Lisbon and online, July 2, 3 and 4
Here is the link for the online sessions (one link for all sessions):
https://tinyurl.com/2ux2zx3m
Regarding local presentations, please bring them on a flash drive or send them by email to info@urbancreativity.org
The conference venue will be the Main Auditorium of the Lisbon Fine Arts Faculty, here: https://maps.app.goo.gl/zvyZNoQUxQmGi3PNA
PROGRAM
Download here the PDF version.
THURSDAY - July 2nd , 2026
Soft start 9:00 WET
Join us online via (zoom): https://tinyurl.com/2ux2zx3m
9:30 WET
Welcome and Opening Remarks
Eduardo Duarte; Lisbon University, Fine Arts Faculty, President*
Pedro Soares Neves; Urban Creativity, Lisbon, Portugal
9:40 - WET
Session I: Inscribed Frames Hybridizations of the Moving Image
LOCAL Introductory Presentation (20 min)
Inscribed Frames Hybridizations of the Moving Image
Mattia Ronconi; Institute for Research in Design, Media and Culture ID+; Faculty of Fine Arts of the University of Porto, Portugal.
Presentation Q&A (10 min)
LOCAL Panel Presentations (20 min each)
Street art in the Cyberpunk 2077 video game universe
Bartosz Rogala; Nicolaus Copernicus University in Toruń, Poland
Animating the Surface: Autoritratto and the cinematic transformation of Poster Art
Lorenza Carannante; Università degli studi della Campania "Luigi Vanvitelli", Italy
On the surface: Your platform on urban art
Davide Sottile; Politecnico Milano, Italy
Presentations Q&A (10 min)
11:20 – 11:30 10 min break
LOCAL Panel Presentations (20 min each)
“Do What Thou Wilt”: The Abbey of Thelema as Paradigm of "Muralismo Occulto" and the Weird Canon of Italian Illegal Urban Art
Vittorio Parisi, The Valais School of Arts, Switzerland
Mural Practice and Endemic Flora in the Canary Islands
Irene Caballero Bruno, Airam Saavedra-Rodríguez, José Otero-Cabrera; Universidad de La Laguna, Tenerife, Spain
Panel Q&A (10 min)
Lunch break 12:30 - 14:00h WET
14:00h WET
ONLINE Panel Presentations (20 min each)
From Unintentional Gesture to Urban Resignification: GSA in Naples
Aurosa Alison; Università degli Studi di Napoli L'Orientale, Italy
Disappearance as a Mode of Existence:
The Temporality of Street Art and the Production of Urban Space
Anna Garbaruk, Ekaterina Zakharkevich; University of Konstanz, Germany
New muralism and entropic landscape: rethinking methodological approaches. A case study of Street Art in Cordoba, Argentina.
Raul Armando Amoros Hormazabal; Academy of Fine Arts of Carrara, Italy
Panel Q&A (10 min)
15:10 -15:20 -10 min break
15:20h WET
ONLINE Panel Presentations (20 min each)
Place as a Medium of Communication: Mapping Signs from Physical to Digital through Spatial Semiotics
Aysenur Canitez, Eser Selen; Ozyegin University, Turkey
Hacking the Wall:
Graffiti, Interfaces, and the Moving Image
Virginia Marano; Karlsruhe Institute of Technology, Germany
Panel Q&A (10 min)
16:10h WET
Vídeo screening (10 min)
LOCAL Introdutory Presentation (20 min)
Jasper van Es
Specialist in Independent Public Art & Graffiti, Netherlands
Presentation Q&A (10 min)
16:50
Session II: Graffiti, Street Art, and (Il)Legality
ONLINE Introdutory Presentation (20 min)
The role of (il)legality in graffiti and street art
Stefano Bloch (8h ahead),
University of Arizona, United States
Presentation Q&A (10 min)
ONLINE Panel Presentations (20 min each)
Re-writing the Sacred City:
Graffiti, Ritual Presence, and Urban Identity in Varanasi
Chandni Jeswani
Independent Architectural Historian, United Arab Emirates
