At the beginning of the year, the forum Street art photographer was held – observer or actor on stage?
Street art and graffiti have become so commonplace that today it is hard to imagine an urban space without them. The limited durability of the works turns city facades into a dynamic stage for different artistic expressions, styles and manuscripts. In a continuous process of transformation, the works disappear and emerge, making each moment of observation unique.
In a similar way that museums do in the case of traditional art, the role of preserving, that is, recording, archiving and presenting these works of limited durability, was taken over by photographers on their own initiative. Acting outside the box and without the strict parameters that institutions rely on, street art photographers approach documenting works on the street in completely different ways, building valuable collections and archives, often accessible to the public.
How do photographers see their role, and what does their role look like from the position of artists? Is their action a partnership, mutually conditioned, or are we witnessing the emergence of a kind of informal institutions that assume the role of evaluation and setting standards? Are these chroniclers of the street art and graffiti scene distant observers or an integral part of it?
Forum participants
Jana Danilović, visual artist and author of a doctoral thesis on the topic “City and painting – the importance and function of artistic interventions in public space”, moderator; Ljiljana Radosević, art historian, author and curator of the Street Art Walks tour; Marko Krstić, graffiti artist; Aleksandar Djordjević, photographer, author of the book “Street Art Belgrade”.
Organizers
Association Street Art Belgrade, street art festival Rekonstrukcija, street art collective Street Smart, center for education and culture Božidarac.
Photo © Dimitrije Stamenković
