Urban Street Art by the Communicational Liberation Army

The second of three articles on popular art in the Bolivarian Revolution, originally published by venezuelanalysis.com here.


By Ejercito Comunicacional de Liberacion

The urban street art produced by the Communicational Liberation Army has been sarcastically mocked and framed as government propaganda by the mainstream international media, including the New York Times and Reuters. In reality, the Urban Interventions Festival held in La Pastora (a Caracas barrio) provides a forum for constructive, empowering community engagement. It opens the door for popular sentiment to be creatively expressed beyond the boundaries of commercialised marketing, which usually dominates the urban visual landscape and attempts to define citizenship and political participation within a consumerist framework.

In the words of festival organisers:

Street art is a medium for humanising and enabling public spaces, at the same time as it proposes a reconstruction of the relationship of citizens with their street, their neighbourhood, and their city: Everyday dialogue between reality and the absurd.

The festival included many forms of artistic expression in addition to murals and graffiti, such as dance, puppets and other theatre, painting and stenciling, video, and stickers.

Photos by Ejercito Comunicacional de Liberacion.

Click image to see larger version.










A poster promoting the ‘Urban Interventions Festival’ of April 2010.