STREET ARTISTS IN EUROPE - Fondazione Fitzcarraldo

Street Artists in Europe
Of course, the idea behind a network is not the naïf concept of having some partners from
different countries: to ensure a good work the members must share ideas, projects and dreams,
so as to be able to work all together for the same aims.
6. Keywords and key-sentences
It is possible to resume the main outcomes of the research through four keywords and keysentences:
1. Recognition.
2. Networking.
3. Communication and confrontation.
4. One Europe, one law.
The lack of recognition of the cultural value of street arts has been focused as the core problem,
from which all the practical obstacle listed derive. A change in the institutional mindset is
required by the professionals, who try to foster it through lobbying – not an easy action.
Networking is the tool to gain a truly international dimension: it is a way to bypass obstacles,
such as the lack of funding or the lack of production centres in some countries, and a way to
keep one’s mind open, to foster the debate, to support mobility, to promote creativity and coproductions.
Communication and confrontation are the key to work internationally, and require also some
non-artistic skills to professionals.
Finally, some of the practical problems encountered when working internationally could be
solved by adapting common guide-lines and by harmonizing the situation within the EU, though
saving the traditional differences among countries.
7. Recommendations
What the street art professionals contacted ask the EU concerns two main aspects: recognition of
the artistic value of street arts, and a European regulation concerning taxation and safety rules.
7.1. Recognition
Fostering the recognition of the cultural and social value of street arts, at a Communitarian level
and in each single member country. Though the EU cannot interfere with the single national
policies 388 , it could recommend recognizing the artistic dimension of street art productions and
388 The study "Mobilité des artistes et sécurité sociale" written by ERICarts at the request of the European
Parliament and released in November, 2006, points out the role of the EU: “L’Union européenne n’est pas
compétente pour harmoniser les droits nationaux en matière de sécurité sociale. Son domaine d’action se réduit
à coordonner les législations nationales, à créer des ponts entre les différents régimes nationaux, l’objectif
étant d’éliminer les obstacles à la liberté de circulation des travailleurs à l’intérieur de la Communauté
européenne. L’Union ne peut par conséquent adopter des instruments d’harmonisation de certains principes ou
de certaines règles.
Les systèmes de sécurité sociale dans l’Union diffèrent tant par leur philosophie, leurs modes de financement
(par des cotisations sociales obligatoires, volontaires, calculées sur les salaires ou sur d’autres éléments, par
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PE 375.307