Design Art Papers 2025 | No. 13

Corina NANI Street Art: Between Discourse and Action in Public Space / Introduction Street art, a vibrant and often ephemeral form of artistic expression, has long surpassed its initial connotations of simple graffiti or vandalism. From the early spray-painted drawings that appeared on urban walls as rebellious cries to today's complex murals and ingenious installations, this phenomenon has evolved into a recognized artistic field that challenges and reconfigures how we perceive and interact with public space. Unlike conventional art, which is displayed ingalleries andmuseums, street art finds its platformdirectly on the stage of everyday life, transforming mundane walls, sidewalks, or urban furniture into support for profound messages and powerful visual interventions. This article aims to explore the intrinsic duality of street art, analyzing how it functions simultaneously as social discourse and as a concrete action in public space. We will argue that street art is not just an aesthetic manifestation, but a complex form of visual communication, a platform where collective ideas, critiques, and aspirations materialized and are launched into a direct dialogue with the citizen. Through the lens of this analysis, we will demonstrate how street artists appropriate and re-signify urban space, transforming it from a passive background into an active participant in an ongoing social conversation. Street art thus positions itself in a creative and productive tension between discourse and action,wheremeaning isgeneratedandpropagatedthrough Keywords / street art; public space; social discourse; urban action; artistic intervention; countercultural art; Summary / This article explores street art as a dynamic socio-cultural phenomenon, situated at the intersection of social discourse and action in public space. Our analysis demonstrates that street art transcends a simple aesthetic manifestation. It functions as a complex platformwhere critical, political, and subversive messages materialize through concrete interventions in the urban environment. We will examine how the act of creating street art, often anonymous and unauthorized, represents a discourse on power, property and the right to the city, transforming mundane walls into visual forums. The article details how the unexpected interaction of the public with these works generates continuous dialogue and how the ephemerality of many works contributes to a discourse on urban impermanence and cultural resistance. In conclusion, we argue that street art is a transformative force that re-signifies public space, becoming a vital barometer of collective tensions and aspirations. the act of creation in public space and through interaction with it, transforming the urban space into a visual agora. 1. Street Art as a space for the articulation of social discourse and action Streetart is,byitsverynature,aformofvisualcommunication intrinsically linked to the urban environment. It is not enough to analyze only the explicit or implicit message of a work; we must understand that the social discourse it carries is inextricably linked to the action of placing it in a specific context and exposing it to an unselected public. This intersection creates a unique space for dialogue, subversion, and reflection on everyday reality. 1.1. Subversion as an act: discourses against the current Street art has traditionally been a voice of the marginalized and of counterculture. Through the action of taking over walls, bridges, or other urban surfaces—spaces often strictly controlled by authorities or commercial norms— artists launch a critical discourse against the status quo. This subversion is not only manifested through the content of the message (which can target social inequalities, political injustices, environmental problems, or the excesses of consumerism), but also through theveryact of intervening in an unsanctioned space. The presence of a street art piece in an unexpected location becomes a visual statement, a break 285