Anthropology and the City. Street Art in Medellín’s Comuna 13: A City-Making Practice and an Ethnographic Tool
Urban anthropologists are shifting from traditional approaches that treated the city merely as the “object” or “context” of research, focusing instead on the city as a dynamic process, shaped and reshaped by city-making practices implemented by its inhabitants. This paper analyzes street art as both...
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| Format: | Article |
| Language: | English |
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Universidad de los Andes (Bogotá)
2025-01-01
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| Series: | Antípoda: Revista de Antropología y Arqueología |
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| Online Access: | https://revistas.uniandes.edu.co/index.php/antipoda/article/view/9678/10503 |
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| author | Claudio Riga |
| author_facet | Claudio Riga |
| author_sort | Claudio Riga |
| collection | DOAJ |
| description | Urban anthropologists are shifting from traditional approaches that treated the city merely as the “object” or “context” of research, focusing instead on the city as a dynamic process, shaped and reshaped by city-making practices implemented by its inhabitants. This paper analyzes street art as both a city-making practice and as an anthropological tool for studying contemporary cities, not as “object” or “context” but as dynamic processes. The analysis is based on ethnographic fieldwork carried out between 2022 and 2023 in Medellín’s Comuna 13. The purpose of the research was to study the impact of street art on the residents’ life experiences. Drawing on walking and photographing ethnography, the research employed a novel method leveraging the local practice of the Graffitour–a guided walking tour based on narrating Comuna 13’s history through street art. The author participated in 10 Graffitour sessions, recording the guides’ narrations and photographing street artworks. This article will present five of these street artworks, along with their respective narrations, each reflecting a different period in Comuna 13’s history. Analyzing these five street artworks will provide readers with an image of Comuna 13 not as a static object or a mere context but as a dynamic process, while simultaneously revealing street art as a powerful resident-driven city-making practice. While street art is a globally widespread form of artistic expression, its deep contextual and situated characteristics can offer novel avenues for studying complex urban phenomena. Nevertheless, its potential for anthropological understanding has yet to be fully explored. This paper proposes to fill this gap by offering urban scholars new and fascinating possibilities to study contemporary cities through the lens of street art. |
| format | Article |
| id | doaj-art-db643d6d53e741a993a5a2c9ce9a6dc4 |
| institution | Kabale University |
| issn | 1900-5407 2011-4273 |
| language | English |
| publishDate | 2025-01-01 |
| publisher | Universidad de los Andes (Bogotá) |
| record_format | Article |
| series | Antípoda: Revista de Antropología y Arqueología |
| spelling | doaj-art-db643d6d53e741a993a5a2c9ce9a6dc42025-01-27T20:27:11ZengUniversidad de los Andes (Bogotá)Antípoda: Revista de Antropología y Arqueología1900-54072011-42732025-01-015820322910.7440/antipoda58.2025.09Anthropology and the City. Street Art in Medellín’s Comuna 13: A City-Making Practice and an Ethnographic ToolClaudio Riga0https://orcid.org/0000-0001-8242-6838Universidad de Los Andes, ColombiaUrban anthropologists are shifting from traditional approaches that treated the city merely as the “object” or “context” of research, focusing instead on the city as a dynamic process, shaped and reshaped by city-making practices implemented by its inhabitants. This paper analyzes street art as both a city-making practice and as an anthropological tool for studying contemporary cities, not as “object” or “context” but as dynamic processes. The analysis is based on ethnographic fieldwork carried out between 2022 and 2023 in Medellín’s Comuna 13. The purpose of the research was to study the impact of street art on the residents’ life experiences. Drawing on walking and photographing ethnography, the research employed a novel method leveraging the local practice of the Graffitour–a guided walking tour based on narrating Comuna 13’s history through street art. The author participated in 10 Graffitour sessions, recording the guides’ narrations and photographing street artworks. This article will present five of these street artworks, along with their respective narrations, each reflecting a different period in Comuna 13’s history. Analyzing these five street artworks will provide readers with an image of Comuna 13 not as a static object or a mere context but as a dynamic process, while simultaneously revealing street art as a powerful resident-driven city-making practice. While street art is a globally widespread form of artistic expression, its deep contextual and situated characteristics can offer novel avenues for studying complex urban phenomena. Nevertheless, its potential for anthropological understanding has yet to be fully explored. This paper proposes to fill this gap by offering urban scholars new and fascinating possibilities to study contemporary cities through the lens of street art.https://revistas.uniandes.edu.co/index.php/antipoda/article/view/9678/10503comuna 13street arturban anthropologyvisual anthropologywalking ethnography |
| spellingShingle | Claudio Riga Anthropology and the City. Street Art in Medellín’s Comuna 13: A City-Making Practice and an Ethnographic Tool Antípoda: Revista de Antropología y Arqueología comuna 13 street art urban anthropology visual anthropology walking ethnography |
| title | Anthropology and the City. Street Art in Medellín’s Comuna 13: A City-Making Practice and an Ethnographic Tool |
| title_full | Anthropology and the City. Street Art in Medellín’s Comuna 13: A City-Making Practice and an Ethnographic Tool |
| title_fullStr | Anthropology and the City. Street Art in Medellín’s Comuna 13: A City-Making Practice and an Ethnographic Tool |
| title_full_unstemmed | Anthropology and the City. Street Art in Medellín’s Comuna 13: A City-Making Practice and an Ethnographic Tool |
| title_short | Anthropology and the City. Street Art in Medellín’s Comuna 13: A City-Making Practice and an Ethnographic Tool |
| title_sort | anthropology and the city street art in medellin s comuna 13 a city making practice and an ethnographic tool |
| topic | comuna 13 street art urban anthropology visual anthropology walking ethnography |
| url | https://revistas.uniandes.edu.co/index.php/antipoda/article/view/9678/10503 |
| work_keys_str_mv | AT claudioriga anthropologyandthecitystreetartinmedellinscomuna13acitymakingpracticeandanethnographictool |