Street Art can be considered as a language – the exhibition «Street Art – The readable City» offers an instruction to the legibility of its symbolism. The visitors should learn to comprehend the dynamics of Street art to be prepared for new visual challenges in everyday life and to establish an understanding of public space as media platform for individual expression.

Street Art developed from the Graffiti movement in the end of the 1980s in large cities in Europe and the USA. With the distribution of designed works of art like pictures, writings, figures, characters and logos in the form of posters, stickers, stencil graffiti, wall painting and other objects the artists aim for an intellectual and artistic recapture of a communication platform in public space which is nowadays dominated by the symbols and codes of media and advertisements. The disruption of the habitual space of the city calls attention to a usually smoothly flowing symbolic system which regulates everyday life. By breaking with ordinary practices of viewing and thinking one can be prepared for a more conscious self perception in urban space.

One part of the exhibition will be formed by an installation on one wall of the gallery, imitating public space as the usual place of Street art. The artists will create objects in response to an invitation on the homepage accompanying the exhibition, which will be mounted on the installation. The opposite wall displays individual art pieces created by some of the more significant contributors of the show, resembling more of a traditional gallery approach.

The contrasting walls will help to show how almost identical work can be seen completely different in different settings. What is hung nicely in a gallery is art but what is slapped on a wall covered in graffiti is defacement of private or public property. By showing some of the work in a more traditional light, one will hopefully see how amazing and creative some of the work is and develop a new understanding and respect for street artists, and their commitment to putting their art in public space.

It is nearly impossible to recreate a true street art or graffiti scene, the shows curators have tried their best to recreate such a scenario. However they invite you to also take a tour of the Seventh district (the heart of Street Art in Vienna) and see it for real. One such hot spot can be seen across the street from INOPERAbLE, the recently dubbed Linden Gallery, a vacant lot abandoned by the city, but now inhabited by some of the best Street Art from Vienna, Paris, Holland, and Berlin.

Show Curators

Elisabeth Fritz, Clemens Wolf, 401RUSH