Mitja Velikonja & Sandi Abram: WHEN WALLS SPEAK: THE IDEOLOGY OF GRAFFITI AND STREET ART IN LJUBLJANA

Photo: Abram

Saturday, August 27th, 11.00–14.00 
Prešeren Square

Recently, the Municipality of Ljubljana started a war against vandalism with its campaign »Take care of your city, it’s the only one you’ve got!«. Among other points, they urge inhabitants to report graffiti »vandalism« and perhaps suggest designated surfaces where the practice should be allowed. Instead of »hearing« what street artists and graffiti writers have to say, they’re being reduced to offenders or confined to controlled areas where freedom of art and expression is sponsored, monitored, in short, legal.

Sandi Abram and Mitja Velikonja will take us on a graffiti-walk around Ljubljana. They’ll guide us from graffiti to graffiti and – together with the audience – try to read or decipher messages from the particular piece. Besides the aesthetics, discussion will touch upon the political implications of these »urban frescoes« and, consequently, try to think about the ever-dubious nature of the relationship between art and political ideology on the streets: are graffiti merely reproducing or actually confronting current dominant ideologies, how/why/by whom are they (de)constructing them? Are these images signs of consent or dissent? How is, for example, the recent »refugee crisis« reflected in the streets? What do the graffiti tell us about the political landscape of Slovenia and its current issues? In short: what do the Ljubljana walls speak about?

Mitja Velikonja is a professor of Cultural Studies and chair of the Centre for Cultural and Religious Studies at the University of Ljubljana. His main areas of research include new transitional ideologies, subcultures and urban cultures, collective memory and post-socialist nostalgia. He is currently interested in the ideological dimensions and political potentials of contemporary graffiti and street art: from those sprayed by football fans to (anti)nostalgic ones, from graffiti battles of different sub-political groups to – in recent months – pro/anti-refugee ones.

Sandi Abram is a researcher in the field of graffiti and street art and the founder of the daily Ljubljana Graffiti Tour. His final thesis was »From graffiti to Graffiti: street creativity in the vice of incorporation practices«. He also co-edited a double issue of the Journal for the Critique of Science (Časopis za kritiko znanosti) on graffiti and street art. His research interests encompass the (re)appropriation of public spaces, contemporary journey(wo)men and craft, non-institutional artistic and artivism practices, with a special focus on urban creativity and street cultures.