street art in the gallery

ção members spray painting choque cultural gallery

choque cultural gallery is located in são paulo, brazil, 

it specializes in promoting new art forms and has displayed work by graffiti artists, tattoo artists,  graphic designers and illustrators since 2004.

on september 6th, 2008 choque was showing a collection of paintings by well-known street artists  gerald laing, speto and titi freak among others,when a group of 30 individuals stormed into the  gallery brandishing spray cans. the group ‘tagged’ the entire gallery, defacing the artwork hanging  on the walls. they soon fled the gallery, leaving over ,000 to 10,000 (USD) worth of damage  behind. the individuals were all members of a graffiti art movement known as ‘pixação’, (translates as ‘trace’ or ‘stain’ in english) is a style of tagging unique to são paulo. the incident left  many wondering why this had happened and why these people had deliberately destroyed the  work of fellow street artists. the organizer of the pixação attack stated in a message to other  members, that the intention of the act was to protest against the ‘marketing, institutionalization  and domestication of street art’.

the flyer sent out inviting members to protest at the gallery scribed in pixação lettering 

gallery invite the flyer sent out inviting pixação members to the choque gallery protest read as follows:

art attack 2 the path to revolution

we are going to invade with our protest art a shitty  art gallery (culture shock), which, as per its ideology,  gives space to underground artists – well, then it’s  all ours anyway – and we will declare total protest.

meeting point:  praça benedito calixto, rua cardeal arcoverde  @ rua lisboa, next to metro stations clinica  and sumare.

time:  3pm, saturday sept 6th, 2008.

protest slogans: long live tagging art as crime crime as art

all for the pixação movement

the members were protesting the move of street art from the streets, like this piece  on os gêmeos street in são paulo, to commerce and the gallery setting image courtesy of fore

from the streets to the gallery in recent years street art has become a mainstream art form with entire galleries devoted to it and auction  sales netting millions of dollars. this trend culminated in the 2008 street art exhibition at london’s tate modern.  the large scale exhibit featured work by six internationally known artists, each covering a massive portion of the  tate modern’s brick facade.

among the participating artists were two brazilians: nunca and os gêmeos. nunca entered the são paulo  graffiti scene through pixação and the movement also influences the work of gêmeos. this said, pixação  generally opposes the popularization of street art and its inclusion in galleries – believing that street art is  the medium of expression for under represented youths. they want it to remain in the streets, reaching  a mass audience and owned by no one. 

são paulo scene são paulo, brazil’s largest and richest city suffers from significant socioeconomic inequalities. largely a city of immigrants, it has a diverse population coming from all over the world. many areas have  developed rather poorly while others have prospered. some of the city’s poor youths turn to street art like  pixação as a form of expression against disenfranchisement. while some use the outlet as a  form of creative expression and free speech, others use it for malicious means.

the choque gallery attack is the latest and perhaps the most high profile incident where pixação have tried to make their voice heard. the alleged organizerof the protests is rafael guedes augustaitiz  (a.k.a. rafael pixobomb). in july 2008, he staged a protest at his own graduation show at the belas artes  art school in são paulo. he invited fellow pixação members to vandalize the exhibition – in this instance  40-50 pixadores arrived, spraying the school’s interior and school employees trying to stop them.  as you might expect, augustaitiz was later expelled from the school.

‘open your eyes and see the inevitable mark of history’, proclaimed some of the tags left behind. the pixadores  were attempting to call attention to the exclusivity and economic realities of art institutions.

whether the stance of pixação will challenge street artistsaspirations to exhibit and sell their work via galleries  remains to be seen. however, their protests will surely add some fuel to the ongoing debate of street art being  shown in galleries.