128 pages Edited by Eric de Ara Gamazo Photograph(s) by Eric de Ara Gamazo Foreword by Hélène Ahrweiler 24.5 x 22 cm Language: French Paperback Publisher: Éditions de l'Aube 1992
Published in 1992, Graffiti’art. Pochoirs politiques is one of the earliest books dedicated to political stenciling as a form of urban protest art. At a time when street art had not yet been absorbed by the mainstream art world, Eric de Ara Gamazo documented this underground practice with rigor and sensitivity—revealing an ephemeral, clandestine form of expression deeply rooted in social struggles and collective utopias.
A contemporary history graduate, photographer (Rapho agency), and curator of the exhibition L’Art Vif: murs peints au pochoir at the Centre Georges-Pompidou, de Ara Gamazo photographed more than 300 political stencils between 1983 and the early ’90s. Without his on-the-ground work, much of this visual memory would have been lost. All photographs in the book were taken in France, primarily in Paris, offering a powerful snapshot of a politically engaged urban landscape.
Some stencils are hard to forget, such as the bleak Caramélisez Kafka or the haunting Les mauvais jours finiront ("The bad days will end"). As Hélène Ahrweiler writes in the book, political stencils are "this ephemeral art of the ephemeral, a mirror of our utopias," earning a place in "the secret museum of our cult objects."
Now increasingly hard to find, this title is a rare gem for anyone interested in urban art, visual activism, or the cultural history of political resistance.
