Urban art as a vector for transforming space

Urban art is a manifestation made in the urban environment without the intention of vandalism. It is an art that has a direct relationship with the city and the society in which it is located and that can emerge spontaneously or through business incentives and/or public management.

The production of art on a city scale tends to bring art closer to citizens, as it has a language role that expands to several dimensions, such as sociocultural and physical-environmental, and relates to interlocutors in a way that communicates, emotes and to stimulate interest in culture and information about the subjects it addresses, enabling the transformation of the city into open-air art galleries.

The structure of art outside built spaces allows greater accessibility and popular reach, but is subject to the condition of being ephemeral and changeable, as it is susceptible to interference from the population, degradation due to weather or modifications to the property. On the other hand, urban art assumes a democratic role, as it can be seen by everyone who wants to see it, far from museums, galleries and art auctions and as a result of society's relations. Another role of art is to communicate and disseminate the beauty, history of the city and the characterization of life in society, as a means of propagating culture.

The production of contemporary urban art arises from the avant-garde artistic movements of the 20th century, such as cubism, dadaism, futurism, expressionism and surrealism, when art concepts began to be questioned and the precepts of the French Academy of Fine Arts were discarded, enabling new forms of artistic expression, with the emergence of alternative forms of visual art production such as graffiti, stencils, posters, sculptures, video projections, interventions, artistic installations, flash mob.

Urban space represents a public place for the exchange of identities and culture of a society, where it is possible to learn the culture and customs of the place. Urban art creatively translates these relationships and can reaffirm the region’s identity.

Artistic expressions through graphic or three-dimensional representations can transmit a message or alert society about contemporary issues. Art reaches people in a broad and objective way, transmitting ideas or needs of a community, engaging in a dialogue in the form of an alert that can be a tool used by public management to highlight the potential and references of a society, as well as if used in this way request to perform an action.

Urban art has been renewing itself and gaining greater strength due to new generations of artists who seek to express themselves through it and through social networks that enable greater exchange and dissemination of this art.

It is through the construction of this identity that art and cultural activities can play the role of an urban rehabilitation device in public spaces and, when it involves social classes within the city construction process, this identity becomes easier to achieve.

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