Overcoming Decline Through Graffiti? The Case of the Open Space Gallery in Halle (Saale)

Nina Gribat — 2017-04-04T05:00:00Z

Open Space Gallery, a collective in Halle (Saale), Germany, turned the marginalized neighborhood of Freiimfelde into an open-air street-art gallery by painting the façades of vacant houses, improving the area's image—and, unintentionally, also its marketability. Nina Gribat examines how, following invitations by policymakers to participate in other projects, they have managed to walk the line between grassroots and mainstream action.
---- Series: Shrinking Cities Open Space Gallery (OSG;

- From the Field / Germany, urban regeneration, graffiti, urban decay, street art, community development, shrinking cities, Halle (Saale), makeshift urbanism, creative city, urban decline

Visual Boredom: Commodification and Exclusion in Graffiti-Less Auckland

Ronald Kramer — 2015-05-26T04:50:00Z

A common argument against neoliberalism is that it makes cities all look alike. In this piece, sociologist Ronald Kramer discusses the fate of graffiti in Auckland, New Zealand. He argues that efforts to commodify urban space, routinely promoted by landed capitalists and facilitated by the neoliberal state, have resulted in a loss of social diversity and visual ennui.
Graffiti-writing culture in Auckland
In the early 1980s, Subway Art (1984) and Style Wars (1983), two of the earliest

- Debates / neoliberalism, graffiti, broken windows theory, exchange-value, New Zealand, Auckland, street art

Metropolitics

Overcoming Decline Through Graffiti? The Case of the Open Space Gallery in Halle (Saale)

Visual Boredom: Commodification and Exclusion in Graffiti-Less Auckland