“…and I want to paint it black!?”

What strategies are there to undermine the reclamation of street art for profit and support public engagement for the interests of citizens?

  • Antje Akkermann

Abstract

This working paper will unfold the methodological design of the PhD research project, Behind The Murals – A Participative Webdocu on the Motivations and the Reclamations of Street Art, with a focus on the incident when BLU repainted his murals at Berlin’s Cuvrybrache completely black. In contrast to BLU’s strategy – to erase his art so that it can no longer be made profitable by the investor of the lot or even by Berlin’s city marketing – I aim to investigate what other strategies against the reclamation of street art are imaginable. The main methodological question is, how is it possible to carry out this research in such a way that its results support the communities (potentially) affected by gentrification/touristification to gain a voice? The experimental methods of participatory video and digital storytelling will be applied with the target of producing a participative webdocu accompanied by a locally exhibited video installation.

Published
2015-12-20
How to Cite
Akkermann, A. (2015). “…and I want to paint it black!?”. SAUC - Street Art and Urban Creativity, 1(1), 63 - 66. https://doi.org/10.25765/sauc.v1i1.18