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This article has been published in: Ocula 18, Street Art: Iconoclasm and Istitutionalization

author: Mario Panico (Università di Bologna (IT))

Explosions of icons. Street Art and Performative Iconoclasm on the Socialist Monuments of Eastern Europe

language: italian

abstract: The aim of this paper is to consider the actions of street art and urban recolouring on the monuments of communist dictatorship, which have not been demolished after the fall of the Berlin Wall in 1989. Such rewriting actions have converted these monuments in spaces of artistic disputes in stark contrast with the memory conveyed by the communist regime. My goal is to understand the semiotic logic that characterizes the art of protest on the dictatorship monuments. In addition, with the analysis of three specific monuments I will investigate the relationship between imaginary and iconoclasm with the purpose of defining a new form of “attack on image” which is not only aimed at the destruction but also at the creation of new imaginaries.

citation information: Mario Panico, Esplosioni di icone. Street art e iconoclastia performativa sui monumenti socialisti dell’Europa orientale, "Ocula", vol.18, n.18, pp.43-56, September 2017. DOI: 10.12977/ocula76

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