The Skin of the City: Graffiti and Patina
La piel de la ciudad: Graffiti y pátina
DOI:
https://doi.org/10.26754/ojs_artigrama/artigrama.20233810756Palabras clave:
Gráffiti, Pátina, arte urbano, ecología urbanaResumen
Resumen
El estudio de los grafitis provoca opiniones muy polarizadas y plantea problemas delicados y espinosos acerca de la conservación del patrimonio. Este campo complejo e interdisciplinar exige nuevas orientaciones de investigación y nuevas metodologías capaces de proporcionar las herramientas para abordar los graffiti de forma ética y sostenible. Con este fin, un concepto muy arraigado en la teoría y la práctica de la restauración —la pátina— puede resultar fructífero para cuestionar la percepción actual de la “piel” de las arquitecturas y los objetos como símbolo de suciedad y decadencia y verla, en cambio, como una valiosa estratificación histórica. Desde el punto de vista de las ciencias naturales, los muros son más que un depósito de cultura y memoria; dado que son los espacios verticales más comunes en los entornos urbanos, ofrecen un gran potencial para mejorar la microecología y la biodiversidad de nuestras ciudades. Sugiero en el presente estudio que la pátina funciona como un concepto puente que conecta los dos mundos que cohabitan en los muros urbanos, el de la naturaleza y el de la cultura, colapsando la distinción binaria entre pátina natural y artificial, agentes humanos y no humanos.
Abstract
The study of graffiti polarizes opinions and raises sensitive and thorny problems of heritage conservation. This complex interdisciplinary field calls for new directions of research and new methodologies able to provide the tools to approach graffiti in an ethical and sustainable way. To this end, a long-established concept in restoration theory and practice — patina — can prove fruitful in challenging the current perception of architectures and objects’ ‘skin’ as a symbol of dirt and decay and seeing it instead as a valuable historical layering. From the point of view of natural science, walls are more than a repository of culture and memory. As the most common vertical spaces in urban environments, they offer great potential for improving the micro-ecology and biodiversity of our cities. I here suggest that patina functions as a bridging concept that connects the two worlds cohabiting on urban walls, that of nature and that of culture, collapsing the binary distinction between natural and artificial patina, human and non-human agents.
Key words
Graffiti, Patina, Urban Art, Urban Ecology.
Descargas
Citas
Biel Ibáñez, P., “Public Space and Urban Art in Spain. Walls in Conflict and the Feminist Movement”, in Cianciolo Cosentino, G. et al., Graffiti Art in Prison, forthcoming 2024.
Bozorgian, A., Vahdati, M., “Sociology of the Wall. Rereading Iran’s Contemporary Political History through Murals”, in CO3 Cologne (ed.), The City is Us – Tehran/Cologne, Bönen, 2022, pp. 7-9.
Baudrillard, J., Kool Killer or the Insurrection of Signs, ed. by Les partisans du moindre effort, 2005 (1993).
https://lpdme.org/projects/jeanbaudrillard/koolkiller.pdf, (last access: 21 February 2024).
Boehnke, D. et al., “Mapping Urban Green and its Ecosystem Services at Microscale. A Methodological Approach for Climate”, Sustainability, 14, July 2022, pp. 1-26.
Brachert, T., Patina. Von Nutzen und Nachteil der Restaurierung, Munich, Callwey, 1995.
Brandi, C., “Restauro”, in Enciclopedia Universale dell’Arte, vol. XI, Venice/Rome, Istituto Collaborazione Culturale, 1963, p. 322-332 (in Conversaciones… con Cesare Brandi y Giulio Carlo Argan, 7, June 2019, pp. 12-29, p. 24).
Brandi, C., Restoration Theory and Practice, ed. by Giuseppe Basile, digital edition 2015 (2013).
Brassaï, Graffiti. Zwei Gespräche mit Picasso, Stuttgart, Belser Verlag, 1960.
Buentello García, M.ª E. D., Quinn Rice, J., “Gender Debates on the Stage of the Urban Memorial: Glitter, Graffiti, and Bronze”, Landscape Research, 48 (5), 2023, pp. 647-661.