From Occupied Factory to Media Set:
Processes of Symbolic Valorization at Zack Castle
Andrea Capriolo
Università degli Studi di Udine, Italy
From United Graffiti Artists to Fashion Moda:
The Role of Alternative ‘Spaces’ and (Graffiti) ‘Writing’ and Aerosol Art
Christine DeFazio
Independent researcher, United States
Aesthetics of Disappearance: Graffiti, Absence, and the Production of Urban Space in Mexico
Francisco Javier Flores-Echiveste
University of Guadalajara, Mexico
18:40h WET
LOCAL Presentation (20 min)
Graffiti Black Books: Identity, Status, Risk, and Cultural Preservation
Tyson Mitman, Stefano Bloch (8h ahead),
York St John University, United Kingdom
Presentation Q&A (10 min)
Closing remarks (10 min)
Social program to be defined
FRIDAY - July 3rd , 2026
9:00 WET - Doors open
Session III: Intangible
ONLINE Panel Presentations (20 min each)
If walls could speak: How graffiti might act as a platform for agonism and debate around the democracy of public space in Eindhoven
Elena Pronk (presenting from New Zealand, 11 hour difference – 20:00 local time)
Technical University Eindhoven, Netherlands
Graffiti Writing and Social Justice
Joseph Quilter (presenting from Sidney, 10 hour difference – 19:00 local time)
Acknowledge Education, Lincoln Institute of Higher Education and Macquarie University, Australia
Presentations Q&A (10 min)
Session IV: Graffiti Expressionism: Updating the Classical Art Canons (1st panel)
10:00 -12:00 WET
LOCAL Introdutory Presentation (20 min)
From Triangle of sadness to Triangle of madness?
A provocation about graffiti in the classical art canon
Kai Hendrik Schlusche
Author and Independent Researcher, Lörrach, Germany
Presentation Q&A (10 min)
LOCAL Panel Presentations (20 min each)
The Liquid Monument: Beyond Stone - Graffiti as a Counter-monument and Urban Decolonization Practice in Europe
Erica Mone
Independent art curator and researcher, Rome, Italy
Towards an understanding of institutionalisation practices within Street Art:
a socio-evolutionary analysis for the “Mural Art” book series
Santiago Gonzalez Villajos
UNED (Spanish National Distance Education University), Spain
When Text Acts:
Dada and Text as Urban Intervention
Deoniziia Balde
Independent researcher, Setúbal, Portugal
Panel Q&A (10 min)
11:40 – 10 min break
LOCAL Panel Presentations (20 min each)
Urban Socio(Eco)logical Arts: the case of Lisbon
Pedro Andrade
University of Minho, Communication and Society Research Centre, Portugal
Political Billboards Reimagined:
Street Art, Resistance, and Counter-Communication in Contemporary Hungary
Kata Muranyi
Assistant Professor, University of Pécs, Hungary
Who gets in? Street Art and the Struggle for Canonical Recognition in Romania
Raisa Lolici, Voica Pușcașiu
Babeș-Bolyai University, Romania
Panel Q&A (10 min)
Lunch break 12:50 - 14:30h WET
14:30 WET
ONLINE Panel Presentations (20 min each)
Strategic Foundations for the Documentation of Graffiti in the Valley of Mexico: A Proposal within the Debate on Cultural Heritage
Yareli Jáidar Benavides, Yaminel Bernal Astorga, David Gutierrez Castañeda, Miguel Angel Mendez
Institute of Aesthetic Research (IIE-UNAM), Mexico
Bringing Bourdieu to the Algorithmic Train Yard: Social Media Graffiti Creators as Insurgents Implementing Emerging Media Technologies in the Field of Graffiti
Luis Contreras
Rutgers University-New Brunswick, United States
Panel Q&A (10 min)
ONLINE Panel Presentations (20 min each)
Graffiti Writing and Aerosol Painting: Art Form or Vandalism?
