramuros, tradicionalmente avessos entre si. Uma pendularidade para a qual os artistas de rua se apresentam cada vez mais aptos e eticamente harmonizados, selando a reorientação do contracultural mesmo dentro da contemporaneidade, e selando ainda mais a decantação da cizânia, da segregação mútua entre o institucional e o periférico: relevam-se contrariedades aparentemente terminais e revelam-se acessos de uns para os outros.

ABSTRACT: The diligent graffiti tag Banksy, which bounds globe walls since the middles of last decade, is in the flashlight of its generation’s artistic Diaspora: exhibitions dwelling in the potentialities, exhibitions dwelling in the run around the world – in both meanings. In the paradox, that pen name anonymously retains and preserves the authorship (individual or collective) and reaches world repercussion and popular approval faddist for the urban art. It also reaches insertion: even larger novelty is in the coextensive proposal which Banksy today best represents between the intramurally and extramurally expositive spaces, traditionally conversed between each other. An oscillation on which street artists present themselves more and more capable and ethically harmonized, sealing the contra-cultural reorientation even inside contemporaneity itself, and even more the decantation of the darnel, the mutual segregation between the institutional and the peripheral: annoyances seemingly terminal are exempted and accesses are revealed to one another.

RESUMEN

El presente escrito tiene como propósito indagar en algunos de los factores –y actores- que juegan un papel trascendental bajo el contexto actual de la comunicación política. Uno de los fines perseguidos es señalar lugares de importancia en los que discurren las discusiones sobre política, pues no suelen ser los habituales de hace 20 años. La corporaciones hoy cobran alta relevancia al involucrar sus intereses en las decisiones de los gobernantes, su incidencia en el actuar del Estado no puede simplemente ignorarse, en este sentido, cabría preguntarse si los valores democráticos se ponen en juego cuando los gobernantes actúan por un interés económico vinculado a una corporación y no por el bienestar del pueblo, tal y como sucede en el caso de las telebancadas en México. A tal hecho puede aunarse el poder de las televisoras, el cual ha ido en tal aumento que han dejado de ser el instrumento ideológico del poder para convertirse en el mismo poder, razones por las cuales gran parte de la opinión pública se ha vertido sobre medios alternativos en los que la sociedad ha depositado su voz como lo son las redes sociales o los recursos audiovisuales que ofrece internet. Asimismo los muros de la grandes urbes mundiales se han transformado en un vehículo de expresión política de los jóvenes quienes suelen ir más allá del simple garabato en la pared para expresar una idea o un señalamiento hacia las instituciones políticas, el consumismo o a las grandes corporaciones.

In this article, we describe how antithesis and metaphoric conceptualization interact with each other and which rhetorical effects this interaction brings about. We illustrate this interaction with an analysis of seventeen graffiti art-works by Banksy, who uses the contraposition of visual elements that are characterized by opposite semantic and affective values. This article contributes to the expanding field of empirical studies of visual/pictorial metaphors and antitheses, in which artworks are interpreted according to conceptual dynamics and not only in relation to their thematic, semiotic and representational properties.

Notes from a lecture presented at the Grimwade Centre for Cultural Materials Conservation, University of Melbourne in 2012 (and in subsequent years) to students in the Masters of Cultural Materials Conservation program. The lecture outlines the context and features of graffiti and street art in Melbourne, its sites and material objects, relationship to formal and informal archives and some key case studies, such as the destruction of artworks by Banksy. It discusses the forms of value that might be attached to graffiti and street art (social, historical and aesthetic) and ends by outlining some of the implications for understanding heritage, including anti-heritage approaches and possible conservation strategies.

Presentation about the difficulties involved when attempting to represent graffiti and street art in an institutional context.

The presentation was given at the workshop "From City Streets to Museum Galleries: Discussing Street Art and Graffiti's Leap" at New York University Abu Dhabi.