Bühler, U., “Einst geschmäht, nun gepriesen: der Sprayer von Zürich nimmt den Kunstpreis der Stadt entgegen – und deren hochoffiziellen Dank für seine ‘Geschenke’”, Neue Zürcher Zeitung, 26 September 2020, https://www.nzz.ch/zuerich/der-sprayer-vonzuerich-wird-mit-dem-kunstpreis-geehrt-ld.1578349, (last access: 21 February 2024).
Chen, C. et al., “Walls Offer Potential to Improve Urban Biodiversity”, Scientific Reports, 10 (1), 2020, p. 1, https://doi.org/10.1038/s41598-020-66527-3, (last access: 21 February 2024).
Colombini, A., “The Duality of Graffiti: Is it Vandalism or Art?”, CeROArt, 2018, https://doi. org/10.4000/ceroart.5745, (last access: 21 February 2024).
Conservando MUELLE, https://conservandomuelle.wordpress.com/, (last access: 21 February 2024).
Dal Lago, A., Giordano, S., Graffiti. Arte e ordine pubblico, Bologna, 2016.
Del Tredici, P., “Spontaneous Urban Vegetation: Reflections of Change in a Globalized World”, Nature and Culture, 5 (3), 2010, pp. 299-315.
Dickinson, J., “The Writings on the Wall: An Abc of Historical and Contemporary Graffiti”, in Sarmento, C. (ed.), Popular and Visual Culture: Design, Circulation and Consumption, Cambridge, Ricardo Campos, 2014, pp. 39-58.
Dubner, A. (ed.), Die Wandbilder von Klaus Paier in Aachen und Köln, Aachen, 2023.
Ebersberger, E., Zyman, D. (eds.), Jorge Otero-Pailos, The Ethics of Dust, Cologne, Verlag der Buchhandlung Walther König, 2009.
Fiume, G., “Soundless Screams. Graffiti and Drawings in the Prisons of the Holy Office in Palermo”, Franz Steiner Verlag, Journal of Early Modern History, 21 (3), 2017, pp. 188-215.
Francis, R. A., “Wall Ecology: A Frontier for Urban Biodiversity and Ecological Engineering”, Progress in Physical Geography, 35 (1), 2010, pp. 43-63.
Frost, M., “Reading Nature: John Ruskin, Environment, and the Ecological Impulse”, in Mazzeno, L. W., Morrison, R. D. (eds.), Victorian Writers and the Environment. Ecocritical Perspectives, London, Routledge, 2016, pp. 13-18.
Gatti, G., “Toxicscape: An Epistemological Approach to Graffiti through American Narrative Cinema”, Empedocles: European Journal for the Philosophy of Communication, 8 (1), 2017, pp. 23-36.
Glanzer, I., Matyssek, A., Patina. Spuren der Vergangenheit in der Kunst der Gegenwart, Munich, Edition Metzel, 2023.
Goidanich, S. et al., “Effects of Wax-based Anti-graffiti on Copper Patina Composition and Dissolution During Four Years of Outdoor Urban Exposure”, Journal of Cultural Heritage, 11 (3), 2010, pp. 288-296.
Graves-Brown, P., Schofield, J., “The Filth and the Fury: 6 Denmark Street (London) and the Sex Pistols”, Antiquity, 85 (330), 2011, pp. 1385-1401.
Gruber, C., “Gezi Graffiti: Shout-Outs to Resistance and Rebellion in Contemporary Turkey”, in Ragazzoli, C., Harmanşah, Ö., Salvador, C., Frood, E. (eds.), Scribbling through History. Graffiti, Places and People from Antiquity to Modernity, London/New York, Bloomsbury Academic, 2017, pp. 83-94.
Intangible Heritage, SAUC, 3 (1), 2017.
Koller, M., “Patina, Alterswert und Schmutz. Ein historischer Exkurs und Begriffsdefinitionen”, Restauro, 119, 2013, pp. 23-26.
Krücken, M., “Wer war Klaus Paier? Eine Annäherung an der Aachener Wandmaler”, Denkmalpflege im Rheinland, 28, 2011, pp. 40-41.
