What is it about?
What is the relationship between street art and the law? In A Philosophy Guide to Street Art and the Law, Andrea Baldini argues that street art has a constitutive relationship with the law. A crucial aspect of the identity of this urban art kind depends on its capacity to turn up-side down dominant uses of public spaces. Street artists subvert those laws and social norms that regulate the city. Baldini shows that street art has not only transformed public spaces and their functions into artistic material, but has also turned its rebellious attitude toward the law into a creative resource. He aims at elucidating and arguing for this claim, while drawing important implications at the level of street art’s metaphysics, value, and relationship with rights of intellectual property, in particular copyright and moral rights. At the other end of the spectrum of contractual art, street art is outlaw art.
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Why is it important?
Street art is onStreet art is becoming more popular. It is literally transforming the appearances of our cities and the ways we live. Understanding its nature and its relationship with the law is critical for better appreciating, promoting, and preserving this art form, as well as understanding why it is so appealing to the majority of us.
Perspectives
When it comes to street art, there is a lot of misunderstanding. Since street art has become cool, every institution, government office, and official programme has co-opted it, often distorting its nature. The book attempts to answer some key questions about the nature of this art form in relation to the law. In a jargon free-style, the manuscript deals directly with questions that are of general interests and have been debated at length, namely, "Is street art essentially illegal?"; "Is it art or vandalism?"; "Should it be protected by copyright?". I tried to provide nuanced but clear answers to those questions, always keeping in mind how such solutions might affect policies regarding the use of public spaces. In essence, I believe that discussing street art is discussing how we use the city and how we can find joy in being in public.
Andrea Baldini
Alliance University
Read the Original
This page is a summary of: A Philosophy Guide to Street Art and the Law, November 2018, Brill,
DOI: 10.1163/9789004394049_002.
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