In this anthology chapter, I relate Miwon Kwon's different definitions of sites and site specificity to the field of street art. The case being studied is a photograph of two stencil works by the British artist Banksy and the artist collective Faile respectively.

Cedar Lewisohn, curator of the Street Art show at Tate Modern (2008), blustered in an international street art conference in Lisbon (2014) about Street Artacademics being rather fans than critical academics and most Street Art to be pathetic and kitschy. The latter might be right. Or it is a truism that is true for any art, maybe both. The first thing Lewisohn said, is, in my opinion, just a problem of communication, i.e. what’s not available in English simply might not exist in the minds of some researchers.“What is Street Art?” This the first question in a call for Paper for a Street Art conference in New York in March this year as well as in our conference today.
Since about 2005 a range of academic authors already tried to answer that question. A lot of them don’t write in English. My paper is a short introduction and discussion of the term Street Art and related terms from the position of a visual culture researcher. I quote first and foremost German researchers that are not translated into English but in my opinion should be part of the international academic discussion.
 
Lewisohn is not completely wrong in what he said. Most research about Street Art is not written without critical distance, but most of the papers given at Street Art conferences are ratherdescriptive. They can be summarized as “there is this Street Art project in such-and-such, I give you more details about that”– and that’s it. Although there is some recent critical research in English done for instance by Jacob Kimvall (The G Word, 2014), Peter Bengsen (Street Art World, 2014) and Rafael Schacter (Ornament and Order, 2014).
As a researcher in visual culture (Bildwissenschaftler) in academic Street Art researchI often miss a debate and an examination of what we see. This is the second point of my paper based on the discussion of the term. A lot of researchers just deal with the frame-set of Street Art, i.e. with Street Artists, the scene, combined with background information about shows. Some researchers show a lot of examples of Street Art, pictures, and leave the viewer alone with that - as if those pictures would speak for themselves. Well, they do, but with everyone differently. A lot of researchers spoke with Street Artists, graffiti writers, and new media practitioners but not with Street Art itself. Interviews for instancemight not always be the solution for everything. To come back to Lewisohn’s claim - most Street Art would be kitsch, “middlebrow”, “illustration” but not (street) art. But who is to judge if it is Street Art or not? And who if it is good? Most Street Artists, who say their art is great might be wrong as well if they say the opposite.“Anything-goes” might be fruitful for Street Art but not for Street Art research, some debatable categories might be helpful. I plead for more Street Art research and less research about Street Artistsalthough one cannot be without the other.

This paper focuses on the urban graffiti painted with a political message by different
movements of the Italian political radicalism in the cities of Rome, Florence, Massa,
Carrara, Verona and Udine. For the purpose of this article, during the period from June
2011 to June 2012, a total of 165 graffiti have been photographed, of which 83 painted by
neo-fascist groups, 72 by extreme left groups and 10 by anarchist groups. These three
macro communities, made of different subgroups, emerged as the most active in expressing
their antagonism towards the parliamentary parties with their graffiti that combine semantic
(words) and semiotic (images) elements. An analysis of the collected graffiti’s language
form, meaning and context allows for the identification of the variety of styles of
communication adopted by the different political antagonisms and the different contents of
their communication through graffiti as well as the key elements of their political identities.
Key words: political radicalism, graffiti, linguistics

When I told people in Bristol that I was writing this book everyone asked the same two questions: ‘Have you actually met Banksy?’ and ‘Does he know you are writing this book?’ Answer to the first: ‘Possibly; but how would I know?’; answer to the second: ‘Probably, but why do you think it’s important?’ These and other frequently asked questions – and my cryptic responses – reveal several things about us and Banksy: first, our continuing fascination with this most secretive of public artists; secondly, a begrudging respect at times bordering on genuine affection for his role as a spokesman on contemporary matters; and thirdly, the British fascination with the ‘whodunnit’, who exactly is this person about whom so much is apparently known but who chooses anonymity and absence over visibility and instant recognition. Banksy’s absence throws down a blatant challenge to our cult of instant celebrity. His is the missing face from the weekly glossy gossip mags; a global ‘name’ who simply refuses to reveal himself; the empty seat on the ubiquitous chat show.

