Paper short abstract:

Assuming graffiti as a medium to express critique, in my presentation I would like to explore the possibilities of constructing memory with graffiti and street art with an ethnographic case study from Bogotá, Colombia.

Paper long abstract:

In the last years, the streets of the Colombian capital Bogota have become a sort of open air art gallery, where different perspectives on the political and social situation of the country are expressed. Especially within the context of the current peace talks between the Colombian government and the FARC guerrilla, the walls of the city have become a place to negotiate different versions of the past and present. Assuming graffiti as a medium to express critique, in my presentation I would like to explore the possibilities of constructing memory with graffiti and street art. Instead of treating the image as a transmitter of a message, I want to analyze the various ways in which graffiti and memory can be related. With four different examples from my ethnographic fieldwork, I would like to show how we can think about the construction of collective memory on the wall: Graffiti as testimonio, as palimpsest, as lieux de mémoire, and as performance.