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Sao Paulo: A city with no outdoor advertisements (2013)

amusingplanet.com

171–180 of 428 posts

Re: Sao Paulo: A city with no outdoor advertisements (2013)

#171
post #163

Earlier quoted context omitted.

As someone who graduated from an art school, let me be another voice here to say that you're absolutely wrong. Art is about intentionality and process. Duchamp and Wahrol are prime mainstream examples of that. The intervention in urban equipment is art. Making it yours, sharing it with the world, the dialectical dialogue between the mural and the surrounding cityscape, there is so much to unpack here. Also, comic boo…

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... they said, while wasting (in the true sense of the word, it would seem based on the quality of this comment) their time replying.

Maybe tone it down a bit and be nicer? Even if they have a poor education, why would you publicly shame them for it?

Re: Sao Paulo: A city with no outdoor advertisements (2013)

#172
post #83

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Neither murals nor graffiti is art. None of those would have been accepted in any gallery some 30~40 years ago when standards were higher and the world didn't suffer from the high number of grown-up men who are hooked up on comic books and animated cartoons it suffers through today. A lot of it is just vandalism. None of it seems to be made by or for adults. 99% looks like it's made by some comic book fan on LSD. Alw…

As someone who graduated from an art school, let me be another voice here to say that you're absolutely wrong. Art is about intentionality and process. Duchamp and Wahrol are prime mainstream examples of that. The intervention in urban equipment is art. Making it yours, sharing it with the world, the dialectical dialogue between the mural and the surrounding cityscape, there is so much to unpack here. Also, comic boo…

Why does it matter if we call it art or not?

Re: Sao Paulo: A city with no outdoor advertisements (2013)

#173

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Most of those murals look much worse than advertisements to me. I guess there's less incentive to maintain them.

Well, good thing art is subjective. To me these are leagues better than ads and they bring social commentary and inspiration far more than any ad. It's one of the few things I am proud of as someone who lived in the state of Sao Paulo for a good chunk of my life.

No, they don't bring any social commentary, they only bring sycophancy. As soon as you criticize it you are moderated and silenced into oblivion. Your "social commentary" can only go in the way they demand that it go.

Re: Sao Paulo: A city with no outdoor advertisements (2013)

#175
post #36

I lived until recently in Florianópolis, one of the state capitals of Brazil. It is a naturally beautiful island city, and it has an iconic bridge leading into it ("Ponte Hercilio Luz" if you want to search for photos). For some god forsaken reason, someone got away with building a gigantic - and I mean GIGANTIC - screen billboard right in line of sight of this historic postcard. I don't recall when it was installed,…

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Re: Sao Paulo: A city with no outdoor advertisements (2013)

#176
post #57

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> Since this law was adopted, there's been an increase in full building graffiti, which is not banned. Now 10 years later, it is more likely to see one of these nowadays than an empty outdoor frame Nearly all of these look like murals, not graffiti (these are distinct forms of street art). Regardless, those photos are beautiful and I'd love to have those instead of billboards in my city.

> these are distinct forms of street art Can you elaborate on this? I've always thought a mural was just a type of graffiti?

Graffiti is done without permission, by definition.

Re: Sao Paulo: A city with no outdoor advertisements (2013)

#177
I am all for cleaning up the advertisement everywhere. That said, I am not sure the article convinced me with the conclusions drawn.

> Despite the forebodings, São Paulo’s economy didn’t run aground ...

All those advertising business are now defunct. That is a significant impact to those companies and 20,000 employees. It is disingenuous to write "20,000 people would lose jobs", then flip and say the entire city "economy didn't run aground".

> Unexpectedly, the removal of logos and slogans exposed previously overlooked architecture, revealing a rich urban beauty that had been long hidden.

Personally I am not seeing that much "rich urban beauty". Definitely there are some buildings of architectural significance, but vast majority of the buildings are not.

Again, I like the idea of advertisement reduced to a minimum, but let's be honest of the outcomes.

Re: Sao Paulo: A city with no outdoor advertisements (2013)

#178
post #163

Earlier quoted context omitted.

As someone who graduated from an art school, let me be another voice here to say that you're absolutely wrong. Art is about intentionality and process. Duchamp and Wahrol are prime mainstream examples of that. The intervention in urban equipment is art. Making it yours, sharing it with the world, the dialectical dialogue between the mural and the surrounding cityscape, there is so much to unpack here. Also, comic boo…

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RobotCaleb, kindly explain: 1. Why are you admonishing me and not saying a word to the poster who said "check out the following books if you want to move past your misconceptions"? Why doesn't that come across as patronizing to you? 2. Why is art subjective but "the following books" are not? 3. Where did you get the idea that art is supposed to be inclusive? Kindergarten teachers routinely invited my mother to go there just to show her, "Look at the amazing drawings your son has been making AGAIN!" Do you think my kindergarten drawings should be blown up and plastered on publicly visible walls? Seriously, I want to know.

Re: Sao Paulo: A city with no outdoor advertisements (2013)

#180
post #95

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Yes grandparent is splitting hairs. Mural means wall, graffiti means tracing or drawing. There's probably a few taxonomies out there but they will be arbitrary and the whole point of street art is to get around gatekeepers.

ehh not really, throw ups are different from tags which are different from murals - muruals often aren’t graffiti because they require more time, which tends to require permission

Basically the difference is that the mural is bigger and probably has the building owners consent, but in terms of aesthetics it's a tossup. Most murals seem to be abstract visual noise that is scarcely better than average graffiti, and on the other hand some rare graffiti is far above average. And then there are the murals with a message, which often end up looking like Soviet propaganda posters (or in fact murals, since the Soviets were big on murals too). Huge images of some local leaders linking arms with workers to deliver symbolic world peace or some tacky saccharine sweet bs like that.

If I'm being honest, a lot of these Soviet murals actually demonstrate superior technical skill and aesthetic understanding than the murals in my town (many of which aren't worthy to hang on a mother's refrigerator): https://www.amusingplanet.com/2017/10/the-forgotten-soviet-e...

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