{"id":8291,"date":"2020-02-13T11:30:06","date_gmt":"2020-02-13T09:30:06","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.sciencespo.fr\/research\/cogito\/home\/street-art-et-democratie-en-amerique-latine\/"},"modified":"2020-02-20T17:35:53","modified_gmt":"2020-02-20T15:35:53","slug":"investigating-street-art-in-latin-america","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.sciencespo.fr\/research\/cogito\/home\/investigating-street-art-in-latin-america\/?lang=en","title":{"rendered":"Investigating Street Art in Latin America"},"content":{"rendered":"
\"Street<\/a>

\u00a9 Palgrave Macmillan<\/p><\/div>\n

Well known for his fine analysis of Latin American politics, Olivier Dab\u00e8ne (Full Professor, CERI) invites us to discover a great number of works of art visible on the walls of five cities of the continent. In his recently published book Street Art and Democracy in Latin America<\/em><\/span><\/a> (Palgrave Macmillan, 2020), Dab\u00e8ne offers the readers the tools to detect their messages, as well as their meanings as democratic acts, based on fieldwork and interviews he did with street artists and… police officers. Interview.\u00a0<\/span> <\/span><\/span><\/p>\n

What triggered your interest in street art?<\/h5>\n

Olivier Dab\u00e8ne: My book finds its origin in a two-year stay in S\u00e3o Paulo, Brazil, in 2000-2002. My research interests back then focused on democracy operating at the local level under very adverse background conditions including very high levels of violence and abysmal inequalities. As I was exploring some of the most deprived areas of the city, I soon discovered they were home to amazing artistic creativity. I started to study the way disenfranchised groups used arts to voice their frustration and nurture public debates. Rap music and marginal literature turned out to be the subject of a book (Exclusion et politique \u00e0 S\u00e3o Paulo. Les outsiders de la d\u00e9mocratie au Br\u00e9sil<\/a>, Karthala, 2006) while other fascinating politicized artistic expressions such as graffiti writing were temporarily put on the back burner. After a decade exploring other topics, I let my fascination for urban culture regain preeminence with a new comparative research project on street art and democracy.<\/p>\n

What are the core arguments of this book?<\/h5>\n
\"\u00a9

\u00a9 Lapiztola : Oaxaca Street Art Collective<\/p><\/div>\n

O.D : The core argument of this book is twofold. First, when artists invade public space for the sake of voicing rage and disseminating claims or statements, they raise public awareness, nurture public debate, and hold authorities accountable. They can also interact with neighbours and thereby contribute to community building. Consequently, so goes my argument, they behave as urban citizens and foster street-level deliberative democracy even if they violate the law on a regular basis. Second, street art reveals how public space is governed. When local authorities try to contain, regulate, and monitor, or even repress, public space invasions, they can achieve their goals democratically if, instead of simply criminalizing the activity, they engage in dialogue with the artists and try to reach an understanding inspired by a conception of the city as a commons.<\/p>\n

How did you work? How did you choose the sites you investigated and the artists you interviewed?<\/h5>\n

O.D : I conducted a total of 63 interviews in five Latin American cities, in order to collect empirical evidence and prepare to undertake in-depth city case studies.
\nThe five cities examined in this book were selected because they were more or less distant from the democratic ideal-type that rests upon two overlapping and cross-fertilizing components: urban-citizen artists strengthening street-level democracy and authorities keen to deliberate over the use of public space and promote urban collaborative governance. My \u201canchor\u201d case was Bogota (Colombia) and then came S\u00e3o Paulo (Brazil), Valpara\u00edso (Chile), Oaxaca (M\u00e9xico), and Havana (Cuba).<\/p>\n

\"Right:

Right: Street art Bogota. Left: Street art Valparaiso \u00a9 Shutterstock<\/p><\/div>\n

Is there a contradiction\u2014for street artists, according to you\u2014between the fact of acting as urban citizens and violating the law on a regular basis?<\/h5>\n

O.D : Violating the law is an act of defiance that entails a political meaning. Most of the artists I interviewed explained they had a message to convey and chose to do it by intervening on a wall, at the risk of being taken into custody!
\nTo me, street artists qualify as urban citizens if\/when they make public claims about issues of common concern. Legality is not a factor. I admit this is debatable, but I deliberately put the emphasis on empowerment, that is on disenfranchised categories forcing their way into the \u201cdemos\u201d. In my view, deliberative democracy can accommodate some illegal expressions.<\/p>\n

In what way does street art reveal how public space is governed? Why does it reveal the city as a commons?<\/h5>\n
\"Street

Street art in Havana \u00a9 Gil.K\/Shutterstock<\/p><\/div>\n

O.D : You can tell by looking at city walls if municipal authorities are keen to tolerate or even incentivize some forms of street art or if they rush to refurbish the walls. Then, on further inquiry, you can unveil several types of interactions between artists and authorities. I was particularly interested in cooperative governance, when artists and authorities open a space of deliberation and try to find common ground and set some rules, inspired by a conception of the city as belonging to all (commons).<\/p>\n

Did this project bring about surprises?<\/h5>\n

O.D : I knew beforehand that street artists had many stories to tell about politics. However, the field work delivered more than expected: daring artists intervening on walls downtown Havana, for instance. I did not expect to meet so many artists making public claims in Cuba.
\nStill, more than surprises, what this project brought about were fascinating encounters. I really enjoyed doing my field work. Our conversations were fluid and we were able to get to the bottom of their urge to share emotions.<\/p>\n

Could you comment some selected works ?
\n<\/strong><\/em><\/h5>\n
\"Fidel

Fidel Castro’s stencil in Havana, Cuba. Anonymous artist<\/p><\/div>\n

O.D : Yes, here are three examples that illustrate what I want to show in my book: street art can contribute to opinion formation and hence to deliberative democracy. Here are three examples.<\/p>\n