Last month I posed a question about graffiti in Barcelona. Why did it seem that the taggers were avoiding tagging the fabric of buildings. Was this a communal understanding or something else?
Roger Tallada has come up with an answer. He says it’s because of an intense long term cleaning policy by the city council and points us to a before and after film on youtube. Thanks Roger. It still leaves me wondering if the cleaning policy has changed the behaviour of taggers (street artists) on a more permanent basis or whether the cleaning squads simply swoop on anything that appears?
I couldn’t help wondering if it was also as simple as the fact that the shutters represent the largest flat surface. The biggest piece of paper to draw on.
I wonder if there’s a relationship between changing architectural styles, it’s approach to decorative detailing (i.e lack of) and tagging possibilities. Who wants to deal with the baroque folds of the stonework on the surface of a cathedral?
My architectural history teacher used to talk about how 20th Century modernist architecture failed miserably in one important aspect – it’s ability to weather gracefully. Tagging is just another form of weathering.