Street art: Can the street be placed in a museum?

Abstract

In today’s world, many works of street art, which until recently were a crime, become a part of the permanent collections in galleries and museums around the world, are appropriated by advertising, enter the process of commercialization, become institutionalized, conquer the art market. In a short period of time street art evaluation vector changed. Despite the popularity of this tendency, already recognized by many as the part of art, it is still a unique phenomenon that has a special character, certain aesthetics, carries important social, political, cultural messages, express protest. Till now there are discussions about this phenomenon about what sphere it belongs to, whether it is legal, whether it should be promoted and popularized and whether it can be placed in a museum. This article reveals the positive and negative aspects of the process of placing street art in museums, raises the question of how this undermines the idea and conceptual and symbolic meaning of street art, whether it has boundaries, how to change the perception of works of art in a confined space. The existing examples of street art museums in Russia and abroad are considered, the need to revise existing spaces and open alternative art centres is noted. Also here is paid the attention to the opinion of the artists, some of whom consider the placement of their works in museums and galleries the next stage of their careers, while others actively oppose this process, not allowing street art to be torn out of its “original” world.

Keywords:

street art, graffiti, post-graffiti, museumification, contemporary art, gallery, museum, exhibition