“Pixação é art, correr faz parte” [Pixação is art, running is part of it][1] or When the “corres” [running] is different.
Short notes on pixação, graffiti and their “runnings” in museum institutions in Recife
“Run, baby, run.”
Jim Morrison, Roadhouse Blues
Ever since I saw the names “Kranon and Klesche” hurriedly written in blue in the Campo Grande neighborhood in Recife in the mid 1990s, I have paid more attention to writing in the city. This attention turned into a survey for the art-education specialization course I took at the Catholic University of Pernambuco (concluded in March 2009). I am currently doing research on collectionism, for a Masters degree in a postgraduate program in anthropology at the Federal University of Pernambuco. I am also a mother and continue watching the streets, drifting away in situationist and the everyday hustle and bustle, when I worked as an art educator in museums such as the Joaquim Nabuco Foundation and the Ricardo Brennand Institute.
There are several similarities between pixação and graffiti. Here in Brazil there seems to be a differentiation between both languages which takes on the form of a distinction, which I shall attempt to analyze below. In other places, everything is an action on the city, with multiple types, motivations, techniques and themes. There is no specific entry: It´s graffiti, graffito… Such actions are principally urban intervention – be it written, drawn, stuck on or moulded….
When the anonymous author writes on the wall “pixação is art”, he includes in this act, by means of his text, an aesthetic attribute (in the wide sense of aesthetics – “to feel”) which is also part of art. And if “running is a part of it”, this occurs due to an inherent consequence of pixação: as it has not been authorized by the owner of the wall: The “running” for the pixador is the escape: from the police, from dogs, from the owner of the wall. Currently, the “runnings” are others such as gathering documents from an edict or being “artist-producer” of your own exposition…. The runnings are many and remain, perhaps, as activities inherent not only to pixaçao, but also to the production of art: not to escape, but to produce. It really is about running for everything: this activity is intrinsically related to human existence in the so talked-about contemporary times.
I will make some comments here on “pixar is art”, its relationship with graffiti and the “runnings” referring to its inclusion in certain museum institutions in Recife. The text is based on a field survey I carried out between August 2008 and March 2009. Space is limited, so I will focus my observations on some of the inclusions of graffiti in institutions.
“Pixar é art” (Pixar is art)
This statement is not only visible on walls, but also in the attitude of the pixadores. For many pixadores, according to the field survey and conversations I have had with those who do it, the action of writing monochromatically with a specific typography (theirs or of their group) contains the fundamental elements of art: It´s aesthetic (as this is the objective of the writing), and action on the city – so it´s art.
For some theorists in the field of art, however, the differentiation remains: Pixação is writing and graffiti is art. [2]Both are done on city walls. Pixação is not permitted, and is often of a political nature. Graffiti is generally permitted and may also have political content. The truth is that, legally, both are crimes when not authorized in writing by the owners of the wall or by those responsible for public property.
Galo de Souza, an artist from the state of Pernambuco who has been active since the 1990s, told me in an interview (held on 05/12/2008) that pixadores were already present in the city of Recife in the second half of the 1980s. Before this, political writing or satire spread not just through this city, but several others around the world. During this decade, the city had territorial limits defined by gangs. These gangs had variable members, brought together according to the logic of space – when they were from the same neighborhood – or from frequenting funk events. In turn, the gangs had initials that were stamped around the city, such as S.P.D. “the Setubal Pixação Devils”
From the 1980s to the present day, pixação has remained a statement of territory and identity – and/or a simple craze of signing your own name wherever you go, even in marker pen. In an interview with Boony[3] at the opening of his exposition – part of a series of Lado B Arrudeia events, held in 2008 by the Murillo La Greca Museum – we can see the similarities between graffiti and pixação1. When I asked about his career, the artist replied: “I didn´t know I was graffiting, but I imagined it was pixação, or if I was graffiting. Because they are similar, it´s like they´re first cousins. I used to hang out with pixadores, but I was excluded at the same time, because I liked to draw, my influence was drawing and the influence of pixadores was writing. (Boony, interview with the autor, 12/08/08).
As you can see, there is a difference between graffiti and pixação not only in the opinion of the theorists, but also in that of the artists. This difference can also be considered a distinction1[4]. In the hierarchy of legitimacies that Bourdieu (2003)[5] declares exist in the field of art, pixação doesn´t have the distinct signs of graffiti. Thus, pixação does not derive from legitimate art as such, it is not authorized and has not gained access to the most consecrated halls of art, the museums – and therefore doesn´t possess the distinction that graffiti does.
