Urban art exposed: provenance, content and implication

Abstract

Analysis of two large-scale exhibitions in recent years, dedicated to graffiti and urban art. The two case studies will be: The Haus (Berlin, 2017) and Banksy: Genius or Vandal? (Madrid, 2019). These were ephemeral exhibitions, itinerant, unauthorized, curated by the artists, free, private ... Two very different approaches, which exhibited works of very different types and formats, but always under the title of "graffiti” or “urban art." In a traditional museum, the content of its collection is what defines its typology. In this case, in our classification, the exhibitions were not defined or classified according to the content of the collection: materials, media, techniques, formats; but to the origin of the exhibited pieces: pillaged from public space, sold by the artists themselves, part of private collections, created ex profeso (in situ or in workshop) by the artists themselves ...) All of these exhibitions show similar types of artistic expressions from the public space, but each one of them has exposed it in a very different way. We will analyze which are the most correct or adequate, taking into account the characteristics of the art itself and especially the opinion of the artists.