Reading the Walls of Bogota: Graffiti, Street Art, and the Urban Imaginary of Violence
Reading the Walls of Bogota: Graffiti, Street Art, and the Urban Imaginary of Violence
by Alba Griffin
University of Pittsburgh Press, 2023 Cloth: 978-0-8229-4779-0 | eISBN: 978-0-8229-8993-6
ABOUT THIS BOOK | AUTHOR BIOGRAPHY | TOC | REQUEST ACCESSIBLE FILE
ABOUT THIS BOOK
A cultural imaginary is a structuring space through which collective understandings of cultural and society phenomena are formed, reproduced, and accepted as the norm. Reading the Walls of Bogotá uses graffiti and street art to explore the urban imaginaries of violence in Bogotá, Colombia. These artistic forms are produced and received in different ways in different areas of the city and offer an insight into citizens’ everyday experiences and perceptions of violence from the political, to the personal, to that of structural inequality. Through graffiti, in which critiques of memory, space, politics, and aesthetics are embedded, artists and their viewers form vernacular theories through which they interpret the world and the spaces they inhabit. By focusing on creative expression, Alba Griffin shows how Bogotá’s residents respond to imaginaries of violence, how they critique the norms, how they appropriate space to challenge or negotiate violence, and how they push back against inequality.
AUTHOR BIOGRAPHY
Alba Griffin is a researcher and associate lecturer in Latin American cultural studies, with a particular interest in violence, popular culture, and urban ethnography. She teaches at Newcastle University and works for the Centre for Latin American and Caribbean Studies at the same institution.
TABLE OF CONTENTS
Contents
Acknowledgments
Introduction. The Importance of Diego Felipe Becerra
One. Conceptualizing Violence, the Imaginary, and Graffiti and Street Art in Bogotá
Two. The Everydayness of Political Violence: Calle 26 and the Struggle for Memory
Three. The Spatial Politics of Violence: Beautification in Ciudad Bolívar and La Perseverancia
Four. The Politics of Everyday Violence: Aesthetic Hierarchies in La Candelaria
Conclusion
Appendix. Interviews and Focus Groups
References
Index
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