Up to here we can state, as seen in the title of this text, that pixadores and graffiti artists consider themselves artists: both carry out aesthetic urban interventions. But the difference is to what degree their activities are legitimate in the field of art: and it has been in the search for other types of legitimization that pixadores and graffiti artists have been included in the field of institutionalized art for some time. No longer as “pixadores” and “graffiti artists” marking their identity, but as artists,
“Correr faz parte” (Running is a part of it)
In the second half of 2002, the 45th Salão de Artes Plásticas de Pernambuco was held in the Tacaruna factory, with Paulo Bruscky as curator. The Subgraf group – formed by Moacir Lago, José Rodrigues, Osman Frazão and Guga Cavalcanti – was present at the Panorama das Artes Plásticas Pernambucanas, proposed by the board of trustees as a representative, in the 1990s, of graffiti in Pernambuco. Subgraf, in turn, invited pixadores to participate, covering a whole wall of the exposition with writing. Galo also exhibited some of his works on offset screens at this exposition.
By being included in smaller-scale institutions in the field of art, or less legitimate in Bourdieu´s hierarchy, the 45th Salão was the first time that graffiti was exhibited in a museum institution in Recife From that day on, between one “running” and another, institutional expositions have taken place, as in 2007 at Mamam – Estética da Periferia, and in 2008 at the above-mentioned Lado B Arrudeia. At the former, included among graffiti on the ground floor of the institution was the phrase, “I´m a pixador, what about you?” as if to remind people of the similarities between pixação and graffiti that I mentioned above. All together, written and drawn, with no identification, was one of the criticisms I heard from visitors at the Estética da Periferia. The artists tried to make up for this mistake, including thoughts on urban intervention in their provocations. On the other hand, the exposition attracted a different type of visitor to Maman, above all coming from the communities surveyed by the exposition creation team – that operated in partnership with the board of trustees. I believe this was one of its merits.
In the case of the Lado B Arrudeia, people strove for dialogue between the artists, as the expositions were always in twos. Of the six expositions organized by Beth da Matta, manager of the institution at the time, the São Paulo group SHN (who held a workshop on the first Day of the Lado B expositions), the Livrinho de Papel Finíssimo Editora and Diogo Todé, Galo and Moa Lago, Elaine and Derlon Almeida, Arbus and Boony, Caju and Evil all participated. These artists and groups are at different stages of institutional exposition. Whilst some have already attained a certain status, others – according to the above-mentioned survey – had never even been to a museum before, which was certainly one of the most positive aspects of the Lado B expositions. There was also a closer proximity of artists and the educational side of the institution, which held workshops with the local community – Vila Vintém.
Among other inclusions of graffiti in institutions in the field of art in Pernambuco in the period after the 45th Salão, those that took place in the SPA das Artes are most worthy of mention. With its proposal of fostering artistic interventions in the streets of Recife, the SPA carried out work on and about graffiti on different occasions. In 2008, the SPA – under the general coordination of Márcio Almeida – held the Exposições Descentralizadas, the idea of which was to hold events in six different regions of Recife, decentralizing the SPA.
Among other artists and languages, participants of the Decentralized Expositions, I will highlight those who used the language of graffiti: Evil, Elaine, Anêmico, Zone and Caju (under the organization of Galo, at the Nascedouro de Peixinhos); Boony (coordinated by community leader and actor Edson Fly, at the Centro Social Urbano da Ilha de Deus, in Imbiribeira) and Pretto (at the Sítio da Trindade, coordinated by the musician Neilton). The Decentralized Expositions had great repercussions on the communities that hosted them, which can be seen in the profile of the public – in their majority residents of the areas where the expositions were held – and who had never previously been to an exposition. Furthermore, thanks to the proposal for holding the exposition indoors (even if it wasn´t really a museum), the graffiti artists were able to experiment with other support, creating objects – such as domestic appliances, pictures and clothes.
To sum up, I would like to talk about another recent event involving graffiti, this time at the 47th Salão de Artes Plásticas de Pernambuco. At the first exposition of artists invited to this event, held in the Museu do Estado with Adriana Dória Matos as curator, graffiti seems to have secured a protagonistic position in the field of local art. Derlon and Gilvan Samico had a room each, with a project identifying the works and photographs – as was the case of Derlon, who exhibited some examples of his graffiti in the city in addition to work at the location. Visitors were able to check out the dialogue between two differently-motivated artists, encouraged both by the board of trustees and the event itself.
