Social Relations anmd Street Art - Falko one's Once Upon a time project

Developed in collaboration with Red Bull South Africa, the project sought to transform walls and homes in rural communities into sites of public art while, according to Falko, changing local perceptions of value. The paper investigates how the project produced, negotiated and represented social relations between the artist, local residents, artworks and the wider community.</p><p dir="ltr">Drawing on Nicolas Bourriaud’s theory of relational aesthetics, Samantha Vice’s concept of aesthetic injustice, and scholarship on graffiti, public space and spatial occupation, the study combines visual analysis of the Red Bull TV documentary episodes with fieldwork and observation conducted in Underberg.

Particular attention is given to the ways murals created points of interaction and social gathering, as well as to the contrasting representations of local residents within the project's media documentation.</p><p dir="ltr">The paper argues that while the murals generated new social encounters and transformed private and public spaces into sites of interaction, the project also exposed significant tensions surrounding representation, agency and outsider intervention.