FINAL Thesis
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City Research Online City, University of London Institutional Repository Citation: Ryan, Holly (2013). Bringing the visual into focus: Street art and contentious politics in Brazil, Bolivia and Argentina. (Unpublished Doctoral thesis, City University London) This is the unspecified version of the paper. This version of the publication may differ from the final published version. Permanent repository link: https://openaccess.city.ac.uk/id/eprint/2729/ Link to published version: Copyright: City Research Online aims to make research outputs of City, University of London available to a wider audience. Copyright and Moral Rights remain with the author(s) and/or copyright holders. URLs from City Research Online may be freely distributed and linked to. Reuse: Copies of full items can be used for personal research or study, educational, or not-for-profit purposes without prior permission or charge. 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City Research Online: http://openaccess.city.ac.uk/ [email protected] BRINGING THE VISUAL INTO FOCUS: STREET ART AND CONTENTIOUS POLITICS IN BRAZIL, BOLIVIA AND ARGENTINA by Holly Eva Ryan A thesis submitted in conformity with the requirements for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy City University London, Department of International Politics May 2013 CONTENTS List of Plates 6-8 Acknowledgements 9-10 Abstract 11 Chapter 1- Introduction 12 1.1 Objectives of this text 12-15 1.2 Guiding questions 15 1.3 Case selection (I) countries 16-19 1.4 Case selection (II) actors 19-21 1.5 Using images as source material 21-22 1.6 The organisation of this text 22-24 Chapter 2- Finding ground: a literature review and elaboration of my conceptual framework 25 2.1 Reflections on stray cats: popular mobilisation and art in International Relations 25-27 2.2 Social movements and International Relations 27-30 2.3 The feminisation of art and aesthetics in International Relations 30-33 2.4 Art, democracy, folly 33-37 2.5 The category of ‘political street art’ 37-39 2.6 A review and refashioning of Social Movement Theory 40-41 2.7 Revisiting political process: revealing gaps, revising ‘performance’ 41-46 2.8 Framing political contention 46-50 ! 2! 2.9 Expanding the parameters of political opportunity 50-58 2.10 Synthesising insights, cues and precedents 58-68 Chapter 3- “Tupinaquim o Tupinãodá?” Brazilian artist-activists in confrontation with power 69-70 3.1 Surfacing: street art as campaign tool 70-76 3.2 The push for plurality 77-83 3.3 Os anos de chumbo and the retreat from the street 83-87 3.4 Colouring the streets: the emergence of Tupinãodá 87-92 3.5 Collective interventions: from cannibalism to political critique 93-97 3.6 Mounting articulations: civilian government and its discontents 97-103 3.7 Brazilian street art articulations in summary 103-107 Chapter 4- Articulations in the clouds- street art and contentious politics in the city of La Paz 108-111 4.1 Federal war to revolution: Indian affirmations, performative precursors and early political street art in Bolivia 111-115 4.2 Hacia la Revolución Nacional (Towards the National Revolution): regional influences, domestic uproar and ‘the social painters’ 115-120 4.3 Contra La Dictadura - Street art as resistance to authoritarianism 120-128 4.4 Mujeres Creando, mujeres!denunciando: transition, patriarchy and the push for deconstruction 128-130 4.5 A new ‘craziness’ 131-135 4.6 The task(s) of street art in the wake of a hollow democratic transition 135-143 ! 3! 4.7 EVOlution in articulation- graffiteando por el TIPNIS 143-145 4.8 Background: on the ambivalent discourses of Bolivia’s first indigenous president 145-148 4.9 The plans for el TIPNIS 149-151 4.10 Street art in defense of the ‘unauthorised indian’ 152-158 4.11 Los animales 158-162 4.12 Three mo(ve)ments in discussion 162-165 Chapter 5- Insights from the Southern Cone: Argentine street art in contention 166-167 5.1 La edad de oro and embryonic articulations 167-170 5.2 Developments and contingencies in the “infamous decade” 170-174 5.3 Political street art and Peronismo: a marriage of convenience 174-179 5.4 Peronismo and political street art: from anti-system to pro-system 179-183 5.5 Political purges, artistic rebellion and the peoples’ spring(s) of ’68 184-195 5.6 Silencio en la calle? from organised state terror to the Siluetazo 195-207 5.7 Street art and the democratic restoration 208-210 5.8 Human Rights, market cooptation and the peso crisis: political street art from the nineties 210-214 5.9 La calle to the white cube 214-223 5.10 Argentine street art: a landscape in motion 223-226 Chapter 6- Discussion and Conclusion 227 6.1 A restatement of purpose and intervention 228-229 6.2 Evidentiary street art practices: summing up 229-235 ! 