Street Art (Barcelona)

Barcelona, Spain. Now fully mainstream, the forms have long been neatly categorized. The simple assumption is that Graffiti (vandalism) is destructive, word-based, for other graffiti artists, and Street Art (commissioned) is an improvement, for an audience, image driven, and a strategy for "designing out crime". But intentions are more and more elusive, as Graffiti can be beautiful or vapid, and Street art can be ugly or politically powerful. Complicated by the fact that it's a required element, inside or out, to make a neighborhood "hip". Even if the motive is just arty ambiance or a cool form of marketing.