International Cross-disciplinary Seminar STREET ART IN EUROPE
Young researchers only (PhD, Post-doc)

Université Nice Sophia Antipolis, member of Université Côte d'Azur (UCA) http://unice.fr/
Laboratoire Interdisciplinaire Récits, Cultures et Sociétés (LIRCES) http://www.unice.fr/lirces/
Nice Street Art Project http://nicestreetartproject.fr

The second seminar of the Nice Street Art Project focuses on Street Art in Europe, paying particular attention to two main questions.
1) How are local characteristics compatible with global characteristics
in Street Art?
2) Considering that Street Art not only comes from the USA but also from European movements, do street artworks created in Europe have an European specificity?

Send your PDF proposal in English or French by December the 23rd 2017 to
Edwige Comoy Fusaro via fusarounice.fr with:
- title and abstract (300 words max)
- short list of references
- name of the author
- subject of the PhD thesis, discipline, supervisor’s name

Street Art is site-specific. The artworks are made for a specific location and context. According to Ernest Pignon-Ernest, one of the pioneers of the movement, they are even made by the site. The artwork highlights the place and the place gives it its meaning and strenghth. Nonetheless, site-specificity is thwarted by opposite forces due to the origins of the movement, to its global dimension and its “philosophy”.
Street Art is as rooted in serial production and territorial marking as in site-specific art. Heir to the American writers, street artists aim at a large-scale spread of their works, as the famous case of the well-named Invader clearly show. Yet the “invasion” sometimes happens to imply little attention to the placement of the artwork. Reproduction is part of the genetics of Street Art, from tags to protesters’ stencils and Pop Art artefacts.
With the success of Street Art and Urban Art, acclaimed artists are led to work in various countries. Now, globalization, cultural homogeneization, and worldwide concerns such as global warming stimulate the artists to address universal topics. In fact, when Shepard Fairey was invited to work on the Eiffel Tower in 2015, he chose to talk about Earth Crisis, not about Paris. When Julien Malland aka Seth, significantly self-described Globe Painter, went to China, he did paint Chinese people but also people without any national or ethnical diacritical mark.
Despite the heterogeneity of the movement, street artists share a common ground and travel is a strong part of it. Street Art is also heir to the hobo graffiti-writers of the 10s and 20s, and to the Beat Generation and the counter-cultural movements of the 60s and 70s. Even though it was not built up as a school, it carries out principles and values, in particular and not limited to individual freedom. In line with the DIY punk philosophy, travel is seen as a self-learning opportunity, as well as the best way to know others, therefore oneself.