A estética da rebeldia

Abstract

[The present study questions how urban art, particularly pixo (a largely peripheral artistic expression), is publicly interpreted as a crime. It outlines the following central question: how is artistic practice from the margins related to criminality? Drawing on inquiries from the sociology of deviance and Goffman's Stigma, I analyze the ways of integrating art into urban spaces, the different forms of graffiti and pixação, and urban art as an element of community building and belonging for artists who engage with the space, people, and society. This study is based on ethnographic work conducted at Galpão Skate, located in Uberlândia, Minas Gerais. The aesthetics of rebellion encompasses and analyzes the sociological and political issues of pixação in the city, providing a deep reflection on pixação in Brazilian society and conceptions of pixo criminality. It also incorporates debates on the segregation of pixo spaces, the relationship between pixadores and society, the rules imposed on them, pixação aesthetics as a Brazilian cultural element, and the image construction of urban artists. In this way, it draws on the sociology of art to discuss the interest in pixação “aesthetics” and the consumption of urban art as a form of cultural capital possession, as introduced by Bourdieu. On the other hand, it also seeks to understand the graffiti profession and how neoliberal practices in the city appropriate urban art to serve capitalist interests: graffiti as the 'domestication' of street art.]