Christine DeFazio
Independent researcher, United States
Flowers and Bomb Craters: Street Art as an Expanded Practice of the UNESCO Convention Upgrade and BiosphereCentric Peacebuilding
Natalia Garber
Member of the global movement AI ARTS, United Kingdom
Tag, Tagrolling and Upperism: visual invasion and urban rewriting in Nemo’s Work
Lorenza Carannante
Università degli studi della Campania "Luigi Vanvitelli, Italy
Panel Q&A (10 min)
16:30 – 16:40 ----10 min break
16:40 WET
Session V: Graffiti Expressionism: Updating the Classical Art Canons (2nd panel)
LOCAL Panel Presentations (20 min each)
Women-Led Mural Initiatives and Public Space Transformation:
The Case of Mural Fest Kosova in Ferizaj
Lebibe Topalli , Fortunë Haziri
Dean of the Faculty of Applied Arts, University of Applied Sciences in Ferizaj, Kosovo
Managing Arts and Cultural Heritage in Global Markets, University of Glasgow, Scotland;
Undemocratic aspects of street art change :
Authorised heritage aesthetics
Laima Nomeikaite
University of Agder, Norway
Panel Q&A (10 min)
LOCAL Panel Presentations (20 min each)
The Canon Can’t (but) the Spray Can :
Recognizing Graffiti as Writing and as Art through the 'Iter' and the 'Formless'
Benedita Salema Roby
Instituto de História da Arte (IHA), Lisboa, Portugal
Community Mural Practice and Cultural Identity in El Médano Tenerife
Paula Calavera-Candela, Irene Caballero-Bruno
Universidad de La Laguna, Tenerife, Spain
Panel Q&A (10 min)
18:20 – Book presentation
Arts, Heritage and Performative Politics
Edited by Laima Nomeikaite, Associate Professor, Department of Global Development and Planning, University of Agder, Norway and Michael Haldrup, Professor, Department of Communication and Arts, Roskilde University, Denmark
18:35 - Closing
Social program to be defined
- Amoreiras Jam - biggest and most emblematic historical Lisbon graffiti hall of fame
July 3 to 5 from 10h00-; Av. Conselheiro Fernando de Sousa, here:
https://maps.app.goo.gl/S16CD3XejyhbP9mq5
SATURDAY- July 4th , 2026
ONLINE Panel Presentations (20 min each)
Street Haiku and the Urban Canon:
Participatory Rewriting in Utrecht’s Literary Landscape
Martine Mussies
Maastricht University, Netherlands
LOCAL Panel Presentations (20 min each)*
Indague – Nasty stuff - Book presentation
Isabel Carrasco - Marist College, Madrid, Spain
Jaume Gómez Muñoz - Educació TICS Diseño, Spain
La Universidad Glosada (The Annotated University) - Book presentation
Fernando Figueroa Saavedra - Art History independent researcher, Madrid, Spain
LOCAL Panel Presentation*
With One Eye Open - The Series (commented by the authors)
Four short films, each following a different photographer and their unique relationship with graffiti: Alex Fakso, Cat Cent Cat, Edward Nightingale, and the MIA Crew.
Written, shot and directed by Jonathan Pieterse; Concept by Jasper van Es
12:30 - Closing - Social program to be defined * - to confirm
- Amoreiras Jam - biggest and most emblematic historical Lisbon graffiti hall of fame
July 3 to 5 from 10h00-; Av. Conselheiro Fernando de Sousa, here:
https://maps.app.goo.gl/S16CD3XejyhbP9mq5
- 1st Lisbon Paste-up Jam by YYCS, July 5th from 10:30h-16:30h; Rua dos Lagares 22, here: https://maps.app.goo.gl/dNEVEUGpj3317qjS6
More news soon
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Submission deadlines:
Full paper until the end of July.
Proceedings are to be published in:
GSA - Graffiti and Street Art journal
Submissions should be made through the platform for GSA journal.
Please indicate the thematic call you are submitting to in the “Comments for the Editor” field.
The presentation at the 13th edition of the Urban Creativity conference is dependent on abstract acceptance. The 2026 thematic issues builds on the Urban Creativity Conference and Activities that run since 2014 (check all previous editions on urbancreativity.org).
