The Graffitour of the 13: an aesthetic, political and historical trajectory through Medellín

Abstract To think the borders of the metropolis beyond the representations associated with precariousness and crime presupposes recognizing the abundance and vitality of aesthetic practices and productions that are reconfiguring the discourses on the peripheries. In both Brazil and other Latin American countries, the emergence and diffusion of languages produced in the "margins" of cities call into question the center/periphery dualism - relativizing the existence of fixed boundaries, while proposing other ways of narrating different collective experiences. Commonly seen as a peripheral product, graffiti is an artistic language that express the multiplicity of agencies on the metropolitan edges. In the city of Medellín, Colombia, different groups formed mainly by young people from the edges have been taking on graffiti and hip hop as a resource to understand, narrate and distance themselves from the violence that crosses them. A significant sample of this type of collective experience is the Graffitour proposal, an "aesthetic, political and historical" route organized by the Centro Cultural Casa Kolacho in the Commune 13. Based on the assumption that the Graffitour transcends the simple representation of the medellinense periphery and constitutes a form of cultural and political organization to speak about the violence that appears in the city, this work reports the experience of having carried out this journey through Commune 13. In this sense, it aims to reflect on how discourses are produced on metropolitan edges in contemporary times and on the role of urban artistic manifestations in the interpretation of violence and in the construction of social memory.

摘要 若要超越与失稳处境及犯罪活动相关的既有表征，去思索大都市的边界，前提是必须承认那些正在重塑边缘地带话语的美学实践与创作，其丰沛性与生命力。在巴西及其他拉丁美洲国家，诞生于城市“边缘”的话语形态的涌现与传播，对中心-边缘二元对立范式提出了质疑——它不仅消解了固定边界的绝对性，同时也为讲述多元集体经验提供了新的叙事路径。涂鸦常被视作边缘地带的产物，实则是一种艺术话语，它彰显了大都市边缘地带多元行动主体的存在。在哥伦比亚麦德林市，诸多以边缘地带青年为核心组建的团体，已将涂鸦与嘻哈作为工具，用以理解、叙事，并试图与裹挟自身的暴力划清界限。此类集体经验的典型样本便是“涂鸦之旅”（Graffitour）项目：由卡萨科拉乔文化中心（Centro Cultural Casa Kolacho）在第13公社（Commune 13）组织的一条“美学、政治与历史”之旅线路。本研究秉持如下预设：“涂鸦之旅”并非仅止步于对麦德林边缘地带的简单表征，而是一种用以言说城市中存在的暴力的文化与政治组织形式。据此，本文记录了在第13公社开展此次旅程的实践经验。基于此，本研究旨在反思：当代大都市边缘地带的话语是如何生成的，以及城市艺术表达在解读暴力与建构社会记忆的过程中扮演了何种角色。