Considered for many years a trivial product of the mass subculture, the tradition of graffiti-art, Writing and Street Art intended in the broader sense of the term, has now broken into the art system. In Italy, for instance, the first space that housed this type of art was the Prada Foundation, which hosted Barry McGee. But we should also mention the extremely visited exhibition organized by Pac in Milan in 2007. In the last years we have assisted to the clearance of this artistic tradition created by a disenchanted and open generation, which personalized the elements of American hip-hop culture, but also inherited the hyper-popular culture spread all over the world. It is a generation born from manga comics and cinema, from television and publicity imagination as an aesthetic and cultural reference point, but with the conviction that it is possible to strike the public with the most direct means, that is the street. At last we have arrived at a moment when Street Art is not an abandoned art at the margins of the “official” artistic scene. In Italy, this change has been encouraged by critic Vittorio Sgarbi who, in the ex role as Councillor of Culture for the municipality of Milan, lent credibility to the graffiti realized by Leoncavallo.
But this clearance has occurred also thanks to artists that have brought a rush of irreverent freshness to the contemporary art panorama. We only need to think of English artist Banksy who in 2006, uninvited, exhibited his works in museums such as the Louvre, the British Museum and the Moma of New York, thus becoming a mass-media phenomenon. Banksy is the typical example of how an artist that prefers the street to the galleries can perfectly fit in the system. Indeed, in only a few years three zeros have been added to his quotations. If in 2005 his works were rarely at auction and did not exceed 1,500 euros, today all of the English artist’s works achieve sensational amounts.
Banksy’s luck clearly shows the evolution of Street Art. From being a semi-anonymous art realized underground on city walls, it has entered auctions, galleries and museums. Currently, the success of Street Art is being completed by the Tate Modern in London. “Street Art” is the title of the exhibition that will end on 25th August 2008. It is a mixed event that includes already completed works and huge works that have been executed by artists in loco, on the external walls of the museum, down the side that looks onto the Thames.
“Street Art” brings together works by six famous artists from different parts of the world. An entirely Italian pride has to be Blu who, from the railway tracks of the station of Bologna has ended up realizing murals on the front of the London museum. Blu’s work seems to recall a visionary apocalyptic image. It is a painting strewn with disturbing human presences that are partially deformed and face each other with hostility to mime power relations. It actually seems that the artist from Bologna is winning deserved approvals from the world of art, given that besides the exhibition at the Tate, until 25th July he will have an exhibition at the Galleria Patricia Armocida, which includes two modalities of intervention in and on spaces both on the inside and on the outside.
Next to Blu, other six street artists of the International scene have been called by the Tate Modern. The beautiful black and white photographs of French JR highlight social problems, from South American evictions to the Israeli-Palestinian conflict, while geometry and colours of the South American indigenous cultures can be perceived in the work of Brazilian artist Nunca, who overlays images of rural populations to sceneries of the big metropoles. Also from Brazil are the Os Gemeos, twin artists who in 1987 started painting graffiti on the walls of the suburbs of São Paulo, realizing subjects that recall social and political issues of their homeland. A very amusing work is the one executed by Sixeart, artist from Barcelona who mixes the style of comics with psychedelic  abstraction, drawing inspiration from Joan Mirò’s style. 
An unmissable work is the mural executed by the New York collective Faile; in its compositions it reproduces the typical deteriorated walls of the cities, including in its works threadbare advertisement boards. Furthermore, the Tate Modern is adding something new with respect to the other exhibitions dedicated to Street Art, showing an entirely unique route. Indeed, it has organized a walking tour, the “Street Art Walking Tour”, in the streets surrounding the museum, to discover street art directly where it comes from. (translated by Giorgina  Arcuri)

Web: www.tate.org.uk
www.blublu.org
www.faile.net
www.sixeart.net