Lohmann, P. (ed.), Historische Graffiti als Quellen. Methoden und Perspektiven eines jungen Forschungsbereichs, Stuttgart 2018.
Matteuzzi, E., “Il degrado delle superfici di architettura secondo la norma UNI 11182. Riconoscere e classificare le forme di degrado dei materiali lapidei naturali e artificiali”, Teknoring, 7 June 2022, https://www.teknoring.com/guide/guide-architettura/il-degrado-delle-superfici-di-architettura-secondo-la-norma-uni-11182/, (last access: 21 February 2024).
Mendes Zancheti, S. et al., “The Patina of the City”, City & Time, 2, 2006, p. 11-22.
Mostafavi, M., Leatherbarrow, D., On Weathering. The Life of Buildings in Time, Cambridge, The MIT Press, 1993.
Otero-Pailos, J., The Ethics of Dust: Doge’s Palace, Venice, 2009, exhibition in the Corderie dell’Arsenale, 53rd Venice Art Biennale 2009.
Phillips, A., “Sustaining Stains”, in Ebersberger, E., Zyman, D. (eds.), Jorge Otero-Pailos, The Ethics of Dust, Cologne, Verlag der Buchhandlung Walther König, 2009, p. 87.
Phillips, D., “São Paulo: Taggers Killed for Their Art Show Dangers of City’s Graffiti Culture”, The Guardian (1 August 2018), https://www.theguardian.com/cities/2018/aug/01/brazilgraffiti-artist-sao-paulo, (last access: 21 February 2024).
Riegl, A., “The Modern Cult of Monuments: Its Character and its Origin”, translated by Karin Bruckner with Karen Williams, in Stanley Price, N. et al. (eds.), Historical and Philosophical Issues in the Conservation of Cultural Heritage, Los Angeles, Los Angeles Getty Conservation Institute, 1996, pp. 69-83.
Ruskin, J., The Seven Lamps of Architecture, London, Smith, Elder & Co., 1849.
Sammond, N., Creadick, A., “The Writing on the Wall: Learning and Teaching Graffiti”, Transformations: The Journal of Inclusive Scholarship and Pedagogy, 24 (1-2), 2014, pp. 138-154.
Santabárbara Morera, C., “Cesare Brandi and Contemporary Art: Theory, Aesthetic and Restoration. A Tempestuous Dialectic”, in Conversaciones… con Cesare Brandi y Giulio Carlo Argan, op. cit., pp. 249-266.
Schacter, R., “From Pollution to Purity: The Transformation of Graffiti and Street Art in London (2005-17)”, in Tilley, C. (ed.), London’s Urban Landscape. Another Way of Telling, London, UCL Press, 2019, pp. 403-425.
Schacter, R., Ornament and Order. Graffiti, Street Art and the Parergon, Burlington, Routledge, 2014.
See Faletra, M., Graffiti. Poetiche della rivolta, Milan, Postmedia Books, 2015.
Silberer, E., “Klaus Paiers Graffiti in Aachen unter Denkmalschutz. Illegal, aber Kunst”, NRW-Kultur, 3 May 2011, https://www.nw.de/nachrichten/kultur/ kultur/4438966_Klaus-Paiers-Graffiti-in-Aachen-unter-Denkmalschutz.html, (last access: 21 February 2024).
Stahl, J., “The Questions from the Walls and the Answers to Them”, in CO3 Cologne (ed.), The City is Us – Tehran/Cologne, Bönen, 2022, p. 6.
Winter, T., “Clarifying the Critical in Critical Heritage Studies”, International Journal of Heritage Studies, 19 (6), 2013, pp. 532-545.
Woelk, M. (ed.), Harald Naegeli in Köln. Sprayer und Zeichner, Cologne, 2022.
Descargas
Publicado
Cómo citar
Número
Sección
Licencia
Derechos de autor 2024 Gabriella Cianciolo Cosentino
Esta obra está bajo una licencia internacional Creative Commons Atribución-NoComercial 4.0.
