"All City": Graffiti Europeu como modo de comunicação e transgressão no espaço urbano

Abstract

Lisbon stands, like many other big cities in this globalized world we live in, as a ground for an intense cultural activity that is visually present in its surface, manifested through a multiple array of mysterious symbols and peculiar iconographies. The city is the habitat of contemporary graffiti, a specific language which has been progressively acquiring a more prevalent role in the urban visualscape. The purpose of this article is to examine graffiti as an act of territorial appropriation. Urban space is a central resource for many youngsters, through which they explore different social and individual skills. In this arena graffiti writers perform a ritualized practice, displaying acquired abilities, competing for status and recognition, making us all witnesses of dynamics we rarely understand.