Where is the Boundary between Graffiti and Art?

Valparaiso, Chile is known unofficially as the mural capital of Chile.  Pieces of art spray painted on walls grace every other building in the colorful hills hugging the Pacific Ocean.  Tourists trek through the hills looking for the most beautiful pieces, snapping pictures on literally every other street in the city's hilly neighborhoods.  Along with the architecture and the natural settings, the murals contributed to Valparaiso being granted UNESCO heritage status.

But to call every spray painted piece on wall as art is too much even for a place like Valparaiso.  Some of the paintings, even for the laymen with little formal training in art appreciation, cannot be considered art.  They are mere scribbles, unorganized and lacking meaning, becoming eyesore for the city.  They have to be called Graffiti, even if their authors would vehemently disagree.  Whether Valparaiso should judge their spray painted drawings on the streets and erase those considered Graffiti is debatable.

It is debatable because who is to judge what is art and what is Graffiti? Who sets the definition and how can that definition be standard? After all, what is garbage for one person is gold for another.  The lax attitude toward "street art creation" is ensuring that there is endless proliferation of new spray paintings in Valparaiso, some beautiful (by my opinion), others not so much. The city is being covered with spray paint, often without regulation on subjects, colors, and sizes.

The fact that there is so much wall spray paintings on the streets is deeply uncomfortable with someone like me who lived in some rough inner city neighborhoods in the US.  In the US, Graffiti is associated with failure of public services, which in turn is associated with street violence.  In other words, people associate Graffiti with danger and all the social ills of inner city ghettos.  Indeed, whenever gentrification takes place in inner city America, one of the most important act is to remove unsightly Graffiti.

It does not seem like such association of Graffiti with violence is present in Chile.  While Valparaiso is a special case where Graffiti is appreciated as art, even in "nice" neighborhoods in Santiago, the country's cosmopolitan capital city, historical architecture is covered with spray paint of one sort or the other.  The city seems to encourage, or at least remain passive toward, the presence of these spray paintings.  They add character to the city in ways that many Americans may find difficult to stomach.

But even if Graffiti is not immediately associated or correlated with violence, they do serve particular purposes that may become source of instability in the future.  While the example may not be an apple-to-apple comparison, Graffiti that emerged in communist Eastern Europe was generally politically subversive in ways not comprehensible to the dictatorial authorities.  Their emergence, unbeknownst to the authorities, led to political awareness among the youth, who used street art to display their political dissatisfaction.

Art can be a powerful political weapon.  And street art can be an especially powerful sort since it is available for free to everyone.  The messages they express, if political, can subvert whatever political order that is currently in place, for better or worse.  That power of subversion is especially alarming in South America, where even progressive demographic governments such as those of Brazil can be quickly brought down with the masses suddenly turning against leaders with allegations of corruption and other scandals.

Chile, while politically and economically stable since the overthrow of the Pinochet military regime, is not immune to the same pressures.  It is the most unequal economy in the OECD with a problem of racial disharmony among whites, blacks, and mestizos, much in the same manner as in the US.  And as in the US, small incidents can quickly become rallying cries for race-related protests, creating social instability.  It would not be surprising if Street-level spray paintings, whether Graffiti or art, plays a central role in making those future protests happen.