Urban Tattoos for new Landscape narratives. Explorando el papel del arte urbano en el contexto de la ciudad contemporánea.

The study of contemporary city has evolved during the last decades introducing subjective factors: user’s preferences, behavior and experience, into the traditional morphological description to achieve a complete understanding of an urban public scene. This article analyses the transformation of contemporary public space narratives through mural art. The mural is tattooed onto the facade surface and surrounds the public space scene. Without altering the dimensions of the open public space, this urban art provides a new perception of place. Graphics and images generate new spatial narratives that become part of the urban landscape. Public urban space supports exchange and spontaneous communication of a cross-cutting nature among people in all communities — including intergenerational and multicultural exchanges—. In this spatial context, the urban mural art —"Urban Tattoo" — acts as a symbol of free expression and is available for all to see, providing an additional dimension of communication. This study makes a distinction between art created by individual initiative and art that is institutionally promoted. The art of the individual street artist is daring, spontaneous, genuine, and commonly underlays a specific meta-language only completely understood by insiders; but, at the same time, there is a graphic symbolism that connects easily with the public. By contrast, art that is sponsored by an institution is created with the objective of regenerating bland areas in the urban fabric. The same artistic techniques are used but the artist is constrained by a creative brief which is drafted by the sponsoring organization. Some unexpected consequences have resulted from these novel initiatives that promote the regeneration of urban areas using art to convert urban spaces into an open-air museum.