Nuart Plus Street Art Conference
Day 1: Living Heritage
11:00–17:00, free entry
Free, book ticket
Tickets are not required for attendance but help us with planning. The conference will be taking place from 11–17, but you are welcome to come and go as it suits your schedule.
Aberdeen Art Gallery, Cowdray Hall, Schoolhill, AB10 1JQ
On Day 1 of Nuart Aberdeen’s Street Art Conference, we address the theme of living heritage.
Speakers include Dr Erik Hannerz (Lund University, SE), Dr Enrico Bonadio (City, University of London, UK) and Professor Ilaria Hoppe (Catholic Private University, Linz, AT). Topics include the preservation of street art under heritage law (Bonadio), the concept of ‘fame’ in graffiti as a form of intangible cultural heritage (Hannerz) and ‘bad street art’ as an everyday form of heritage (Hoppe). Day 1 closes with a panel discussion on strategies for safeguarding street art, with David Roos (STRAAT Museum, NL) Tim Marschang (Street Art Cities, BE), Sami Wakim (Street Art USA), Arne Vilhelm Tellefsen (Deconforml) and Stuart Holdsworth (Inspiring City).
11:00–11:10: Welcome and Introduction
Dr Susan Hansen (AU/UK)
Susan Hansen is Europe’s most cited street art scholar and host of Nuart Plus. She is committed to engaging and connecting outsider audiences with contemporary urban art and scholarship.
11:10–11:50: Street Art and Heritage Law
Dr Enrico Bonadio (IT/UK)
The decision whether street art should be preserved and heritagised affects artists, property owners and local communities. Making decisions regarding the existence or treatment of the work is challenging, as these parties may have conflicting interests. In his talk, Enrico Bonadio will explore the issues raised by the preservation of street art under heritage law.
11:50–12:30: Bad Street Art
Prof Ilaria Hoppe (DE/AT)
From a critical perspective, street art is a period or movement that some dismiss as ‘over’. In her talk, art historian Ilaria Hoppe uses the term ‘bad’ street art with a double meaning: firstly, as an ethical category, because of its involvement in gentrification, and secondly, as an aesthetic term to describe a form of art executed with a basic style. Drawing on a field trip to Catania, Sicily, Hoppe considers the roots of street art in the 1960s to argue that ‘bad street art’ can still be seen as a critical practice in neoliberal urban space, and an everyday form of cultural heritage.
12:30–13:30 — Lunch Break
13:30–14:20: Fame! The totemic principle in subcultural graffiti
Dr Erik Hannerz (SE)
For over 40 years the concept of fame – as in subcultural recognition and celebrity – has been the self-evident answer to explain the driving force behind the how’s, where’s, what’s and why’s of subcultural graffiti. In this talk, cultural criminologist Erik Hannerz will approach fame less for what it is and more on what fame does, arguing that fame works to materialise collective emotions, ideals and boundaries that are otherwise ephemeral and intangible.
14:20 – 15:00: Panel: Art on the Streets
Dr Erik Hannerz, Dr Enrico Bonadio, Prof Ilaria Hoppe
Join three of the world’s leading authorities on street art culture as they come together to discuss the role of art on the streets as a form of living heritage.
15:00 – 15:20 Break
15:20 – 16:00: Panel: Muse, Museum, Memory
David Roos (Straat Museum), Tim Marschang (Street Art Cities) Sami Wakim (Street Art United States), Arne Vilhelm Tellefsen (Deconform) and Stuart Holdsworth (Inspiring City)
David Roos, head curator of Amsterdam’s Straat Museum of street art and graffiti, Tim Marschang, co-founder of the ground-breaking Street Art Cities App, Sami Wakim, founder and director of Street Art United States, Arne Vilhelm Tellefsen, director of Deconform and Stuart Holdsworth, of Inspiring City, will discuss how and why their respective platforms are safeguarding street art legacy.
Fight Club aka the Pub Debate
21:00–23:00, Free entry
SPIN, 10 Littlejohn St, Aberdeen AB10 1FG
Followed by music, doors open until 01:00
“THE STREET IS MORE IMPORTANT THAN THE MUSEUM”
In the context of cultural heritage, colonialism, and the ephemeral nature of much of our culture, is the Street now more important than the Museum?
For anyone who’s ever been to a conference and felt bored to distraction. For anyone who ever felt too inhibited to put their hand up during a Q&A. For anyone with an opinion about power structures in public space but without a platform to voice them. Fight Club is for you.
Inspired by the original Greek Symposia where debates took place fuelled by copious amounts of wine, what Dumas called ‘the intellectual part of the meal.’ Nuart introduce a current hot topic in Street Art culture to be debated by two opposing teams made up of guest artists, academics and arts industry professionals.
The audience are encouraged to participate and settle the score at the end of the discussion by voting for the winning team. We round off the night with a vinyl only set from guest DJs to allow the losers to dance their blues away.