Einige Urban Artists nutzen den öffentlichen Raum bevorzugt, um kritische und unzensierte künstlerische Aussagen gegen das herrschende Wirtschaftssystem und die Konsumkultur zu äußern. Besondere Bekanntheit erreichten im letzten Jahrzehnt die Arbeiten des britischen Künstlers Banksy. Im Zusammenhang mit seiner größeren Popularität wurde Banksy auf dem Kunstmarkt sehr erfolgreich und seine Werke wurden bei Ausstellungen in etablierten Galerien und Museen gezeigt. Da dies konträr zu den konsumkritischen Aussagen und der Polemik gegen das Kunstestablishment in seinen Arbeiten ist, hat sich Banksy intensiv darum bemüht, seine Glaubwürdigkeit mit scheinbar nicht auf Gewinn bedachten Kunst-und Ausstellungsprojekten zu wahren. Unter anderem wird in diesem Paper anhand der 2009 veranstalteten Ausstellung "Banksy vs Bristol Museum" exemplarisch aufgezeigt, wie kritische Urban Art von Banksy innerhalb des Kunstbetriebs kommerzialisiert und für andere Zwecke vereinnahmt wird.

Derzeit sind Begriffe wie Street Art, Urban Art, Graffiti oder Murals in aller Munde. Banksy zählt mittlerweile zu den gefragtesten Street Art-Künstlern auf dem Kunstmarkt und seine Werke sind angesagter denn je. Doch wo beginnt Street Art? Wann spricht man von Urban Art? Lassen sich die beiden Formen miteinander vereinen, falls man von vereinen und nicht viel mehr von einer Co-Existenz reden kann?
Mit einem differenzierten Blick beleuchtet das Buch die beiden Kunstrichtungen hinsichtlich ihres Ursprungs, strafrechtlicher Relevanz, Sichtweise und Motivation ausgewählter Sprayer sowie die Warenwerdung der Kunst. Das Buch bietet Ihnen einen spannenden Blick auf den bunten urbanen Raum.

Hier erhältlich:
https://www.amazon.de/Street-Art-Urban-illegalen-Kunstgeschichte/dp/3830092482/ref=sr_1_1?__mk_de_DE=ÅMÅŽÕÑ&crid=1HY98NLRJ362I&keywords=street+art+yvonne+hauf&qid=1645113015&sprefix=street+art+yvonne+hauf%2Caps%2C80&sr=8-1

This is the Draft Table of Contents for my forthcoming book (Lexington--hopefully December 2016): Eco-Nihilism: The Philosophical Geopolitics of the Climate Change Apocalypse.

I post it here to give my readers--for whom I'm tremendously grateful--a preview of the book's themes and argument.

The article traces a kind of collaboration that begins with a Situationist-styled appropriation and then approaches what the Situationists called unitary urbanism, or the detourned use of public spaces to engender the fusion of aesthetic experience with critical consciousness. Topics discussed include aim of detournement, explanation on the conceptualization of unitary urbanism, and description on the works Kurdish artist Zehra Dogan and street artist Banksy.

This is a presentation brief for a study presented at the 2011 PGL Conference. For this presentation, a visual analysis was done on two politically charged graffiti images by the street artist Banksy. The analytical tool utilized in this study is the Grammar of
Visual Design developed by Gunther Kress and Theo van Leeuwen. The examination reveals that Banksy’s technique of eliminating spatial boundaries, exploiting real-life dimensions, and locating his work within the urban environment all work to amplify
viewer’s emotions and reinforce his message of social critique.

