Creativity and territory:

The construction of centers and peripheries from graffiti and street art

Abstract

This article aims to analyze the meaning of the dynamics of artwork production that graffiti and street art artists currently do from its conception of territorial centers and peripheries. The city is seen as a place of conflict and the territory as the local space where it manifests itself. For graffiti writers and street art artists the city stands symbolically as the largest street of all, as a large canvas production. These are visions that respond to processes that the members of graffiti and street art respect and legitimate. The city is the great goal to win (its places, its physiognomy, but also its symbolic spaces), it is a space of resistance and construction of citizenship, a place of belonging to be marked and delineated as a symbolic space of territorial appropriation.

The present document takes the PhD research developed by the author under the PhD in Cultural Management and Heritage at the University of Barcelona. It seeks to approach the creative processes of analysis, legitimacy and valorization in graffiti and street art and, as a case of analysis, the researcher has chosen the cities of Barcelona (Spain) and Montevideo (Uruguay). It was established, as empirical domain of analysis, discourses from 44 graffiti writers and street art artists of the mentioned cities, taking into account some relevant dimensions of their practices: valorization, legitimacy, recognition, professionalization and technical specialization, among others.