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Street Art in the Public Space
2024-02-02
The raw, unfiltered expression of street art, whether it’s graffiti, a public art exhibition, or even guerrilla marketing, each piece adds to the story of the city and the cityscape as a whole. Coming from the people themselves, it’s perhaps one of the easiest ways for the everyday citizen to influence the look and feel of the city and leave an imprint on others, politically, culturally, and emotionally.​​​​​​​ Let's have a look back at what impact street art has had on the public space over time.

A buildings façade decorated with an art pice resembling a colorful fox made from trash by the artist Bordalo II

A wall decorated with a fox made from trash by the artist Bordalo II, located in central Lisbon.

During the origin of modern graffiti in Philadelphia and New York in the 1960s, graffiti made its way into the city through subway trains which allowed local artists to reach further than their local neighborhood walls. Graffiti was the gateway to humanize the urban city and liven up the greyscale skyline, showing that there was more than brick and mortar behind those walls. This is something that has become more prominent in modern city planning, and architects nowadays have incorporated more and more through boldly colored facades and materials.

An borded up doorway brought back to life with these colorful characters in Braço de Prata, Lisbon. 

This piece made an otherwise very grey apartment building just as colorful as the next in Braço de Prata, Lisbon. 

Looking even further back in history, humans used cave paintings, hieroglyphs as ways of expressing their poems or stories. In more recent times, painted ceramic tiles, or as we know them by, ”Azulejos,” have been used as expressions of art in the public space. Coming up in the 13th century Spain and spreading itself to Portugal to later appear in cities all over the world. Still today, walls decorated with the colorful tiles show the historical footprint that tells the story of time no matter where you are, whether in Alhambra, Spain, Galle, Sri Lanka, or Lima, Peru.
Although trends come and go, it seems Azulejos around the world have withstood the test of time, not only because of their functional properties protecting structures in a high humidity environment, but also their timeless colorful design. At least, this is true for Lisbon, often deemed as one of the most beautiful cities in the world (a statement we stand behind), which offers a cityscape with colorfully painted facades, plenty of Azulejos, street art, and one thing is for certain, a whole lot of life.
Colorful ceramic tiles, called azulejos at display in the Lisbon flea Market, Feira da Ladra.

Colorful azulejos for sale at the flea market, Feira da Ladra in Lisbon.

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