4! 6.3 Locating International Relations 235-238 6.4 Concluding remarks 238 Bibliography 239-260 Image References 261-264 ! 5! LIST OF PLATES CHAPTER 3 between pages: Plate 1 “NÉGO” (I deny), an Alianca Liberal campaign poster. Lithograph 76-77 Plate 2 “Abaixo a dictadura” (Down with the dictatorship) an anti-Vargas campaign poster. Lithograph 76-77 Plate 3 “para o bem de São Paulo” (for the good of São Paulo), a paulista campaign poster. Lithograph 76-77 Plate 4 Graffiti in chalk deployed by Ze Carratu and Milton Sogabe. Photograph 92-93 Plate 5 An early stencil by Milton Sogabe. Photograph 92-93 Plate 6 “uma negra” (a negress). Photograph 93-94 Plate 7 “A Bandeira” (The Flag). Photograph 95-96 Plate 8 Friends at work. Photograph 102-103 Plate 9 Mega-graffiti by Grupo Tupinãodá. Photograph 102-103 Plate10 “Os Robôs” (The Robots) by Jaime Prades. Photograph 102-103 CHAPTER 4 Plate 11 “Murales de Ayllu de Warisata” (Murals from the Schoool of Warisata) by Yllanes, M (1934) Tempura 114-115 Plate 12 Graffiti by Mujeres Creando. Photograph 138-139 Plate 13 Graffiti by Mujeres Creando. Photograph 138-139 Plate 14 Julieta Ojeda in Action. Photograph 138-139 ! 6! Plate 15 Still image from the Potosí Principle intervention. Photograph 141-142 Plate 16 Still image from the Potosí Principle intervention. Photograph 141-142 Plate 17 Still image from the Potosí Principle installation. Photograph 141-142 Plate 18 Still image from the Potosí Principle intervention. Photograph 141-142 Plate 19 “Carreterra=Proyecto Capitalismo” (Road= Capitalist Project). Photograph 157-158 Plate 20 Banners in the trees. Photograph 157-158 Plate 21 “Gobernar obedeciendo a quien?” (To govern obeying whom?) Photograph 157-158 Plate 22 “Evo:Lengua” (Evo:Tongue). Photograph 161-162 Plate 23 “Mariposas tóxicas” (Toxic butterflies). Photograph 161-162 Plate 24 Stencils in the Plaza Bicentario. Photograph 161-162 Plate 25 Stencils on the Cumbre Pass. Photograph 161-162 CHAPTER 5 Plate 26 “Tucumán ARDE”. (Tucumán BURNS). Photograph 191-192 Plate 27 “Scarves”. Photograph 207-208 Plate 28 “III Marcha de la Resistencia” (Third March of Resistance) 1983. Photograph 207-208 Plate 29 “El Siluetazo”. Photograph 207-208 ! 7! Plate 30 “Un Desaparecido” (A disappeared person). Photograph 207-208 Plate 31 A Neighbourhood Memorial in San Telmo, Buenos Aires. Photograph 213-214 Plate 32 An escrache. Photograph 213-214 Plate 33 An escrache. Photograph 213-214 Plate 34 Bush/Mickey Mouse Stencil by Bs.As.Stencil. Photograph 222-223 ! 8! ACKNOWLEDGMENTS There are a number of people who have contributed to the formulation and eventual completion of this project, and to them I owe an enormous debt of gratitude. I must firstly thank my supervisors Dr Thomas Richard Davies and Dr David Williams, both of whom have provided me limitless support and encouragement since I arrived at City University as an undergraduate nearly ten years ago. David’s engaging lectures on the politics of development and the many contradictions of the International Financial Institutions secured my commitment to the discipline of International Relations and Tom’s patience and encyclopaedic knowledge of all things ‘revolutionary’ really gave me something to aspire to. Additionally, I am eternally grateful to Professor Peter Willetts who entirely altered my fate by allowing me to transfer my undergraduate studies to City’s then ‘Centre for International Politics’ in 2005. Professor Kim Hutchings, Dr Peter Wilson and Dr Francisco Panizza from the London School of Economics also deserve a mention for showing me great kindness during my Masters degree and encouraging me to pursue my doctoral studies in the subject. Importantly, this thesis is founded on my interest and more fundamentally, my belief in the power of ‘politics by other means’. For developing my understanding of activism in theory and in practice, I have to thank comrades from the Housman’s Bookshop on the Caledonian Road, my friends and teachers Louie Jenkins and Omar Mansur as well as protagonists in Chiapas, Mexico, whose activities captivated me and gave me the material for my very first piece of extended research. The biggest credit due here is to the wonderful people whose stories I have touched upon in this thesis. It has been my great honour to have met artist-activists and their families as I made my trails across Latin America and words cannot express how grateful I am for their ! 9! time, openness and generosity. I am especially grateful to Stanislaw Cabezas for being the most informative and intriguing guide in La Paz; to Adri Ballon-Ossio for the comfort of her blow-up mattress and for my introduction to salteñas.