STREET ARTISTS IN EUROPE - Fondazione Fitzcarraldo

Street Artists in Europe
long term impacts. The opposite may happen as well: artists or analysts of street arts tend
sometimes to overestimate the influence of street arts on urban space…
2.3.2 … on social cohesion:
As a second impact on cities, street art may generate social cohesion. Chaudoir defines it as the
effect played on the ‘public-inhabitants’ [public-population, translated by author] 296 . According
to his analysis, street arts are integrating the everyday inhabitants of the city by transforming
them into spectators, and as such, pushing them to become the active public of street arts
spectacles. When inhabitants pass in by a street art event, they either stop to watch it, or on the
contrary, leave it. Through their behaviour, they give their personal opinion and as a result,
become active parts of the event.
From the point of view of the urban society, the most important is that people, inhabitants meet
each other in entirely different circumstances than on other days. Instead of running, they meet
while standing and observing the spectacle. By standing there, they meet a largest number of
persons than on normal days: anybody can stop and enjoy the event for free. Through this
influence on urban society, street arts and festivals became the core element of urban
regeneration policies during the 1970s, as described by Franco Bianchini 297 .
2.3.3. … on urban economy:
The third effect is played on urban economy. As it has been stressed above, the economic
potential of arts in general and of street arts and festivals in particular, is a more and more
pertinent phenomenon of urban development. A wide range of effects on urban development can
be considered as the consequence of this potential. Street art events and festivals may generate
economic growth by attracting new investments, from those of small commercials till the
installation of big cultural investments. They may promote the international image and the
attractiveness of the city and as a result increase even more its economic potentials. They can
also become elements of cultural tourism.
It is difficult to measure these effects. While street arts do actually attract economic potentials,
investors and other economic actors do not contribute in the same way to the financing of street
art events. It does not mean that these events are never sponsored; many of them are. But the
capacity of their economic attractiveness and the weigh of the sponsorship they enjoy are
certainly not in parity. This difficulty can be explained by the fact that a large part of street arts
play mainly symbolic effects on the city and that is still not measurable by economic categories.
2.3.4. … on urban and cultural policies:
The fourth impact is played on urban and cultural policies. It is a complicated process that has
entirely changed through the last few decades. In the 1960s, the appearing of the new roles of
street arts as a form of post-modern art expression was still based on its protesting and
provocative character that made of street art a critical movement facing the political power.
Street art has always kept its role in social cohesion and in the democratisation of public spaces.
But as soon as public policies recognised the necessity of enhancing social and spatial
integration in cities, street art movements were used as part of cultural policies aiming to
generate social changes. Therefore, the relationship between local powers and street art
296 Ibid.
297 Bianchini, op.cit.
177
PE 375.307