Can graffiti and muralism be considered Intangible Heritage? By fostering a visceral, intuitive bond between the citizen and the city’s physical form, these practices transcend the mere 'art object.' Instead, they represent a dynamic, collective process essential to urban vitality.
These practices challenge the Classical Art Canon, demanding a departure from its historically Eurocentric and exclusionary frameworks. Far from signaling the exhaustion of art, graffiti offers a path for renewal through the hybridization of physical surfaces and the moving image. This evolution encompasses not only digital and cinematic narratives within the landscape but also the profound awareness that the images we construct are never static.
The 2026 edition topic of the Urban Creativity Conference + Activities emerges from 3 axes:
Intagible
Know how about interventions and mural production can be understood as Intangible Heritage? Resides in the spontaneous impulse to mark space and in the fluidity between unregulated graffiti, structured mural production, and the return to organic intervention? It is this knowledge embedded in the visceral relationship between the self and the city materiality — that must be identified and discussed as a vital element for safeguarding urban vitality? The preservation of this agency can be presented as an essential pillar for a democratic urban future?
Art Canon
We invite critical reflections on whether—and how—the classical art canon can, or should, be continued and reconfigured. Recent debates have exposed long-standing structural exclusions, including Eurocentrism and the systematic marginalization of women and non-Western artists. In this context, graffiti and post-graffiti practices raise urgent questions: do they signal the exhaustion of the traditional canon, or might they offer a compelling argument for its renewal?
Moving Image
Inscribed Frames: Hybridizations of the Moving Image: An exploration of the frontiers where Graffiti and Street Art collide with the moving image, creating "inscribed frames" that hybridize physical surfaces with cinematographic and digital narratives.
Under this conceptual framework, the following calls are already defined (more calls to confirm):
Inscribed Frames Hybridizations of the Moving Image
for GSA - Graffiti and Street Art journal (Vol.4) and Urban Creativity, conference and activities, 13th edition
Co-editor: Mattia Ronconi, Institute for Research in Design, Media and Culture ID+; Faculty of Fine Art, University of Porto
Abstract until the end of April 2026.
Full paper until the end of July 2026.
Publication of the Issue: November 2026.
More info
Graffiti, Street Art, and (Il)Legality: The role of (il)legality in graffiti and street art
for GSA - Graffiti and Street Art journal (Vol.4) and Urban Creativity, conference, 2026
Special Issue Editor: Stefano Bloch, University of Arizona
Abstract submission date: until the end of May 2026.
Full articles (if invited): until the end of July 2026.
Expected publication date: November 2026.
More info
Graffiti Expressionism: Updating the Classical Art Canons
for GSA - Graffiti and Street Art journal (Vol.4) and Urban Creativity, conference, 2026
Co-editor: Kai Hendrik Schlusche, Author and Independent Researcher in Graffiti and Street Art
Abstract until the end of April 2026.
Full paper until the end of July 2026.
Publication of the Issue: November 2026.
More info
As usual this UC Conference + Activities edition seeks to bring together theoretical and practical perspectives to help define the status and significance of urban creativity as a continuous social and material process.
Credits: The organization of the UC Conference is possible with the support of FBAUL/ CIEBA. Images: elisadventure (unsplash); Stefano Bloch personal archive; Mattia Ronconi, Porto 2025-2026; (partial) DARE | Sigi von Koeding, Orange vibes 80x80, 2008.
Two courses associated (from Columbia University, NY, US and Chile University, Santiago de Chile) and three Conference and Seminars were (co)organized in April, June and October 2025.
Check here the reports.
Nearly 200 articles were published across the following journals:
GSA - Graffiti and Street Art, Volume 3
UXUC - User Experience and Urban Creativity, Volume 7
BBDS - Black Book Drawing and Sketching, Volume 6
CAP - Public Art Journal, Volume 7
EGI - Epigraphy, Graffiti, Iconography, Volume 1
VAS - Visionary Architecture Studies, Volume 1
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