Graffiti and pandemic. Narratives of resistance and reinvention of life

Abstract

This is a netnographic documentary research, with a qualitative approach, with a historical outline circumscribed to the year 2020, which aims to reflect on the importance of graffiti in the processes of resistance and reinvention of life in the context of the covid-19 pandemic, from the analysis of image narratives translated into graffiti works produced in contemporary cities on the global stage, specifically New York, Berlin, Bristol, Paris, Porto, Leiria and Rio de Janeiro, by graffiti artists Saynosleep, Pure Genius, Eme Freethinker, Banksy, Jérôme Mesnager, Vhils, Aryz and Airá Ocrespo. The data sources used were: Instagram, Facebook and Google. Data analysis led to the identification of three categories. The paths and works dealt with reveal artivisms and economic, political and social contradictions experienced by contemporary societies and brought to the surface in the context of the pandemic, but also shed light on the other subjective dynamics involved in this process. That is, it lays bare the potential of graffiti to intervene, reveal, process and transform the deep uncertainties, questions and human concerns experienced in such a period