Contemporary street art is often discussed in media as a phenomenon undistinguished from graffiti. This oversimplification is rather misleading. Already in the 1980s, in connection to the mainstream success of the graffiti artist Jean-Michel Basquiat, concerns were raised about the need for a new category: post-graffiti. Typically, for the terms with such a prefix, there is a consensus that post-graffiti in principle differs from graffiti, but there is no consensus concerning the definition of the new category itself.
In following discussion, I propose the concept of social banditry to describe contemporary street art (aka post-graffiti).

This chapter examines viewers’ affective encounters with street art and graffiti, with attention to the critical framework provided by Ranciere (2004) whose work suggests a method for investigating our aesthetic practices of participation (or exclusion) and looking (or not looking). Viewers’ material engagements with street art and graffiti represe...
This chapter examines viewers’ affective encounters with street art and graffiti, with attention to the critical framework provided by Ranciere (2004) whose work suggests a method for investigating our aesthetic practices of participation (or exclusion) and looking (or not looking). Viewers’ material engagements with street art and graffiti represent a disruption of the expectable order that demonstrates that what we see, according to our usual division of the sensible, could be otherwise – thus revealing the contingency of our perceptual and conceptual order. Our examination of the visual dialogue on just one city wall highlights the temporal, site-specific and participatory elements of graffiti and street art as a form of communication, or visual dialogue. We demonstrate that viewers are not passive recipients of the artist’s intentions, but are instead competent social actors capable of understanding, appreciating, and actively and materially engaging with street art and graffiti.

This article argues that contemporary street art (or graffiti) uses a unique set of resistant techniques to foreground the contours and shapes of different kinds of structural violence inscribed into, and perpetuated by, the infrastructural layouts of the twenty-first century's increasingly global cities. Graffiti can resist structural violence as it is shaped and exacerbated by-even embedded within-the physical walls of city spaces, ricocheting off into alternative and on occasion more democratic modes of urban habitation. Through a discussion of examples from urban spaces as diverse as revolutionary Cairo, divided East Jerusalem and the West Bank in Palestine, and South African townships and gentrifying East London, the article shows that street art can transform the violent infrastructural strategies of oppressive state governance into a canvas that articulates calls for democratic and political freedom.

The World Atlas of Street Art and Graffiti is the definitive survey of international street art, focusing on the world’s most influential urban artists and artworks.  Organized geographically by country and city, this chapter focuses on the street art and graffiti of Melbourne, Australia.

This paper analyses Banksy's artwork from a semiotic point of view. The theoretical background is given through Eco's, Jakobson's and Prieto's definitions of semiotic code and context. A deeper analysis goes along through Kant's definition of art and "genius". The few graffiti presented in the paper are described and interpreted through the de Saussure's dychotomy between significance and signifier and are therefore intended as example of a form of de-contextualised artistic social communication.

L’IMMAGINE POLITICA DI JOHN HEARTFIELD , BARBARA KRUGER E BANKSY

Ambra Sombo                                                                                                          Anno 2015\2016

