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.
