Long ago, stamping the signature (the graffiti tag) on the walls of the city was a subversive act against the established artistic, social and police order. Especially in the mid-1960s, when pioneer Darryl drew his name on Philadelphia walls that until then had been the preserve of thug gang graffiti artists.
Over the years, however, the unbridled proliferation of tags has stripped the gesture of stamping signatures on the walls of rebellion. It has become mainstream. Now, drawing graffiti on the walls in this way is as revolutionary as drawing caricatures of tourists in Montmartre or reproducing the church of Sant Bartolomé i Santa Tecla from an easel on the Sitges promenade, with all due respect to these pencil and brush craftsmen .
The overcrowding of the tag has also ended up irritating residents and merchants from all cities in the world, tired of putting up walls so that individuals who are not always committed to aesthetics (there are firms that can be considered authentic art) impudently mark their territory. In Barcelona, citizen weariness has led the City Council to announce a toughening of its policy, increasing spending on cleaning, but also police pressure on those who deface citizen heritage.
A recent ruling by the Supreme Court, in which a man who painted graffiti on a sculpture by Eduardo Chillida in Madrid is sentenced to prison, may give wings to the cities' fight against this practice. For the first time, the court considers that a crime has been committed, since the graffiti could damage the piece.
Barcelona's cleaning workers also know what it's like to have to restore –and not precisely with water– vandalized works of art. Of course, not all graffiti artists are responsible for graffiti on public sculptures, but it is relatively common for some vandals to sign the creative work of others with their doodles.
One morning this July, the work of Jaume Plensa Born, installed in 1992 on the avenue of the same name, appeared as shown in the photo. The daubs, yes, were quickly cleaned, just like those that in the past littered Rebecca Horn's L'Estel Ferit or Keith Haring's mural in the Raval (you have to be very ignorant or have a runaway ego to scribble your own name on the Reading artist's HIV manifesto).
But, beyond police or cleaning policies, the little consideration that sculpture deserves on public roads should provoke reflection. Above all, after the recent death of Claes Oldenburg, who has one of his greatest works in Barcelona, the Mistos de la Vall d'Hebron. These looked pristine yesterday (perhaps in need of another coat of paint) but they still don't get the attention they deserve.
Putting the spotlight on the extraordinary park of public sculptures in Barcelona will not free them from all these attacks, but it will help preserve them in more dignified conditions. This is not the exclusive responsibility of the City Council: cultural institutions and citizens themselves should celebrate these jewels with exhibitions and cultural activities that, despite being in the middle of the street, constitute a hidden treasure in the eyes of the majority of Barcelonans.
