Graffiti: discurse of resistance based on Foucault

Abstract

The goal of this article is to observe how graffiti has altered discourses at the present moment. The paper is theoretically based on Foucault’s philosophical historical perspective focusing specifically on the phase of studies on power in its genealogical axis. The presupposition is that power, from the economic and political aspect, does not have only one visible face which imposes laws and norms through social control. We understand that power is best understood as a power struggle in which the subject does not always accept the regulations passively and thus unleashes actions of resistance. If institutionalized power controls publications and urban practices on the streets, creating graffiti becomes a form of counter-power and resistance. Society also reacts to this type of invasion, which is publicly visible, and tries to impede this “defacement” of buildings and walls. As a form of protection the creators of graffiti write in code and also insert a voice of protest against a society that is so controlled. If at first, the practice of creating graffiti was due to political resistance and then a form of demarcating territory and also as a demonstration of daring, now it is possible to detect a socio-economic concern. We base our study on Foucault (1995, 2003, 2010).