Dagli albori dei tempi l’artista è una figura che in un contesto sociale può, attraverso le sue opere  comunicare allo spettatore.
Nelle pagine che seguono verranno affrontati tre artisti: John Heartfield, Barbara Kruger e Banksy.
I fattori che nonostante il diverso contesto socio-culturale riesce comunque ad accomunarli  sono:
la convergenza all’analisi di temi sociali e politici;
il dialogo con le masse instaurato dalle loro opere ognuna con la propria metodologia e sempre determinato da una forte connotazione attivista;
la leggibilità immediata; e soprattutto nel caso di Heartfield e Kruger la funzione diretta che attribuiscono alla parola scritta;
sono agitatori-politici attraverso le loro immagini carica di satira e ironia;
e nel caso di John Heartfields e Banksy una presa di pozione in prima linea anche a costo di mettere a repentaglio la loro incolumità.
Queste sono le caratteristiche  che nonostante le diverse circostanze storiche e i diversi contesti in cui essi sono attivi li accomunano. In questa tesi si andrà ad analizzare l’artista, il contesto e soprattutto la funzione delle loro opere, come comunicatrici.
Per immagine politica in questa tesi s’intende propriamente un arte figurativa che nella sua forma e nel suo contenuto verte sul dato reale, dove si ritrova l’esigenza di fermare lo sguardo sui dati della realtà, che si riscontrano nella situazione socio-politica con cui questi artisti si scontrano. Questi artisti sebbene collocati in spazi temporali diversi, si possono definire attivi,  che producono arte funzionale e che comunicano socialmente, analizzando questioni relativamente controverse (alcune più contemporanee di altre) riscontrate nel loro percorso, utilizzando immagini la cui lettura è quasi immediata e il messaggio insito carico politicamente  .
Come già sommariamente esposto, questi tre artisti propongono un tipo di operazione artistica, che si può racchiudere schematicamente  in quattro fattori determinanti. Propongono un arte che ha come predisposizione, una funzionalità socialmente attivista, questi artisti hanno pregresso una formazione che li porta al contatto con le masse, con le quali, attraverso i loro lavori, cercano di creare una relazione (ideologicamente già costruita), suscitando di conseguenza una riflessione attenta al tema presentatogli.
John Heatfield pubblica settimanalmente dal 1930 al 1938 i suoi fotomontaggi per la rivista “Arbeiter-Ilustrierte- Zeitung; Barbara Kruger utilizzando canali di mass-media come cartelloni pubblicitari e campagne sociali; Banksy attraverso i murales, nel contesto urbano;
L’immediata lettura dell’opera è la chiave fondamentale nell’analisi ed esposizione di questi tre artisti, la recezione del messaggio è spesso sottolineata dall’accostamento dell’immagine accompagnata spesso da un testo  si rimanda quindi  la funzione diretta della parola scritta. Tutti e tre lavorano su messaggi con una componente ironica e\o satirica.
Si può quindi arrivare alla conclusione che attraverso l’utilizzo di satira\ironia e messaggi provocatori questi artisti fungono da comunicatori sociali, si possono definire artisti militanti.
Si può quindi concludere che l’Arte può avere una funzionalità politica e sociale, che dovrebbe essere fonte di riflessioni del contesto storico in cui ci troviamo.
Sia Banksy ,che Barbara Kruger e John Hearfield creano un arte che in parte si presenta come rispecchio del loro contesto, sono riusciti a creare un tipo d’intervento artistico che cerca di essere funzionale in primis nella società.
Nel contesto culturale odierno è bene utilizzare l’Arte come mezzo di comunicazione per affrontare quei temi e quelle argomentazioni su cui è necessario soffermarsi, perché se anche non graditi, sono comunque parte costituente della società contemporanea. L’utilizzo dell’arte per diffondere una maggiore consapevolezza nell’individuo contemporaneo, attraverso quei canali di comunicazione in cui siamo completamente immersi, è un buon esempio da prendere da questi artisti.

"...Then we have Ivan Gololobov’s “War and Piss” in which he shows how Punk is alive and kick­ing, not neces­sar­ily in music form and not neces­sar­ily in its moth­er­land, through an ana­lysis of the Rus­sian rad­ical art group “Voina” and their encoun­ters with the law."

By taking Rivasi's exhibition "1984: Evolution and Regeneration of Writing" in Modena as case study, this essay explores the possibility of including graffiti within institutional contexts. It argues for the possibility of graffiti exhibitions under peculiar circumstances, namely when such an inclusion does not strip them of their subversiveness. Such a condition appears to be fulfilled when photographs and videos are showed rather than pieces taken from the street. In order to defend this claim, the essay proposes a new ontology of graffiti as performances.

This article examines street art as a specific type of public art. With Patricia C. Phillips’ idea of the failing »public art machine« as a point of departure, it contextualises the discussion of public art as a phenomenon that goes beyond sanctioned artistic expressions.

