{"id":273428,"date":"2019-01-17T17:20:53","date_gmt":"2019-01-17T19:20:53","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/revistapesquisa.fapesp.br\/?p=273428"},"modified":"2019-02-19T16:12:34","modified_gmt":"2019-02-19T19:12:34","slug":"between-transgression-and-art","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/revistapesquisa.fapesp.br\/en\/between-transgression-and-art\/","title":{"rendered":"Between transgression and art"},"content":{"rendered":"
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L\u00e9o Ramos Chaves<\/span><\/a> Pixos, pichos<\/em>, and graffiti, authorized or not, can be seen in risky, high-visibility locations around the city of S\u00e3o PauloL\u00e9o Ramos Chaves<\/span><\/p><\/div>\n

A graphic representation falling somewhere between letters and symbols, the pixo<\/em>, short for pixa\u00e7\u00e3o<\/em>, is a visual element that permeates the S\u00e3o Paulo landscape. It can be seen on marquees, walls, houses, and buildings, both commercial and residential. In a recently completed research project, anthropologist Alexandre Barbosa Pereira, a professor of social sciences at the Federal University of S\u00e3o Paulo (UNIFESP), Guarulhos campus, has analyzed pixa\u00e7\u00f5es<\/em> (plural of pixa\u00e7\u00e3o<\/em>) made in several regions of the city since the 1980s. Along the way, he observed how young people from the periphery involved in this activity\u2014characterized as a genre of urban art whose essence is to go beyond the rules of the public space\u2014managed to obtain recognition in national and foreign artistic circles, despite a relationship of constant tension with the state and its institutions.<\/p>\n

Over the last four years, in a project financed by the National Council for Scientific and Technological Development (CNPq), Pereira mapped out the juvenile cultural practices in Santos and S\u00e3o Paulo, in particular the pixa\u00e7\u00e3o<\/em> of S\u00e3o Paulo. Some of the results of his project are the subject of a book that will be published at end of this year. In his work, the researcher explains that the members of the movement differentiate the concepts of pixa\u00e7\u00e3o<\/em> (with an “x”) from picha\u00e7\u00e3o<\/em> (with a “ch”). While the word when written with “ch” refers to legible phrases and inscriptions, with an “x” it refers to writings that are understood only by the members of the movement. In addition, it involves coordination among groups, mostly from the city’s periphery, that seek to leave their individual or collective marks in highly visible and difficult-to-access locations. In so doing they question the very way the urban landscape is structured. Any type of picha\u00e7\u00e3o<\/em> (or pixa\u00e7\u00e3o<\/em>) is considered an environmental crime, in accordance with Federal Law No. 9605\/98. In addition to a fine, there is a penalty of three months to one year in prison for authors of picha\u00e7\u00e3o<\/em> and unauthorized graffiti (see glossary<\/em>). The penalties are higher when they involve buildings considered to have historical heritage.<\/p>\n


\nGLOSSARY
\n<\/strong>GRAFFITI<\/strong>
\nUrban art characterized by graphic designs produced either legally or illegally. It emerged in the 1970s in New York<\/p>\n

MURALISM<\/strong>
\nGraffiti made with the permission of those responsible for the property. Its purpose is decorative<\/p>\n

PICHA\u00c7\u00c3O<\/em><\/strong>
\nBrazilian street writings on the urban landscape that include declarations of love and protest phrases<\/p>\n

PIXA\u00c7\u00c3O <\/em><\/strong>
\nA particularly Brazilian style of street writings that the pixador<\/em> (painter of pixa\u00e7\u00e3o<\/em> or pixo<\/em>) repeats in various places throughout the city. Spray paint and foam rollers are the tools most often used<\/p>\n

TAG<\/strong>
\nA term used primarily in Europe and the United States to designate the signatures that accompany graffiti<\/p>\n

SOURCE\u00a0Gustavo Lassala, Professor At Mackenzie University <\/div>\n

A scholar of the subject for more than 15 years, Pereira, who is part of the Luso-Brazilian Research Network for Arts and Urban Interventions, explains that picha\u00e7\u00e3o<\/em> created using random scribbling and phrases has always been found in S\u00e3o Paulo. However, he notes that the practice intensified during the 1970s, along with poetic verses written on walls and demonstrations against the dictatorship. The beginnings of pixa\u00e7\u00e3o<\/em>, however, are more recent. It emerged in the 1980s, influenced by movements such as punk, heavy metal, hip-hop, and skate culture. “The lettering style of S\u00e3o Paulo pixa\u00e7\u00e3o<\/em> developed based on the rectilinear, jagged style that emerged at the time,” he notes. In Pereira’s view, the practice spread through exchanges between street artists from various regions of the country. “In S\u00e3o Paulo, the pixa\u00e7\u00e3o<\/em> images are recurrent, they move from the center to the peripheries, something that is not common in other municipalities, where these markings are usually circumscribed to specific zones, either central or peripheral, according to the city,” he adds. The predilection for increasingly higher locations would also have arisen in the city, and seems to have influenced the graphic design of the letters. In the capital of Minas Gerais, for example, the letters have their own style and reflect the influence of both the S\u00e3o Paulo and Rio de Janeiro pixa\u00e7\u00e3o<\/em> styles, the latter known as xarpi<\/em> (pronounced “sharpie”), observes psychologist Ludmilla Zago Andrade. She holds a PhD in literary studies from the Federal University of Minas Gerais (UFMG), and has conducted ethnographic research on the pixadores<\/em> (plural of pixador<\/em>) of Belo Horizonte.<\/p>\n

Initially done on the ground or on walls, in the 1990s the pixa\u00e7\u00e3o<\/em> began to be written at increasingly higher locations, like the top of the It\u00e1lia building and the building next to the Bandeira terminal. Here the graffiti inscriptions of Edmilson Macena de Oliveira (1975\u20131997), aka \u201cDI,\u201d considered one of the most active pixadores<\/em> in S\u00e3o Paulo, are still preserved. Moreover, the inscriptions, which were never clearly legible to begin with, became even less comprehensible, acquiring a style of graphic representation understood only by the members of the movement itself. Between 2001 and 2017, Pereira observed that groups of pixadores<\/em> and their sympathizers were making efforts to preserve the memory of those who had done inscriptions in emblematic locations, preventing their pixos<\/em> from being erased and saving newspaper reports about the incidents. “Through their pixa\u00e7\u00e3o<\/em> painting, these young people impose themselves into the urban space, from which they feel excluded,” Pereira maintains. From that time on, writing over the signature of another individual, especially if deceased, became an offense. “These young people want to be seen and remembered by future generations for the practice of pixa\u00e7\u00e3o<\/em>,” notes the researcher, who estimates there were about 5,000 pixadores<\/em> in the city of S\u00e3o Paulo during the 2000s.<\/p>\n