Therefore, this protagonism may be questioned from the edict of the event. On contemplating this language, it was separated from the visual arts and placed in the category “Prize for Graffiti Projects”. One should reflect on this specificity. If there was one prize for “Research and Production Projects in Visual Arts” and another for “Artistic Residences in the State of Pernambuco”, then isn´t graffiti visual art? Or the intention of the edict was to contemplate specificities of the graffiti artists, who often don´t have the means (technical and financial) to meet the demands of the edicts. (And if this was the intention, demands such as a project with justification, objective, documentation of authorization of the use of urban spaces, among other items, were required for both artists using graffiti and the “visual artists”).
Besides these arguments, which require further debate between the organizers of the 47th Salao and the artists, I underline the positive aspect of this inclusion: to place guests among curators and researchers to select projects executed by graffiti artists, opening the way for their works to gain recognition. Another aspect refers to the professionalization of this language, by means of institutional support to the urban interventions. But the fact that the 47th Salão (even with the difficulties caused by the edict– which did not prevent the submission of several projects), graffiti seems to have guaranteed its presence in the institutionalized field of art in Pernambuco.
Parallel to this course of institutional inclusion, many artists working with graffiti have formed groups, thereby ensuring this type of production is a permanent fixture on the streets. One of these groups, linked not only to graffiti, but to music and dance as well – specifically from the world of hip-hop[6] – is the Rede da Resistência Solidária. According to Galo, “the Rede da Resistência Solidária is a network, a space for provocative dialogue and the appearance of positive practices in the communities…. We propose new, more supportive work relationships; new, more egalitarian social relationships; and new, more human relationships among individuals”.
The network, among other activities, promotes the Mutirão de Grafiti once a month. This cooperative unites graffiti artists from various neighborhoods in Recife and surrounding areas and has been held in more than sixty locations since it was founded in mid 2006. It is evident that, regardless of its institutional exhibition, graffiti has spread on the streets and has been seen by publics who do not yet have access to diverse types of museum institutions. Surely, this exposure in non-institutionalized of art, as is the case of the Mutirão, provides the public with a permanent view – different to other artistic languages, which brings together meanings that may be accepted by the institutions that foster the new languages aimed at urban intervention.
As we can see, the choice of the museum institutions for an identity more related to society and its differences seems to prevail in recent activities including graffiti. Whilst urban writing provides graffiti artists with immediate contact with the public, the museum ensures this contact is made through an institution – in the field of art. However, if on the one hand graffiti artists desire a place in the institutions to legitimize their production as visual art, on the other, the institutions strive to include graffiti as a form of attracting the public to their activities. Therefore, we need to “run” in order to make the field of art less commercial yet more and more contextualized, ensuring the agents are familiar with the field they are active in and increasing the meaning graffiti already has in the urban context and accruing other meanings, by means of their inclusion in a museum context.
[1] Written in Rua Prudente de Morais, in Recife-PE. If by the author’s desire, hurry or lack of knowledge, “pixar” and “art” are written like that. In this text, I’ll use “pichar” and “arte”.
T.N.Covering buildings throughout Brazilian cities, pixação is a style of graffiti native to Brazil and known for its simple, angular lines.
[2] See for example, AGUIAR DE SOUZA, David da Costa. Graffiti, Pichação e Outras Modalidades de Intervenção Urbana: caminhos e destinos da arte de rua brasileira. Rio de Janeiro: Enfoques magazine, vol. 7, no. 1, March, 2008. Available at: http://www.enfoques.ifcs.ufrj.br/marco08/05.htm, access 0n 20/08/08. and GITAHY, Celso. O que é graffiti. São Paulo: Brasiliense, 1999
[3] Here is another similarity between graffiti e pixação: the codes that are used as a form of identity in the face of a group – which is both the case of graffiti artists and pixadores.
[4] Cf. BOURDIEU, Pierre A Distinção: Crítica social do julgamento. Trad. Daniela Kern; Guilherme J. F. Teixeira. São Paulo: Edusp & Porto Alegre: Zouk, 2008
[5] BOURDIEU, Pierre. A Economia das Trocas Simbólicas. Trad. Sergio Miceli. São Paulo: Perspectiva, 2003. In the author´s opinion, there is a hierarchy of legitimacies in the field of art in which institutions co-inhabit with greater or less power to make artistic production legitimate, such as museums, galleries and art critics.
[6] Appeared on the scene in the mid 1960s as a political statement of under-privileged populations – particularly negroes – against the public authorities in the United States – hip-hop consists of four elements: graffiti, the DJ (disc-jockey), the MC (master of cerimony) and break dance.
