The Role of Murals in the Contemporary Functioning of Urban Social Movements in the Public Space of Cities: A Review of Selected Artistic Activities

Abstract

In the repertoire of contemporary social movements in urban space, one can increasingly find activities of artistic and cultural character. The main determinant of these activities is their originality in conveying shared values and political claims. Street art and murals belonging to it are included in the activities of social movements. Murals, which by definition are egalitarian art, engage the viewer in dialog, becoming socially-engaged art. Over the last dozen or so years, we have observed the phenomenon of the so-called mural boom, i.e. the rapid growth of the artistic social movement centered around murals. Based on a historical analysis of mural activity, examples of murals which are a manifestation of political views will be presented. These murals have been selected according to the criterion of having been created during the most important contemporary social movements of the last ten years. Furthermore, a semiological analysis of photographs of murals will be used to characterize the phenomenon of murals in contemporary social movements as well as the hidden meaningful elements in the message.