The narrow margin of urban protest art: A comparative study of the role of street art in two neighborhoods of Barcelona and Madrid

ABSTRACT

There is broad consensus regarding the fact that street art is a form of social, political and cultural protest and critique. However, rather than one single form, street art consists of a wide range of complex and contradictory styles featuring a diversity of interests, derivations and conflicts with underlying factors of both a structural and contextual nature. Taking as examples the cases of Pinacoteca a Cel Obert and Pinta Malasaña, in Barcelona and Madrid respectively, this article explores the production of urban art and notes how, as part of plans to revitalize neighborhoods, it assumes different versions in harmony with the characteristics and circumstances of the surrounding areas. Using a qualitative methodology, it explores the conception, development and results of both projects, revealing the heterogeneity of explanatory factors, the complexity of their implementation, and the role, which is not exempt from conflict and rivalry, of street artists in the urban space.

KEYWORDS:

• Street art
• graffiti
• tags
• gentrification
• revitalization
• defacement
• Barcelona
• Madrid

Acknowledgments

The authors would like to thank the residents of the three neighborhoods (Sants & Les Corts in Barcelona and Malasaña in Madrid) for their extraordinary generosity and the time they have devoted to the research.

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author(s).

Additional information

Notes on contributors

Marta Domínguez Pérez

Marta Domínguez Pérez is Professor of Urban Sociology at the Faculty of Political Science and Sociology of the Complutense University of Madrid and in the Erasmus Mundus Master “4 cities” (UCM), where she is a local coordinator. She is a member and previously coordinator of the coordinating team of the Urban Sociology Committee of the Spanish Federation of Sociology (FES), the director of the research group GISMAT (gismat.es), director of the journal Sociedad e Infancias, and a member of the group of Sociology of Childhood and Adolescence (GSIA). She has published and taught in the following areas: cultural dimensions of the city and integration, urban regeneration, socio-spatial segregation, public space, social inequality, vulnerable groups, childhood, gender, urban marketing, urban image and identity, tourism, strategic planning, etc. She is the director of the project funded by the Community of Madrid VUPACI (Vulnerability, participation and citizenship) and the Ministry CAMVIVSOC (Influence of changes in the regimes of production and access to housing on the social restructuring of large Spanish cities). She has collaborated as a consultant in several strategic plans of different cities and worked in the local administration in Alcobendas (1987–2002).

Montserrat Crespi-Vallbona

Montserrat Crespi-Vallbona is a Researcher and associate professor at the Business Department of the University of Barcelona (UB), Spain. Member of the Business Research Group (UB). Head of Studies of International Business Degree. In addition, researcher at different Investigation Project (I+D), such as “Social changes and processes of urban transformation in a crisis context”, “New mobilities and socio-residential reconfiguration in the post-crisis: socioeconomic and demographic consequences in Spanish urban areas” or “Influence of changes in production regimes and access to housing on the social restructuring of large Spanish cities”. As a result, the impact of tourism on economic, social, cultural and urban structures of the territory are analyzed. Governance, gentrification, sustainability are the key words. Many articles, books and book chapters have been published: https://scholar.google.es/citations?user=q_Wrk4sAAAAJ&hl=ca

M. Victoria Gómez

M. Victoria Gómez is a senior lecturer at the Department of Social Analysis, Carlos III University of Madrid. She got her PhD at the University of Stirling. She also holds a Masters’ degree in Urban Studies from Oxford Brookes University and a postgraduate degree in Territorial Studies (Madrid Universidad Politécnica). She has participated in both international and national research projects, published in prestigious international journals, and participated in international books and conferences. She has been a visiting researcher fellow at the University of Stirling, University of Glasgow, and University of Jyväskylä. In the past, she was vice-dean of sociology and director in Madrid of the European Master in Contemporary European Studies (Euromásters) and master in transatlantic relations Europe-America. Her current research interests include local belonging, vulnerability, urban inequality, urban sustainability, and neighborhood dynamics. She has been co-coordinator of the research network 37 (Urban Sociology) of the European Sociological Association (ESA) until very recently. She is a member of the Institute of Gender Studies, Climate Strategic Initiative, Research group on Family, Work and Gender and Institute of Politics and Governance at the University Carlos III, and she is also a member of the Spanish Research Network Urban-Red.