STREET ARTISTS IN EUROPE - Fondazione Fitzcarraldo

Street Artists in Europe
frequent rules, as has been stated above, are related to public order. These rules appear in
different forms: as rules concerning the disturbance of traffic, the acquisition of permits for
blocking and moving cars (e.g. Italy), permits to organise an event lasting past midnight (e.g.
Italy), rules for the maintenance of official working hours (e.g. Germany) 53 .
Two main authorities are the local municipalities and the local police. As answers have
confirmed, street arts events are local events where main responsibilities are kept at the local
level. In some cases, special permits must be purchased from other public authorities.
As safety is the most important and sometimes the most costly part of art events and festivals
organised in public spaces, questionnaires tended to reveal whether street arts companies and
organisations obtain any financial or practical support for safety matters. In the majority of
cases, the local police are responsible for order and safety. As a public body, safety insurance is
one of the tasks of local police and therefore is in general a free service for street arts events
once they have obtained their permits for performing in the public space. In some cases, the
local municipality finances safety insurance, as a form of subsidy supporting the street arts
event.
Safety has also been taken in charge – at least partly – by private resources. The biggest
structures or festivals with a big budget may finance safety insurance from private or semiprivate
companies.
4.5. Specific actions
4.5.1. Street arts impacts 54
4.5.1.1. On urban space
A street arts event may change the whole urban area; temporarily transform the use of the place
and the relationship between the space and its inhabitants. It may create a new history for
neighbourhoods, transform their old customs, or contribute to their identities.
Estimating street arts’ impact on urban development is quite a difficult exercise. But street
artists are conscientious about their role in cities. Having a direct effect on urban development is
generally not among the direct objectives of street arts events. An impact on space is one of the
main goals of almost one third of the events.
Street arts events mainly have an effect on the neighbourhood level, either in the form of
creating new spaces, or by contributing to the regeneration of an area. Nevertheless, these events
are only rarely “strong” enough to generate transformations on a city-wide level.
4.5.1.2. On social cohesion
Chaudoir defines social cohesion as the effect on the ‘public-inhabitants’. Street arts integrate
the ordinary inhabitants of the city by transforming them into spectators, and as such, pushing
them to become the active public of street arts spectacles (see sections 5.2.2. and 5.5.).
53 See the comparative study between France and Hungary in Krisztina Keresztély’s report in annex 2.
54 Partly based on the definitions proposed by Philippe Chaudoir, this section describes the main impacts of
contemporary street arts on cities.
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PE 375.307