The visual and social indeterminacy of pixação:

the inextricable moods of São Paulo

Abstract

The visual perceptions of most citizens on pixação have changed in recent years. I tackle the ways in which these inscriptions, São Paulo’s (SP) signature, have remained both omnipresent and unreadable by the majority. The law has attacked unplanned interventions ignoring differences among several styles of expression. 2008 marks a starting point in the process of a germinating definition of pixação (also pixo) with visibility for its social protagonists, and with its corresponding corporeal negotiations –with a high point in Berlin’s Biennial 2012. The above permits an analysis of potentialities: social, material, visual and conceptual. The general social lack of understanding that surrounds pixação allows for an exploration at both the expressive and impressive levels. These considerations aim to ponder these interventions as the search of these still massively unheard citizens to express their legitimate traces.