The construction and erasure of urban images and imaginaries: contemporary aspects of graffiti production in the city of São Paulo

Abstract

This research will investigate the production of urban art images in the city of São Paulo, focusing on graffiti and its contributions to the urban imaginary in the context immediately before and during the Covid-19 pandemic, between 2017 and the end of 2020. When we consider the city because of the production of different images and discourses, we understand the power of urban arts as a way to express and communicate a plurality of images about the experience of inhabiting the city. In past years, many questions and actions, hegemonic or not, have raised debates about the role of graffiti and its impact on the imaginary of cities, especially since the creation of the Cidade Linda Program and its developments, such as the Museu de Arte de Rua de São Paulo (MAR). The controversial views about these expressions, the search for conciliation between the public power and collectives, and the impacts of this phenomenon on city planning are fundamental to this study. This research is complementary to the research project "Urban Imaginaries: comparative perspectives, experiments and exchanges between the metropolises of Lyon/Saint-Étienne and São Paulo" - FAPESP/Université de Lyon - Regular Aid (2020/06258-3), integrating and directly contributing to the line dedicated to the comparative study of visual, magnetic/iconographic initiatives between Lyon/Saint-Étienne and São Paulo. (AU)