Lisbon and Cascais
5,6 and 7 of July 2018
Activities Report
It is impossible to describe through words the effective experience lived during the days of Urban Creativity Lisbon activities (5,6 and 7 of July 2018). Certainly, all were different individual experiences, but something bigger was generated, a collective vibrancy resulting of each individual contribution by the audience, speakers, street authors, and production team in the different times of the day and spaces.
The 2018 activities thematic "it's about time" aimed the objective of problematizing the chronological constraints of street art, graffiti, and urban creativity in general. Reinforcing the idea of the atemporal, potentially interpreted as something indissociable of human nature, linking 30000 old archeological findings with today.
Using 3 venues, Main Auditorium, Lagoa Henriques of Fine Arts Faculty Auditoriums, and the Auditorium of Cascais Cultural Center, the more that 80 participants had the opportunity to share perspectives from more that 20 disciplinary fields, and 35 countries.
During the works, 2 books were launched, Street Art and Environment, by Bengtsen and Urban Art, Creating the Urban with Art, 2016 Berlin Conference made in articles edited by Ulrich Blanche and Ilaria Hoppe (open access publication of Urban Creativity).
The consequences are growing, the Urban Creativity research project managed by Peter Bengtsen and Erik Hannerz, was now funded on Lund University (Sweden), proofing the international acceptance of our research topic and network.
Many were the contributions that impacted the audience, in nearly every break and panel transition there were several questions, and replies.
The 2018 activities thematic "it's about time" aimed the objective of problematizing the chronological constraints of street art, graffiti, and urban creativity in general. Reinforcing the idea of the atemporal, potentially interpreted as something indissociable of human nature, linking 30000 old archeological findings with today.
Using 3 venues, Main Auditorium, Lagoa Henriques of Fine Arts Faculty Auditoriums, and the Auditorium of Cascais Cultural Center, the more that 80 participants had the opportunity to share perspectives from more that 20 disciplinary fields, and 35 countries.
During the works, 2 books were launched, Street Art and Environment, by Bengtsen and Urban Art, Creating the Urban with Art, 2016 Berlin Conference made in articles edited by Ulrich Blanche and Ilaria Hoppe (open access publication of Urban Creativity).
The consequences are growing, the Urban Creativity research project managed by Peter Bengtsen and Erik Hannerz, was now funded on Lund University (Sweden), proofing the international acceptance of our research topic and network.
Many were the contributions that impacted the audience, in nearly every break and panel transition there were several questions, and replies.
Day 1 - 5 of July
The first morning, was about alternative cultural spaces commodification, creative responses and ongoing dialogues layer by layer everyday on the street, the problematic of the White Supremacist Graffiti, Urban and street festival that goes beyond the common conceptions of Street Art, Neo-muralism strategies for planning with urban art, searching values, and the problematic of the white cube and the Displacement of the Street Art Aesthetic.
In the first afternoon there were parallel sessions, in both Main and Lagoa Henriques auditoriums. Both auditoriums had a consistent audience, resulting in a comfortable situation for all the participants.
In the Main auditorium the relation between Tags and Masterpieces was on discussion, looking at Graffiti as a catalyst of individual creativity, repositioning several terminological designations was observed graffiti’s as an Invisible Act, were shared also some examples combining Graffiti-Writing traditions and Street Art innovations in urban rehabilitation process. Street Signs used as support for creativity were observed in detail, and interesting contributions (from linguistic analysis) looked upon the Poetical Expression in Urban Art, and a powerful and fundamental look upon the numbers, were side by side with the practice.
In the Lagoa Henriques Auditorium, the presentations were about Norway experiences, both from Nipper John author/ artistic perspective, but also from academic, curatorial and institutional angles. This were condensed in a panel ‘Street Art Curatorial Practices: Lessons from Norway’. Auditorium session closed by author Carrie Reichardt presentation.
Environmental street art (Bengtsen book launch) got the audience of both auditoriums gathered again. Closing the activities for the day in Fine Arts Faculty, professor Cristovão Pereira conducted questions and introduced “Os Espacialistas”, exploratory architects using photos as drawing process, with particular emphasis on the observation of public urban spaces in relation with the body. As a surprise, a performative moment by Max Blax was shared, explaining the relation between is body language and painting language.
The day continued with relaxing moments in Lost Lisbon Cais guest house, sharing drinks, and ended with a dynamic dinner of 40 persons in one exclusive restaurant room.
In the first afternoon there were parallel sessions, in both Main and Lagoa Henriques auditoriums. Both auditoriums had a consistent audience, resulting in a comfortable situation for all the participants.
In the Main auditorium the relation between Tags and Masterpieces was on discussion, looking at Graffiti as a catalyst of individual creativity, repositioning several terminological designations was observed graffiti’s as an Invisible Act, were shared also some examples combining Graffiti-Writing traditions and Street Art innovations in urban rehabilitation process. Street Signs used as support for creativity were observed in detail, and interesting contributions (from linguistic analysis) looked upon the Poetical Expression in Urban Art, and a powerful and fundamental look upon the numbers, were side by side with the practice.
