Reflections on the natural evolution of urban art and graffiti
We assume that primitive humans were unaware they were creating art. Thousands of years ago, in the rock shelters of La Sarga, humans painted the impact their lived reality had on them. These were large, deep red figures with thick lines and macro-schematic shapes representing people and animals. For archaeologists, these paintings represent a major breakthrough in research. So much so that "a cry of excitement preceded the discovery," as Camil Visedo Moltó, the first director of the Alcoy Municipal Archaeological Museum, expressed.
Significant expressions have also been discovered on walls in the Roman city of Pompeii, buried by volcanic lava. Drawings, phrases, names, and signatures were found inside and outside the houses (tags): a repertoire of love declarations, erotic and sexual texts, political writings, and commercial advertisements. These constitute a fascinating account of urban life at the time, showing how inhabitants wrote to define their territory or record their time in the world.
Joan Fuster recounts in The discrediting of reality How the art of painting began to re-emerge in a small town near Florence called Vespignano, where a prodigious boy was born. This boy, who could draw a sheep from life, amazed Cimabue, who was traveling to Bologna and saw him sketching sheep on a stone. That boy would become his apprentice: Giotto. Once again, a drawing on stone.
In 1930, Diego Rivera painted a mural depicting Marx, Lenin, and Trotsky in New York's Rockefeller Center—the very heart of capitalism. The mural was immediately destroyed, but the painter reproduced it in Mexico's National Palace. Art has always been used by politics and power, just as artists have sought to raise awareness and bring about social change, inviting reflection on abuses and injustices. Likewise, abstract painting in New York became a powerful tool to counter Soviet propaganda—an art form without a message, which gave rise to Abstract Expressionism with artists such as Pollock and Rothko, among others.
Berger taught us to look at works and paintings. Similarly, street art has always existed out of the human need to express personal or collective emotions. In the 1980s, the art market introduced graffiti into the artistic sphere in the form of paintings or graphic works. These reflected the personal and psycho-evolutionary needs of their creators, but maintained the free and revolutionary spirit of street graffiti. This transformation became known as Aerosol Art either Gallery GraffitiGalleries, museums, and art spaces gave impetus to this new movement.
In Spain, the arrival of New York graffiti at ARCO in 1985 made a huge impact with works by renowned artists and writers such as Keith Haring, Jean-Michel Basquiat, Lady Pink, and TOXIC. Their presence at the fair paved the way for local artists in subsequent editions.
In Alcoy, mural painting emerged in the 1980s as a means of denouncing injustices such as waste, consumerism, genocide, and Pinochet's 1973 coup d'état in Chile. Later, the graffiti revolution reached the streets, becoming a symbol of identity. As elsewhere, a network of connections between local and regional artists was created, fueling the evolution and expansion of this sociocultural phenomenon. The ephemeral nature of this practice means that many previously active areas have disappeared over time. However, the natural evolution of the graffiti movement has continued to develop, encompassing both street and urban art.
The festival Urban Skills In Alcoy, this artistic practice has been revived. Held annually for the past five years, the festival brings together urban artists from the national and international scene. The scale of the project transforms the city's neighborhoods into an open-air museum, turning the streets into a space for communication and art.
Text by: Maria Guillem
Art historian and curator of the exhibition
Participating artists: Vincent CVD Spek (Kaniz), Xavi Ceerre, Lluïsa Penella, Germán Bel (Fasim), Javier Pérez (Roice 183) and Stillo Noir (Tanya Heidrich).
Texts from the exhibition: Maria Guillem and Oscar Garcia.