The article examines the characteristics of street art and demonstrates that street art and public artworks have a number of traits in common. However, it is argued that street art’s unsanctioned nature functions as an essential carrier of meaning, and that a practical separation must be upheld between street art and the sphere of commissioned public art in order to preserve street art’s particular qualities.

The art of today cannot be static, cannot seek permanence and must catch the eye or it will be dismissed quickly by the jaded modern viewer. The transient, striking nature of Street Art makes it a modern art for a contemporary audience. Yet the movement is more than simply a form of art, Street Art is very much a movement with profound social and political value. This is the facet of Street Art which I wish to explore in this essay.
Street Art has the capacity of being a very strong platform for socio-political activists, the most infamous and skilled of these Street Art activists I will be discussing in this paper- Banksy. He is more than simply a Street Artist however, rather a political activist operating through the medium of art. Famously encouraging other artists to 'Speak softly but carry a big can of paint', Banksy is something of a pioneer for incorporating his political messages into his artwork.  I wish to gain an insight into the mind of Banksy and to explain why he uses Street Art to project his principles and beliefs.
In this essay, I hope to examine Banksy as an activist, looking primarily at his Guantanamo project at Disneyland in 2006 and his work on the West Bank barrier between Israel and Palestine in 2005. I would like to view his work in Palestine looking at its wider context and at the impact his artwork has had on the Western World. By discussing Street Art by other Palestinian artists, I wish to highlight the significance and necessity of a strong political message in the art of the West Bank.

Bologna, 12 marzo 2016: tarda mattina. Davanti alla facciata dell'XM24 si è appena arrivati all'apice di un terribile, per taluni, scempio, per altri di un glorioso ultimo atto di "resistenza". Il grande murale che qualche anno prima aveva permesso la salvezza del centro sociale, rendendolo impermeabile alla oliatissima macchina della gen-trification, è stato sacrificato al bene più importante: la libertà. La sua fine è stata decretata dal suo stesso artefice, Blu, che ha deciso di scorticarlo e poi di seppellirlo sotto una valanga di grigio, sorte toccata a quasi tutta la sua produzione felsinea. Il tutto per colpa di una "maledetta" mostra; di quelli che l'hanno promossa, ideata e resa possibile: finanziatori, curatori, conservatori e restauratori che invece di pensare a Vitale, Amico, Annibale o Guido, non solo hanno avuto la bella idea di salvare dal "piccone demolitore" alcuni murales di mano dell'artista di Senigallia, ma anche di musealizzarli a "spregio" del loro contesto originario. È ora giunto il momento di riprendere il filo del discorso, riaprendo il dibattito proprio a partire dalle questioni che Street Art-Banksy & co. L'arte allo stato urbano (Museo della Storia di Bologna, a cura di L. Ciancabilla, C. Omodeo, S. Corcoran) cercò di porre all'attenzione della comunità scientifica. Ovviamente senza rinunciare a fare i conti con le domande che il gesto di Blu ha inevitabilmente portato con sé. A ciò hanno cercato di rispondere storici dell'arte, professionisti del restauro e della conservazione, ma anche studiosi di altre discipline del sapere, chiamati a indagare quei fatti secondo punti di vista inediti e originali. Tutto questo nella consapevolezza che, fra l'11 e il 12 marzo 2016, al catalogo delle pitture murali bolognesi si è aggiunta una nuova opera d'arte: il Grigio di Blu.

In this paper, I critically discuss Riggle’s definition of street art. I argue that his definition has important limitations, and is therefore unsuccessful. I show that his view obscures a defining feature of street art, that is, its subversive power. As a significant consequence of ignoring that essential aspect, Riggle is incapable of fully understanding how street art transforms public space by turning one corner of the city at the time into contested ground. I also suggest that, when appreciating street art's subversiveness, its challenge against the Modern separation of art and life appears more radical than Riggle foresees.

