'GRAFFITI IS NOT A CRIME' : A bottom-up example of active social transformation
Jael Rispa, Oriol Pérez and Alecs Prodan
Image 1 Token Close-up. Picture taken by the authors
INTRODUCTION
According to Kruzhkova, Vorobyeva, Porozov & Zarbova (2018), "graphic vandalism has become a widespread phenomenon in the space of modern cities" which has "traditionally been assessed as a negative phenomenon" (p. 97). However, the light in which they are viewed nowadays has improved not only regarding the visual aspect of said art, but also in the way they are perceived: as a tool which can be used for many communicative and revindicative purposes.
This is the reasoning behind our choice of token: a sizeable graffiti on the wall of the Calidoscopi building in the la Mariola neighborhood in Lleida. Apart from the landscape it depicts, this transgressive sign contains a message in English reading "Graffiti is not a crime" next to the "Calidoscopi" sign written in Catalan. We are dealing with a socio-educational domain since the Calidoscopi center provides this type of service.
CONTEXTUALIZATION
The token we decided to analyse is located in Avinguda de Pius XII, 53, in the neighborhood la Mariola, in Lleida. To be more precise, our token is situated in one of the walls of the building “Centre Obert Calidoscopi”, which is a socio-educational service created by la Paeria (Lleida’s council). According to La Paeria (n.d.), the main objective of this service is to support people’s development of personality, to improve their social life and to promote the acquisition of basic education.
In terms of the neighborhood, la Mariola is commonly known as a conflictive area with a lot of immigrants. Nevertheless, according to La Paeria (2012), the 75% of the population is Spanish, and 22% of the inhabitants are foreigners, which is also a remarkable percentage of immigrants if we compare it to other neighborhoods such as Torres de Sanui with a mere 4%. Considering the report about the urban description of la Mariola created by Departamento de Urbanística y Ordenación del Territorio in (2011), the neighborhood has almost no commerce and people have to move to buy food and other fundamental elements. Although in 2018 Lleida’s council started a reform project to improve the image of the neighborhood by incorporating new housing, commerce, and more green spaces, it is a difficult struggle for the inhabitants of la Mariola to fight against poverty and to regain their pride.
As the documentary created by Garriga & Rueda (2015), clearly shows, the majority of the citizens living there belong to the gypsy community, and this is why sometimes the neighborhood is seen as a violent place. However, the people interviewed in the documentary deny the general opinions about la Mariola, and they state that even though they are considered working/low-class with really bad conditions that sometimes have to live as squatters, they always help each other and they fight for their rights together, as a big community. But the current reality is that the neighborhood is considered vulnerable due to its high percentage of population without studies (30.82%), and what is really worrying is the large percentage of criminal activity (50.52%) (Departamento de Urbanística y Ordenación del Territorio, 2011, p. 3).
Image 2 Authors of Token. Picture taken by the authors
Figure 1: Map of Lleida's neighborhoods (Gifex, n.d.)
Figure 2: Map of la Mariola and its surroundings. Retrieved from GoogleMaps by the authors.
METHODOLOGY
We have taken a critical sociolinguistic and interpretative perspective in order to analyse our token, with the inclusion of some ethnographical data. We believe that more data could have been unveiled if we had had more time for this project.
We went to observe the token a total of four different times, the first being the 13th of March, the day we went to look for a suitable token. Then we visited the token on two more days, the 23rd and 25th of March, and it was still there, as it is part of the Calidoscopi center in the Mariola. It had not been removed, and probably will not be in the near future as people working there have confirmed in a short follow-up interview we held on the 1st of April, our last visit. Unfortunately, the wall was covered with graffiti before the Calidoscopi was turned into an educational center, at a time it was one of Lleida's Youth Centers. According to the head of activities, they cannot take it off or renew it because it was part of a graffiti festival called "Pla renove" within the 2007 Xplosion festival of "eXpressió Urbana" (urban expression). Being part of this expo had ironically transformed it into something that legally belongs to the town hall, and 12 years later it is something they have apparently forgotten.