In the Lagoa Henriques Auditorium, the presentations were about Norway experiences, both from Nipper John author/ artistic perspective, but also from academic, curatorial and institutional angles. This were condensed in a panel ‘Street Art Curatorial Practices: Lessons from Norway’. Auditorium session closed by author Carrie Reichardt presentation.
Environmental street art (Bengtsen book launch) got the audience of both auditoriums gathered again. Closing the activities for the day in Fine Arts Faculty, professor Cristovão Pereira conducted questions and introduced “Os Espacialistas”, exploratory architects using photos as drawing process, with particular emphasis on the observation of public urban spaces in relation with the body. As a surprise, a performative moment by Max Blax was shared, explaining the relation between is body language and painting language.
The day continued with relaxing moments in Lost Lisbon Cais guest house, sharing drinks, and ended with a dynamic dinner of 40 persons in one exclusive restaurant room.
Day 2 - 6 of July
The second day morning, due to unpredicted changes on the program, all started with the “A Brief History of Graffiti” BBC documentary. After the documentary professor Eduardo Duarte welcomed everyone and introduced Richard Clay, main responsible for the documentary and himself professor and researcher, sharing with the audience his graffiti related latest work, about how graffiti is ‘influencing operations’ in armed struggles. After a vivid Q&A moment, the presentations followed, exploring the dialectics of post-graffiti and murals interactions by graffiti’s scriptural riposte, the ethnographical approach as in Aesthetics of Change, and the Psychology of Street Art Creation Process, and finally in the end of the morning, Graffiti as a palimpsest, as layers of embodied narratives, proving that human brain centered approaches are rich in content and of multilayered complex development, full of exploratory ways to be developed.
After lunch, in the second afternoon, there were again parallel sessions, in both Main and Lagoa Henriques auditoriums. They were unbalanced, and the Main auditorium remained with the majority of the audience, fact that made us readjust the program including the last session of Lagoa Henriques auditorium in the Main auditorium (OPNI group).
In the main auditorium book production process using stencil was explained, and powerful digital online archiving and documentation was revealed, right after a climax of solutions and proposals about ongoing street art mapping online application. The dialectic of institutionalization in graffiti art was explored as formal aesthetic shifts, and specific Graffiti Masculinity in Helsinki metro served as an example for the singularity of this approach. Distinct practices such as Halls of Fame got to be presented and also a Athens case study presented in 3 scientific angles. Closing the panel was presented an impressive both aesthetically and conceptually, project in Staro Zhelezare, Bulgaria.
In the Lagoa Henriques auditorium, the discussion started by the Indoors and Outdoors, Exhibition Perspectives, moving to Brave Paths, and São Paulo’s Scenario, Art, Invasion, Vandalism and Recognition: Notes About Events of Brazilian National Repercussion.
OPNI group, São Paulo was then invited to present on the main auditorium, sharing a groundbreaking experience in context of full institutional failure, and daily life desperation, changing guns for painting and redirecting life of the "favelas" kids with their works.
As final ending keynote presentation Erik Hannerz, that even pressured by time, gave us a insight of performative traces in the territory both before, during and after the action of painting graffiti.
After short logistic recommendations for Saturday travel to Cascais, and apologies for the delay to the security staff that wanted to close the auditorium, the day continued with relaxing moments in Lost Lisbon Cais guest house, sharing drinks, and with Nipper very successful workshop. That friday all ended again with a dynamic dinner of near 40 persons.
During the 5th and 6th of July there was an average of 80 to 120 persons in the audience, distributed on the 2 auditoriums and during the several moments of the day.
After lunch, in the second afternoon, there were again parallel sessions, in both Main and Lagoa Henriques auditoriums. They were unbalanced, and the Main auditorium remained with the majority of the audience, fact that made us readjust the program including the last session of Lagoa Henriques auditorium in the Main auditorium (OPNI group).
In the main auditorium book production process using stencil was explained, and powerful digital online archiving and documentation was revealed, right after a climax of solutions and proposals about ongoing street art mapping online application. The dialectic of institutionalization in graffiti art was explored as formal aesthetic shifts, and specific Graffiti Masculinity in Helsinki metro served as an example for the singularity of this approach. Distinct practices such as Halls of Fame got to be presented and also a Athens case study presented in 3 scientific angles. Closing the panel was presented an impressive both aesthetically and conceptually, project in Staro Zhelezare, Bulgaria.
In the Lagoa Henriques auditorium, the discussion started by the Indoors and Outdoors, Exhibition Perspectives, moving to Brave Paths, and São Paulo’s Scenario, Art, Invasion, Vandalism and Recognition: Notes About Events of Brazilian National Repercussion.
