Exploring the Soul of Cities through Street Art

A Palette of Perspectives

When I created my Medium account, I wrote a few articles about my travels and published them in “Globetrotters”. I have visited quite a few places until now and I loved reminiscing about some of the destinations that have impressed me the most.

Going through the photos from my archives to add them to these particular articles I was writing felt like taking trips down memory lane. This action alone infused the written words with a lot of nostalgia.

I consider myself lucky to have found “Globetrotters” when I started my Medium journey. Its really friendly editors boosted my confidence quite a bit with their support and nice comments and encouraged me to keep writing.

I am also grateful that I have stumbled there upon the articles of a few people whose writing I really like(d) (I have to mention David Conte and Claire Elizabeth Levesque here and say that if you’re not reading them, you’re missing out) that I continue to read to this day with great pleasure.

I haven’t written for this pub for quite a while now (this will be mainly because life got a bit in the way and I felt like dedicating time for other types of pieces lately), but I confess that I felt an irresistible urge to write again for them when they announced their latest monthly challenge.

Quite an intro and you’re probably thinking by now that I should cut to the chase and I will without further ado. I just want to say first that I had to write a bit about my gratitude for having stumbled on “Globetrotters” as it steered my journey on Medium in directions that I really like.

The theme that the editors have come up with for August is “Street Art”. Well, I love art in general and I have a soft spot for street art. I really enjoy discovering new places and getting immersed in their culture and history. The thrill of chancing upon colourful graffitis on walls adds a certain flavor to each visiting experience.

I have a few friends who are wearing black clothes all the time and I’ve never understood why. I don’t dislike seeing people dressed in black, but when they wear black only, I feel they are exaggerating a bit. There are so many other options, so why limit our wardrobe to only one? Isn’t that a bit… well, dull? But, each to their own.

I personally don’t own anything black as I feel the color does not suit my temperament. I like colours and I like combining them. I associate vivid colours with feelings of joy or happiness. This is probably why I tend to think that people living in places where walls have splashes of color on them are happier and have an interest in visually improving their surroundings.

Street art however does more than just adorning a city. So much more. It also offers insight into the local culture, history, and into the way the inhabitants view the world. It literally makes visitors see places through the eyes of the locals and that’s something priceless.

More than this, street art is never confined to one specific style, and that is part of its allure. From stencils and paste-ups to large-scale murals, the diversity of street art showcases the boundless imagination of different people with artistic inclinations and is a real gateway to the local culture.

As a bonus, streets end up telling stories. A picture is worth a thousand words, they say, and these images are no exception. Many street artists draw inspiration from their surroundings, so they infuse their art with elements of the city’s history and contemporary issues.

By exploring this non-conventional type of art, visitors get acquainted thus with the real soul of the city. In Berlin, there will be images that talk about the Berlin Wall, while in Lisbon there will be images related to Fado to enchant the stroller. Each mural or graffiti will thus become a unique window into the social, political, and cultural narrative of that place.

When I decided to write about this theme, I thought it would be an impossible task. I have so many pictures of street art that I liked, so how could I ever pick just a few? After some lengthy deliberations, I have however managed to choose a few representatives and I will write some sentences about each one of them.

My first pick is a graffiti I happened upon in Lisbon (the image I used at the beginning of this article). I did not find it while wandering on one of the main streets, so probably not many visitors get to stumble upon it. I liked it so much that I later printed the picture and framed it and it’s now displayed on the walls of my parents’ house, together with other pictures I have taken that I like.

The second pick is a grafitti I found in Berlin. It’s not hard to figure out what it is about and I liked it because it is a very apt commentary about our contemporary way of life. Time has become a prison and we are the jailors, so what better visual metaphor to depict this reality than the one the artist used?

My third pick… well, this is a tough one. I will mention here all the graffitis that are displayed on parts of the Berlin Wall that are still standing. I was really impressed with this gallery of sorts when I saw it. Most of those images are really good and they make one ponder philosophical questions.

I will only add a few here, but there are many more that catch the eye. If you are considering visiting Berlin and you love street art, this part of the city is definitely a must-see.

If you want to read more takes on street art, I recommend the following articles:

Michele Maize talks about embracing diversity and spreading love through street art. Check out her piece:

Adrienne Beaumont wrote an article about the really wonderful street art she discovered in Morocco.