During our field research, we reached some educated conclusions: the majority of the people we found there, seemed to be from a Romani ethnicity, as we could hear Romani being spoken. We also observed large groups of women with their children, concluding that it is indeed a community mostly based on families and group gatherings.
Image 3 Calidoscopi - Full view. Picture taken by the authors (13/03/2019)
We went to observe the token a total of four different times, the first being the 13th of March, the day we went to look for a suitable token. Then we visited the token on two more days, the 23rd and 25th of March, and it was still there, as it is part of the Calidoscopi center in the Mariola. It had not been removed, and probably will not be in the near future as people working there have confirmed in a short follow-up interview we held on the 1st of April, our last visit. Unfortunately, the wall was covered with graffiti before the Calidoscopi was turned into an educational center, at a time it was one of Lleida's Youth Centers. According to the head of activities, they cannot take it off or renew it because it was part of a graffiti festival called "Pla renove" within the 2007 Xplosion festival of "eXpressió Urbana" (urban expression). Being part of this expo had ironically transformed it into something that legally belongs to the town hall, and 12 years later it is something they have apparently forgotten.
Image 4 Token - side view. Picture taken by the authors (23/03/2019)
Lleida’s main languages are Catalan and Spanish, so if one decides to go on a walk, these are the languages one will hear. Having said that, when we focus on La Mariola, this changes a little bit. The main language you will hear on the streets is Spanish, and sometimes even Arabic or Romanian, as it is also a zone with an important immigrant influence. We also have to say that the language policy of the city says that any advertisement on the streets must be written in Catalan as the first language. This is seen right next to the token, at the Calidoscopi, where everything is written in Catalan, but when we take a closer look to its surroundings, Catalan is not really seen and the first language of the zone is Spanish, something that is understandable when we see the majority of the population in the zone.
Image 5 Token and Calidoscopi sign. Picture taken by the authors (25/03/2019)
When we look at the token and its surroundings, we can see both Lleida’s top-down and bottom-up policies stated. The graffiti is clearly a bottom-up sign, taking into account that it is not written in Catalan or Spanish, which is a requirement for a sign to become a top-down one. We can understand the decision of the artist of writing this in English if we take a look at the side of the same building, the Calidoscopi, where the signs are top-down ones and all are written in Catalan. As this place is set to be a meeting zone for young people, the English written graffiti makes more sense now, as it is easier for them to understand what it says and what it means, so it looks like it aims to them as a sign of expression they can claim.
RESULTS AND DISCUSSION
Image 6 Token - Full graffiti view. Picture taken by the authors (01/04/2019)
Regarding the values our token, we could say that first of all it has an aesthetic value since it is a very large graffiti depicting a city skyline and a billboard with a message. The real windows of the building the graffiti is on blend in with the art itself, enhancing the intended visual effect.
The second value it represents would be one of identity. In this case, the clear message written on the billboard on top of the city for everyone to see is "Graffiti is not a crime". One could argue that this is coming from the voice of youth, using global English as a vehicle, in order to raise awareness about the fact that graffitis are not to be persecuted or cleaned or erased by the higher powers. In this way, we could also add that its location, on the side of a socio-educational center, makes it educational itself. Moreover, it shows how graffiti can be a tool which enables what could be considered a minority to actually claim space and let their voice be heard. Perhaps there is a hint of irony then if we think about the "height" this message is written at within the tableau itself: above the city. Can this be a critique of the aforementioned top-down policies?
Lastly, regarding social values, we can see some contradictory elements after our analysis. As previously mentioned, a local and a global language in context within the same space in a neighborhood which is not famous for its global or outward vision. Having said that, we believe that the message is not written in English just for the sake of the postureo (posing). It is actually aimed at an increasingly international vision from the local to the global of young people who see the world in a different, more closely-knit way due to the fact that technology (and access to it) has brought us closer than ever before. A transgressive or informal message if you will, which may express resistance towards the powers that be or the establishment itself as a cry which upholds ideals of freedom.
