• BA in Visual Culture

The Right Place at the Worst of Times

Linda Pompei

Focusing on the Italian context, my research project investigated how the recent global pandemic affected the urban practice of street art. 

By bearing in mind the close relationship between street art and the idea of public space, I attempted to unravel whether or not public space remained the ‘right place’ for Italian street art, at a time when its audience was strongly advised against inhabiting that very same public space.

Drawing on Miwon Kwon's ‘Theory of the Wrong Place’, and Henri Lefebvre's ‘Right to the City’, street art emerges as a direct engagement with urban space that ultimately seeks to re-establish it as truly public. 

My research project explored the work of Italian street artists who kept producing their artworks during the many lockdowns imposed by the Italian government, by finding innovative approaches to remain in touch with their publics while adapting their practices to the newly restricted setting of public space.