Design Art Papers 2025 | No. 13

Fig. 3 / Shepard Fairey, „ Hope ”, 2008. It was originally a widely distributed poster that appeared in various urban locations during Barack Obama's presidential campaign. 1.2. Forced dialoguewith the public: unexpected and re-signified Unlike art displayed in galleries, where the public actively chooses to interact with the work, street art introduces discourse directly into the citizen's daily life through its unexpected appearance. This surprise is an essential component of how the discourse is received. The passers- by, immersed in their daily routine, are suddenly confronted with an image or a message that pulls them out of passivity. This forced interaction transforms the public from a passive recipient into an active participant in the decoding and interpretation of the discourse. The work becomes a visual forum, initiating a tacit dialogue between the artist, the work, and the viewer. As Michel de Certeau argued, the everyday practices of individuals - including the act of creating street art- represent ingenious „tactics” [2] through which they appropriate and subvert the "strategies" imposed by power structures, creating new meanings in „pre-defined” spaces. This perspective underlines that the artistic act in the street is a form of resistance, by which public, official, and controlled spaces are re-signified by individual or collective actions. The action of placing a work of art in an unexpected location instantly changes the discourse of that space. A gray and anonymous wall becomes a canvas for an aesthetic, social, or political discourse, prompting the passerby to reconsider the function and message of their surroundings. This visual re-signification is a powerful form of intervention, through which street art demonstrates that public space is not an inert background, but a malleable environment, capable of transmitting messages and generating new meanings. For example, a work that transforms a mundane urban element (a pipe or a crack in the wall) into a part of the artistic composition makes a discourse about perception, creativity, and the hidden potential of the city. As street art has evolved, it has facilitated the transition of discourse from a marginal, almost invisible area, to a much wider audience. The act of displayingworks inpublic, visible places has forced recognition and dialogue on a larger scale. What began as a specific discourse of a subculture (graffiti) has become, throughtheactionof expanding intotheurban landscape, an art formwith a significant cultural and social impact, capable of generatingpublicdiscussions and influencingperceptions. 2. The action of urban intervention as a generator of discourse and reaction If the first section analyzed how discourse materializes through action, this second part focuses on the action itself as a primary catalyst for generating new discourses and reactions inpublic space. The act of urban intervention is not 291 290 / / / / Caiete de Arte și Design / nr. 13 / 2025 / / / / Publicație a Centrului de Cercetare și Creație în Artele Decorative și Design / / / / / / / / / / / / / / / / / / / / / / / / / / / / / / / / / / / / / / / / / / / / / / / / / / / / / / / / / / / / / / / / / / / / / / / / / / / / / / / / / / / / / / / / / / / / / / / / / / / / / / / / / / / / / / / / / / / / / / / / / / / / / / / / / / / / / / / / / / / / / / / / / / / / / / / / / / / / / / / / / / / / / / / / / / / / / / / / / / / / / / / / / / / / / / / / / / / / / / / / / / / / / / / / / / / / / / / / / / / / / / / / / /