Slovenski etnografski muzej

Številka revije 
Etnolog 21 (2011)
Strani 
139-161
Članek v pdf obliki 
Prenesi pdf datoteko (328.35 KB)

Institutionalisation and commercialisation of subculture graffiti

The article addresses the phenomenon of subculture graffiti being institutionalised and commercialised when they are moved from their authentic street context to the sphere of official art or various branches of commercial culture. It mainly focuses on the question whether graffiti can be considered as a form of art. The theme is connected with the issues of how art is conceived in the present and reveals that what we consider as art is primarily a construct of society and culture. In this sense, the phenomenon of the institutionalisation of graffiti in art institutions is an example of a specific social context, in which graffiti are produced, presented and accepted as art, because it is essentially the art as an institution that constructs new meanings for their evaluation. The author complements the theoretical premises with material gathered as part of a field research in the form of statements of graffiti creators and photographs of graffiti in Ljubljana.