Reading the Walls of Bogota: Graffiti, Street Art, and the Urban Imaginary of Violence

by Alba Griffin

Overview

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.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9780822989936
Publisher:	University of Pittsburgh Press
Publication date:	06/13/2023
Series:	Pitt Illuminations
Sold by:	Barnes & Noble
Format:	eBook
Pages:	224
File size:	31 MB
Note:	This product may take a few minutes to download.

About the Author

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

Editorial Reviews

Thoroughly researched and written, Reading the Streets of Bogotá is a compelling read for people interested in the relation between culture and politics, contemporary violence, and urban spaces in Latin America and beyond.

A Contracorriente

Griffin reveals how graffiti in Bogotá inserts itself in discourses about violence in the region. This book gives readers a unique and unprecedented insight into street art practices in the city. The author is a gifted storyteller and scholar who deploys a complex and multilayered account of the Bogotá graffiti scene.

Guisela Latorre

A bold attempt to explore the interplay among violence, society, and how street artists provide a dialogue to community in Bogotá, Colombia.

Choice Reviews

Griffin offers an original and thoughtful study of street art’s appropriation of violence and its reception in the urban imaginary in Bogotá. The book explores how street artists emerge as potential voices of dissent and chroniclers of the long-engrained and systemic iterations of violence in Colombia.

Alejandro Herrero-Olaizola

A bold attempt to explore the interplay among violence, society, and how street artists provide a dialogue to community in Bogotá, Colombia.

Choice

"A bold attempt to explore the interplay among violence, society, and how street artists provide a dialogue to community in Bogotá, Colombia."
—Choice

“Griffin offers an original and thoughtful study of street art’s appropriation of violence and its reception in the urban imaginary in Bogotá. The book explores how street artists emerge as potential voices of dissent and chroniclers of the long-engrained and systemic iterations of violence in Colombia.” —Alejandro Herrero-Olaizola, University of Michigan 

“Griffin reveals how graffiti in Bogotá inserts itself in discourses about violence in the region. This book gives readers a unique and unprecedented insight into street art practices in the city. The author is a gifted storyteller and scholar who deploys a complex and multilayered account of the Bogotá graffiti scene.” —Guisela Latorre, The Ohio State University 

From the Publisher