HomeStreet Art Europe
Street Art Europe
Second cross-disciplinary seminar of the Nice Street Art Project (NSAP) #4
Published on Monday, March 26, 2018
Abstract
Les œuvres de street art ont vocation à être in situ, c’est-à-dire réalisées dans un endroit précis et un contexte bien déterminé, pour cet endroit précis et par cet endroit précis. Certains artistes considèrent en effet que ce sont les lieux qui font l’œuvre, tel Ernest Pignon-Ernest, pionnier du mouvement en France et ailleurs. L’œuvre de l’artiste n’éclaire pas seulement le lieu, elle tire aussi son sens et son impact du lieu, dans un jeu de miroirs où l’on ne sait plus où est l’image et où est l’objet. Il s’agit donc d’un art intrinsèquement contextuel.
Announcement
Argument
Street Art is site-specific. The artworks are made for a specific location and context. According to Ernest Pignon-Ernest, one of the pioneers of the movement, they are even made by the site. The artwork highlights the place and the place gives it its meaning and strenghth. Nonetheless, site-specificity is thwarted by opposite forces due to the origins of the movement, to its global dimension and its “philosophy”.
Street Art is as rooted in serial production and territorial marking as in site-specific art. Heir to the American writers, street artists aim at a large-scale spread of their works, as the famous case of the well- named Invader clearly show. Yet the “invasion” sometimes happens to imply little attention to the placement of the artwork. Reproduction is part of the genetics of Street Art, from tags to protesters’ stencils and Pop Art artefacts.
With the success of Street Art and Urban Art, acclaimed artists are led to work in various countries. Now, globalization, cultural homogeneization, and worldwide concerns such as global warming stimulate the artists to address universal topics. In fact, when Shepard Fairey was invited to work on the Eiffel Tower in 2015, he chose to talk about Earth Crisis, not about Paris. When Julien Malland aka Seth, significantly self- described Globe Painter, went to China, he did paint Chinese people but also people without any national or ethnical diacritical mark.
Despite the heterogeneity of the movement, street artists share a common ground and travel is a strong part of it. Street Art is also heir to the hobo graffiti-writers of the 10s and 20s, and to the Beat Generation and the counter-cultural movements of the 60s and 70s. Even though it was not built up as a school, it carries out principles and values, in particular and not limited to individual freedom. In line with the DIY punk philosophy, travel is seen as a self-learning opportunity, as well as the best way to know others, therefore oneself.
The second seminar of the Nice Street Art Project (2018 NSAP #4) focuses on Street Art in Europe, paying particular attention to two main questions. 1) How are local characteristics compatible with global characteristics in Street Art? 2) Considering that Street Art not only comes from the USA (with, first and foremost, graffiti Writing, and more widely Ashcan school, Action Painting, Graffiti Writing, Haring, Basquiat, Holzer, Kruger…) but also from European movements such as Dada, Futurism, or Situationnism, do street artworks created in Europe have an European specificity?
Contact : Edwige Comoy Fusaro fusaro@unice.fr | http://nicestreetartproject.fr
Subjects
- Representation (Main category)
- Mind and language > Representation > History of art
- Society > Sociology > Sociology of culture
Places
- Faculté des Lettres, Arts et Sciences Humaines, campus Carlone, salle du Conseil - 1er étage bât. A - 98 boulevard Edourd Herriot
Nice, France (06)
Date(s)
- Friday, April 13, 2018
Attached files
Keywords
- street art
Contact(s)
- Comoy Fusaro Edwige
courriel : fusaro [at] unice [dot] fr
Reference Urls
Information source
- Solen Cozic
courriel : solen [dot] cozic [at] univ-cotedazur [dot] fr
License
This announcement is licensed under the terms of Creative Commons CC0 1.0 Universal.
To cite this announcement
« Street Art Europe », Study days, Calenda, Published on Monday, March 26, 2018, https://calenda.org/437332
