This interactive exhibition features photos of street art pieces from a range of conflict-affected societies and an opportunity to leave your own ‘mark’. Street art makes an important contribution to understanding local conflict-dynamics and visions of peace. Street art tells narratives about everyday concerns and opinions, where multiple and often contradicting narratives by different artists and communities can be publicly viewed. This holds value in situations of conflict and censorship, as art can talk about issues that have no space in the mainstream political discourse.
Street art can have a range of different functions – some are displayed in this collection. These functions can both contribute to peace and social change, but also to foster or underline conflict and division. Functions that can be seen in this exhibit include: resistance, political communication, identity expression, memorialisation of events or people, and inspiration.
This exhibition has been curated by the international Consortium for Conflict Graffiti (ICCG) with Peace and Conflict Studies students, Zoe Beilby and Christine Faber.