This paper gives a short introduction and discussion of the term Street Art and related terms like Graffiti and Urban Art. A
major part discusses my definition of Street Art and other definitions and the differences and commonalities of these terms.
Street Art consists of self-authorized pictures, characters, and forms created in or applied to surfaces in the urban space that
intentionally seek communication with a larger circle of people. Street Art is done in a performative and often site-specific,
ephemeral, and participatory manner. Street Art is mostly viewed online. It differs from Graffiti and Public Art. I quote first and
foremost German researchers that are not translated into English but in my opinion should be part of the international academic
discussion.

Prankster, polemicist, painter, Banksy is arguably the world’s most famous unknown street artist. To the press and public, the question of Banksy’s identity is more intriguing than the legitimacy of his work and the price that celebrities, dealers and other wealthy patrons are prepared to pay for it. His greatest triumph has been his ability to keep that identity swathed in mystery, even though the artist’s name is said to be in the public domain beyond all reasonable doubt, readily available on Wikipedia and subject to myriad press revelations in the past five years. Anonymity is less important than the impact of his art, which is more than likely created, fabricated and situated by a group of collaborators. For this reason alone Banksy might best be understood as a ‘he’, ‘she’ or even ‘they’, but for all intents and purposes Banksy is widely-held to be a white male, now in his early to mid-forties, born in Bristol, western England and brought up in a stable middle class family, a pupil from a private cathedral school and a one-time goalkeeper in the infamous Sunday soccer team The Easton Cowboys. At least that is what we think we know. These are the known unknowns.

All graffti is low-level dissent but stencils have an extra history. They’ve been used to start revolutions and to stop wars. They look political just through the style. Even a picture of a rabbit playing a piano looks hard as a stencil. It’s like the charge of the light entertainment brigade.” (Banksy)
The action or performance of attaching a work of urban art is analogue to the medium part of the artwork. Even if the motif of the piece of street art is not political itself – a stenciled rabbit for example – the act of attaching signs to an urban surface without official permission is political. This action itself questions authorities – often big brother or big business: “The difference between sender and receiver, between producer and consumer of signs, must remain total, as within it lies the real form of social power” (Beaudrillard). I hence define street art as self-authorized signs in public space whose authors want to communicate with a broader public. My paper for the Art and Urban Creativity conference questions the limits of this street-art-definition in other locations than the “Street”, i.e. galleries and museums. I formulate my critique or discussion on the basis of thoughts about the “Banksy vs. Bristol Museum” Exhibition in 2009. Did British street artist Banksy show in this exhibition street art – according to the mentioned definition or rather street art “favored” art or street art“souvenirs”, as he calls his prints of his street art works early in his career.

Art, as an expression of feelings, worldviews, and personal beliefs, is a reflection of our environment and how we interact with it. In this way, urban art such as rap music and graffiti can serve as a lens through which we are able to examine the state of the urban environment. Building on community literature that addresses the presence of nihilism in rap music, this work will establish that nihilism is a prevalent theme in the work of two artists: Tyler the Creator’s rap music and BANKSY’s graffiti art. By examining the growing subculture and appeal of urban art in relation to these two artists, this paper will argue that BANKSY and Tyler the Creator belong to a new wave of urban art, one that appeals to and originates from people of all races and classes. The current work will then examine these artists’ motives in including nihilism within their art in order to argue that the disillusionment and nihilism once found primarily within inner cities is now spreading to new frontiers. Using this analysis, the current work will raise questions as to the possible causes and consequences of this spreading nihilistic mindset.

