Grafismos urbanos: mensagens políticas em grafites e pichações na região central de Porto Alegre (2013-2014)

Abstract

This dissertation investigates political messages in urban graphic expressions such as graffiti and pichação (an internationally recognized Brazilian variation of the first, consisting in writing and painting on public walls, often cryptically and illegally) in the central area of Porto Alegre, Brazil. It starts with a photographic survey, structured with etnographic methodology, and it covers the years 2013-2014, when popular demonstrations bursted all over the country. It focuses in the way graffiti and pichação did contribute to the debate, denunciation and contestation around the issues arisen from such protests. Another focal point is the understanding of the relationship set between the urban space appropriation by the graffiti and pichação agents in their dialogue with the city and how their daily micro-political resistance acts can be understood as part of a political culture both urban and transgressive.