Abstracts of Papers
Simon Strick:
Graffiti - Between Painting and Scripture
Graffiti is perhaps the most accessible and least elitist art form. It
is for free, not locked away in museums, anyone can do it - and it
surrounds us like wallpaper. One could say, where there is urban space
there is graffiti.
Nevertheless very little is secure about the characteristics of this
artform. Even the graffiti artists themselves seem to be confused about
the nature of their works: while the American sprayers call themselves
"writers", their European colleagues identify as "painters" (maler,
pintores). Starting from this observation, my talk will try to situate
the cultural practice of graffiti between the concepts of scripture and
painting and show the complications this dichotomy is subjeted to when
confronted with a decidedly spatial artform.
Because of its prescribed brevity the presentation will not try to
answer anything.
| 