The proposal of urban artist Banksy is characterized by the recurrent and constant use of elements of the so-called "guerrilla communication", a form of expression nourished by subversive tactics that wants to fight against the power relations that are inscribed in the daily codes. In his productions, Banksy makes an alteration of these oppressive communication systems in order to expose his despotic function and awaken in the viewer (the receiver in the communicative process) a critical response to them.
This way of acting in relation to art, using it as a medium for sociopolitical criticism, is part of a
historical and artistic continuum in which notable artists and intellectuals have used art as a
contestation tool and whose origins, maybe not practical but theoretical, can situate itself in the
Situationist International (1957).

Dall’osservazione dello spazio urbano della città di Roma, effettuato fra gennaio 2011 e giugno 2012, sono stati censiti e documentati 247 graffiti. Ciò che viene presentato in questo saggio è una prima analisi tematica del materiale raccolto. A questa centrale riflessione se ne accompagnano altre incentrate sul contributo che lo studio del graffitismo, osservato e documentato nello spazio urbano e linguistico della capitale italiana, può offrire relativamente a tematiche quali, per esempio, il rapporto diamesico fra lingua scritta e parlata, l’analisi delle varietà giovanili, le interferenze del dialetto e la creazione di neologismi.

Le vendredi 5 octobre 2018 chez Sotheby’s à Londres, à la surprise générale, une version sur toile de la célèbre Girl with balloon du street artist Banksy s’autodétruit juste après avoir été vendue pour 1,04 million de livres sterling. L’article revient sur cet événement majeur qui fait entrer
l’artiste dans l’histoire et remet en cause la définition même de l’oeuvre d’art. Il analyse la place de l’ironie dans le questionnement ontologique de l’art. Une place privilégiée est accordée à l’analyse du rôle joué par le
rire et l’humour dans cet épisode devenu viral et visionné par plusieurs millions de spectateurs. Les questions posées : la dérision de Banksy ne propose-t-elle pas une ,alternative au rire défendu par la tradition philosophique qui court d’Aristote à Bergson et qui consiste à se moquer
de celui qui chute ? Le geste de Banksy ne permet-il pas d’opposer un rire d’empathie et de partage, un rire convoqué par l’irréductible polysémie de son oeuvre ?

"In 2008, Cedar Lewisohn curated the first large-scale exhibition of street art at a major museum or gallery. 'Street Art: The Graffiti Revolution' (23 May - 25 Aug 2008) involved the exhibition of works by six international street artists on the exterior facade of the Tate Modern in London. In the exhibition's accompanying publication Lewisohn stated, "Street art and graffiti both have the peculiar ability to exist in the mainstream of culture and at the same time on its periphery."

This dissertation attempts to excavate this claim in the context of developments in New York City. It explores, primarily, the inter-relationship between graffiti and street art from their rapid period of evolution in the late 1970s and early 1980s, and from the mid-1990s onwards. The initial definitions applied to distinguish graffiti and street art have highlighted key differences in methodology and the underlying aims of the artists involved in each practice. The first section examines the practices of early graffiti writer Dondi White alongside his contemporaries John Fekner and Jenny Holzer, contemporary artists who were working in the streets of New York during the early 1980s in addition to producing studio-based work. An analysis of the street-based practices of 'street art pioneers' Jean-Michel Basquiat and Keith Haring also considers the crossover of street practice to gallery career, a transiton established in graffiti writing  during the early 1980s in which graffiti moved from a peripheral presence to a major subcultural development and gallery fixture. The third and final section comprises a discussion around the current day development of street art and its transition into the mainstream through the practices of Banksy, Shepard Fairey and Swoon. This development has been facilitated by gallery exhibition and increased representation for street artists, the dissemination of ideas through the internet, and the increased media attention given to street artists.

In a similar manner to graffiti writers, street artists have ignited controversial debates through their transition from relatively unknown urban artists to overnight gallery sensations, a transition that has been both lamented and applauded. For the purposes of this discussion, it also serves to highlight the ambivalent and dichotomous position that continues to surround the existence of graffiti and street art aesthetics in both a peripheral and mainstream context.

For the full text, please email me. I am happy to provide references and the dissertation to interested students and researchers."