Skip to main content

Visual Negotiations of Space

Street Art Between Democracy, Art, Vandalism

  • Chapter
  • First Online:
Raum und Bild - Strategien visueller raumbezogener Forschung
  • 2267 Accesses

Abstract

Street art can be located in between artistic practice, public promotion of cultural policies and anarchistic counter cultures that challenge given perceptions and trigger critical discussions. Using the theoretical stances of Henri Lefebvre on the social production of space and the right to the city, the article explores the role of street art as a form of bottom-up movement that claims the city to be open for everyone. Street art as an expression of collective struggle is embedded in processes of space negotiations between multiple actors. Building on the outcomes of the empirical analysis, the article discusses how artists make use of inclusive as well as irritative strategies in order to increase the visibility of the marginalized in public space and to stimulate public discourse. Related to concepts of urban citizenship, this analysis focuses on activist aims as well as social divisions within urban societies that become visible through artworks and their public contestation.

This is a preview of subscription content, log in via an institution to check access.

Access this chapter

eBook
USD 19.99
Price excludes VAT (USA)
  • Available as EPUB and PDF
  • Read on any device
  • Instant download
  • Own it forever
Softcover Book
USD 29.99
Price excludes VAT (USA)
  • Compact, lightweight edition
  • Dispatched in 3 to 5 business days
  • Free shipping worldwide - see info

Tax calculation will be finalised at checkout

Purchases are for personal use only

Institutional subscriptions

Similar content being viewed by others

References

  • Amin, A. (2008). Collective culture and urban public space. City: Analysis of urban trends. Culture, Theory, Policy, Action, 12, 5–24.

    Google Scholar 

  • Anderson, L., Borghini, S., Sherry, J. F., & Visconti, L. M. (2010). Street art, sweet art? Reclaiming the ‘public’ in public place. Journal of Consumer Research, 37(3), 511–529.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Bengtsen, P. (2014). The street art world. division of art history and visual studies, Department of Arts and Cultural Sciences, Lund University.

    Google Scholar 

  • Blokland, T., Hentschel, C., Holm, A., Lebuhn, H., & Margalit, T. (2015). Urban citizenship and right to the city: The Fragmentation of claims. International Journal of Urban and Regional Research, 39(4), 655–665.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Butler, C. (2012). Henri lefebvre: Spatial politics, everyday life and the right to the city. Abingdon: Routledge.

    Book  Google Scholar 

  • Carlsson, B., & Loughran, K. (2007). Street art Stockholm. Stockholm: Max Ström.

    Google Scholar 

  • Christensen, M., & Thor, T. (2017). The Reciprocal city: Performing solidarity-mediating space through street art and graffiti. International Communication Gazette, 79(6–7), 584–612.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • De Wilde, M. (2017). Domesticating, festivalizing and contesting space: Spatial acts of citizenship in a superidiverse neighbourhood in Amsterdam. In S. Stijn Oosterlynck, N. Schuermans, & M. Loopmans (Hrsg.), Place, diversity and solidarity (S. 147–163). London: Routledge.

    Chapter  Google Scholar 

  • Diamond, P. (2019). The crisis of globalization: Democracy, capitalism and inequality in the twenty-first century (Policy network). London: I.B. Tauris.

    Book  Google Scholar 

  • Di Brita, T. (2018). Resilience and adaptability through institutionalization in graffiti 6 art: A formal aesthetic shift. Graffiti, Street Art & Urban Creativity Scientific Journal: Changing Times: Resilience, 4(2), 6–24.

    Google Scholar 

  • Drisko, J. W., & Maschi, T. (2016). Content analysis. New York: Oxford University Press.

    Google Scholar 

  • Haedicke, S. (2013). Contemporary street arts in Europe: Aesthetics and politics. Basingstoke: Palgrave Macmillan.

    Book  Google Scholar 

  • Horgan, M. (2017). Mundane mutualities: Solidarity and strangership in everyday urban life. In S. Stijn Oosterlynck, N. Schuermans, & M. Loopmans (Hrsg.), Place, diversity and solidarity (S. 19–31). London: Routledge.

    Chapter  Google Scholar 

  • Lefebvre, H. (1967). Le Droit à La Ville. L Homme Et La Société, 6(1), 29–35.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Lefebvre, H. (1991). The production of space. Oxford: Blackwell.

    Google Scholar 

  • Müller-Doohm, S. (1997). Bildinterpretation Als Struktural-Hermeneutische Symbolanalyse. In R. Hitzler (Hrsg.), Sozialwissenschaftliche Hermeneutik: Eine Einführung (S. 81–108). Opladen: Leske + Budrich.

    Chapter  Google Scholar 

  • Riggle, N. A. (2010). Street art: The transfiguration of the commonplaces. The Journal of Aesthetics and Art Criticism, 68(3), 243–257.

    Google Scholar 

  • Rumford, C. (2016). The strangeness of Europe. Comparative European Politics, 14(4), 1–19.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Schilliger, S. (2018). Urban Citizenship: Teilhabe Für Alle – Da, Wo Wir Leben. In H. Aigner, S. Kumnig, & M. Baiculescu (Hrsg.), Stadt Für Alle!: Analysen Und Aneignungen. Kritik & Utopie. Wien: Mandelbaum.

    Google Scholar 

  • Stanek, Ł. (2011). Henri Lefebvre on space: Architecture, urban research, and the production of theory. Minneapolis: University of Minnesota Press.

    Book  Google Scholar 

  • Thor, T. (2017). The sounds of silence – Writing urban spaces. In K. Fast, L. Bengtsson, A. Jansson, M. Tesfahuney, & J. Lindell (Hrsg.), Geomedia studies: Spaces and mobilities in mediatized worlds. New York: Taylor and Francis.

    Google Scholar 

  • Tulke, J. (2013). Aesthetics of crisis. Political street art in Athens in the context of the crisis. Humboldt Universität, Berlin.

    Google Scholar 

Download references

Author information

Authors and Affiliations

Authors

Corresponding author

Correspondence to Beate Steurer .

Editor information

Editors and Affiliations

Rights and permissions

Reprints and permissions

Copyright information

© 2021 Springer-Verlag GmbH Deutschland, ein Teil von Springer Nature

About this chapter

Check for updates. Verify currency and authenticity via CrossMark

Cite this chapter

Steurer, B. (2021). Visual Negotiations of Space. In: Kogler, R., Wintzer, J. (eds) Raum und Bild - Strategien visueller raumbezogener Forschung. Springer Spektrum, Berlin, Heidelberg. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-662-61965-0_16

Download citation

  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-662-61965-0_16

  • Published:

  • Publisher Name: Springer Spektrum, Berlin, Heidelberg

  • Print ISBN: 978-3-662-61964-3

  • Online ISBN: 978-3-662-61965-0

  • eBook Packages: Social Science and Law (German Language)

Publish with us

Policies and ethics