Protest street art in the early XXI st century in Spain : forms and power of an aesthetic, social and political commitment. ; Street art contestataire et revendicatif en Espagne : formes et pouvoir d'un engagement esthétique, social et politique

Abstract

Since the 2000s and especially with the contested military dispatch in the war in Iraq, new modes of expression of civil society have been developed in Spain alongside the traditional institutional tools. As of 2008, the economic crisis seems to consolidate these new protesters practices. Ocupation of empty buildings, workshops in self-managed spaces, transformation of wasteland left by demolished buildings into vegetable gardens, or even Indignados and Democracia Real Ya collective's demonstrations, which have helped bringing these different initiatives in a more unified movement, could reflect a weariness of Spanish citizens against traditional forms of commitment.Could the graphical occupation of public space and the increased presence of anti-establishment and protest street art work prove to form another method of activism ? This work wishes to question the validity of engaged public art as an alternative to exercising one's civil rights. Why are these artists illegally occupying public space ? How are these interventions being seen by passersby ? To what extent do these images affect both space and public consciousness ? The first part attempts to define the outline of this hybrid custom based on different forms of graphical occupation on the walls. In the second part, an overview of public art interventions is proposed and is classified into three main categories : cultural activism, social demands and political protest. The last part of this work presents the results of various surveys conducted in Madrid between 2009 and 2014 to measure the intentions and the scope of these public art interventions. ; Depuis les années 2000 et particulièrement avec l'engagement contesté des troupes militaires dans la guerre en Irak et en Afghanistan, de nouvelles modalités d'expression de la société civile se sont développées en Espagne, en marge des outils institutionnels classiques. À partir de 2008, la crise économique semble consolider ces nouvelles pratiques contestataires. L'occupation d'immeubles vides, ...