OPNI group, São Paulo was then invited to present on the main auditorium, sharing a groundbreaking experience in context of full institutional failure, and daily life desperation, changing guns for painting and redirecting life of the "favelas" kids with their works.
As final ending keynote presentation Erik Hannerz, that even pressured by time, gave us a insight of performative traces in the territory both before, during and after the action of painting graffiti.
After short logistic recommendations for Saturday travel to Cascais, and apologies for the delay to the security staff that wanted to close the auditorium, the day continued with relaxing moments in Lost Lisbon Cais guest house, sharing drinks, and with Nipper very successful workshop. That friday all ended again with a dynamic dinner of near 40 persons.
During the 5th and 6th of July there was an average of 80 to 120 persons in the audience, distributed on the 2 auditoriums and during the several moments of the day.
Day 3 - 7 of July
Saturday July 7th, the 3rd day of activities, the group travelled from Lisbon to Cascais by train. In Cascais the first activity was to visit Add Fuel working space, and after that pass by the future place of MARCC on the way to group lunch. The works started only in the afternoon, in the Centro Cultural de Cascais auditorium with near 60 persons in the audience.
The presenters were aligned in a chronological sequence, starting from the problematic of Dating Pompeian Wall Inscriptions, passing by the History of stencils as a history of Street Art, From the 19th century to Banksy, and the post-urban paradigm and where street art and graffiti are not (going to be).
After this sequence, was presented the Interdisciplinary research theme on "urban creativity" that was financed by Pufendorf Institute for Advanced Studies, in Lund University. There were problematized the issue of Street Art as Performance, looking at it's Impermanence, Temporality, and Ontology. And also the Street Art, Graffiti and Copyright.
The future Museum of Urban and Contemporary Art of Cascais (MARCC) was presented, and in the end of the session the book "Urban Art: Creating the Urban with Art" was launched.
The presenters were aligned in a chronological sequence, starting from the problematic of Dating Pompeian Wall Inscriptions, passing by the History of stencils as a history of Street Art, From the 19th century to Banksy, and the post-urban paradigm and where street art and graffiti are not (going to be).
After this sequence, was presented the Interdisciplinary research theme on "urban creativity" that was financed by Pufendorf Institute for Advanced Studies, in Lund University. There were problematized the issue of Street Art as Performance, looking at it's Impermanence, Temporality, and Ontology. And also the Street Art, Graffiti and Copyright.
The future Museum of Urban and Contemporary Art of Cascais (MARCC) was presented, and in the end of the session the book "Urban Art: Creating the Urban with Art" was launched.
John Nipper - Urban Creativity MIssion Directives
The parallel interventions in public space started on July 4, with Alex Senna (Brazil) meeting on Elevador da Gloria, and during the night Ener Konings (Norway) in Rua Nova do Desterro, Arroios.
The exhibition of Max Blax (Russia) in Lost Lisbon Cais guest house was catalyzed by his performance on the 1st day afternoon, and also the works of Jacqueline De Montaigne (PT/ FR) and the Paris Tsiropinas (Greece) were associated to the activities.
The continuos work in the street developed by the small scale, ephemeral works of John Nipper (Norway) and message based tiles of Carrie Reichardt, guaranteed a close relations between theory and practice.
Carrie Reichardt (tiles in Lisbon)
Partners, colleagues, friends, and family, served as words used in the attempt to describe the connecting feeling that grows with the security of permanence after 5 years of continuos editions. The exchanged quotes of present authors, and the freshness of the contents that make presenters to adapt their communications in a continuos dialogue, are proof of the indubitable Impact and development of the produced collective knowledge.
With the publication of books and of SAUC Journal, the dialogue continues in the digital open access and paper format, reaching other audiences and building an ongoing trajectory of recognition aimed to the highest standards, not only academic and or institutional, but above all production and practice-oriented. Engaging with a big heterogeneity of disciplines, focused on graffiti, street art as subjects of theorization and practice, towards the definition of an academic and professional disciplinary field of Urban Creativity.
Production team:
Executive direction – Pedro Soares Neves
Auditorium support – Véro; Joana Paramés; Charlene; André Falcão;
Street Support (availability) – Bruno Bastos; Jéssica Burrinha;
Photos and Videos – André Falcão; Wojtek Scibor;
Support:
DGArtes / Républica Portuguesa – Cultura
FCT – Fundação para a Ciência e Tecnologia
FBAUL/ CIEBA – Faculdade de Belas Artes da Universidade de Lisboa
CML – Câmara Municipal de Lisboa
CMC – Câmara Municipal de Cascais / Fundação Dom Luis I
OCA – Office for Contemporary Art Norway
Partnership:
MARCC – Museum of Urban and Contemporary Art of Cascais
NUART; and Yes you Can Spray; Lost Collective / Lost Lisbon Cais – Guest House