The contradiction lays in the fact that using English in a neighborhood the linguistic context of which tells us that not many people would actually understand it does not seem to make sense. Even though more research is to be done in this aspect, one could argue that the slow continuous transformation of the area, as seen in the documentary mentioned at the beginning of this blog, could be the reason behind wanting to change the external de-skilled or de-voiced vision other people have of them. An image that unfortunately has a steep hill of prejudices to climb.
CONCLUDING THOUGHTS
From an academic point of view, this project has allowed us to discover how linguistic landscapes can be regarded as a pedagogical tool used to do research in the field of sociolinguistics. Thus, after seeing several other projects, we can conclude that in Lleida it is possible to find many languages in contact, and hence, it can be considered a multilingual city. Furthermore, the use of GoogleMaps and the blog allowed us to be involved with TAC (Technology of Knowledge Acquisition) and TEP (Technology of Empowerment and participation) since both tools allow us to share our research with others.
Having analysed this token in depth and after several fruitful debates on the matter, we have agreed that as simple a thing as graffiti on a wall hides deceptively complex nuances of both social and educational value. We have seen how it is used as a tool through which to express and communicate meaning in order to project a powerful message that can and should reach everyone. A message that might as well come from a place of education, empowering students to be knowledge generators through a more appealing medium.
As a final thought, we would also like to add the fact that the choice of language used could be connected to the ever-more globalized youth living in an inter-connected linguistic-technological landscape. A growing Englishisation of Lleida, directly and indirectly creating even more languages-in-contact situations. We do not know up to which point this would affect the lower income part of the neighborhood of La Mariola. What we do know is that it aims towards the betterment of the area as a whole. But perhaps the interpretation we have found more inspiring is that it represents the power of the upcoming generations to become the voice of change for a better tomorrow.
REFERENCES AND WEB SOURCES
Banyeres, R. (2018, April 26). Corbins s’omple de color amb un mural del grafiter Rulo. Lleida.com. Retrieved from https://www.lleida.com/noticia_canal/corbins-somple-de-color-amb-un-mural-del-grafiter-rulo
Departamento de Urbanística y Ordenación del Territorio (2011). Análisis Urbanístico de Barrios Vulnerables. Retrieved from http://habitat.aq.upm.es/bbvv/fichas/2001/fu-barrios/fu01_25120002.pdf
Garriga, A., & Rueda, A. (2015). “Mala Fama”: Mariola I Blocs Joan Carles. Spain: 2.8 Produccions
Gifex (n.d.) Barrios de Ciudad de Lleida. Retrieved from https://www.gifex.com/Europa/Espana/Cataluna/Lerida/Lerida/Politicos.html
Kruzhkova O.V., Vorobyeva I.V., Porozov R.Y., Zarbova B. FUNCTIONS OF VANDALISM IN YOUTH BEHAVIOUR: FROM PERSONALITY TO SOCIETY.The Education and science journal. 2018;20(10):95-120. (In Russ.)https://doi.org/10.17853/1994-5639-2018-10-95-120
La Paeria (2007). 50 muralistes de tot Espanya participen al "Pla renove" del Festival Xplosion. Retrieved from https://www.paeria.es/cat/ajuntament/noticies.asp?Detall=True&IdNoticia=6815&Dia=-1&Mes=-1&Any=-1&IdDepartament=-1&TextCerca=&Consulta=False&PaginaAnterior=/cat/ajuntament/noticies.asp&Pagina=2316
La Paeria (2012). Butlletí Socioeconòmic de Lleida. Retrieved from http://paeria.cat/butlletieconomic/2012/03-juliol/06-poblacio.pdf
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