Bogotá Walls: Between A Passive Approach and Participative Intervention

Abstract

During the last years, graffiti and street art have dramatically gained place in hundreds of doors, fences, containment walls, street furniture and sign-spacing all over Bogotá. The aim of this paper is to show some characteristics and reactions to these types of alternative graphic communication, picking up on the theoretical foundations of the aesthetic of reception, semiology and art history. For data collection, the authors used multi-sited etnography. They show two experiences that account for the receiver’s involvement and his/her participation in the territories he/she lives in. One refers to colorful macro-murals, with shapes and suggestive metaphors of the city hills. The other refers to the mural, creative and social intervention that has been implemented by the Atrapasueños (Dreamcatcher) project in some public schools.