Neither anonymous nor invisible: city and women graffiti writers

Abstract

Writing, assumed generically in the world of graffiti as a tagging, that is, as a gesture of intervention of an unexpected support for that, the wall, “the topic space of modern writing” (Barthes, 2002), presupposes a continuous operation of expression in the public space, “a sensitive space as a whole” (Didi-Huberman, 2017) that arises from a desire, a certain principle of freedom, subversion and claim of sovereignty shared between writers. The voice and presence of women, a category thought from an “ex-centric perspective” (Costa, 2002), is not only more visible in the practice of graffiti nowadays, but supposes the existence of another form of writing from its bodies and experiences, setting up other reading protocols in the cities. In this sense, it is proposed to reflect on the authorship of graffiti produced by women, the process of writing and readability of the urban landscape and the visibilities and invisibilities at stake in the appropriation of the contemporary city from this artistic practice.

Keywords:
city; public space; women graffiti writers; visibility-invisibility