Bas-relief as a tactic of urban space appropriation

Abstract

Article analyzes “bas-reliefing” as an emerging practice within contemporary street art. The empirical basis of the study consists of materials collected between 2023 and 2025, including 10 in-depth interviews with street artists, interviews with curators and city residents, participant observation at art events, and a visual archive of 300 photographs of bas-reliefs.

The aim of the study is to identify the motivations behind artists’ turn to bas-reliefs and to analyze their interactions with urban space and audiences. The study examines the differences between prepared and unprepared audiences, the spatial logic guiding the placement of bas-reliefs, and the performative component of communication between street artists and city residents.

The author conceptualizes bas-reliefs as a form of street art that allows artists to maintain a dialogue with the city, circumvent institutional and censorship restrictions, and develop new ways of appropriating and understanding the urban environment.

The author concludes that bas-reliefs act as a tactical form of exercising the “right to the city”, allowing artists to maintain a presence in public space without directly confronting institutional strategies of control. The distinction between trained and untrained audiences reveals a multiplicity of modes of interpreting bas-reliefs: from their perception as vandalism to emotional appropriation and inclusion in personal memory practices. The performative nature of bas-reliefs dictates specific scenarios of interaction with city residents: accidental discovery, tactile contact, and the possibility of appropriation. Overall, bas-reliefs can be viewed as an emergent form of street art that adapts to normative pressures through their small scale, physicality, and tactical invisibility.