Urban art and visual governmentality in the margins of Fortaleza, Ceará, Brazil: the Concreto Festival between resistance and neoliberal requalification

Authors

DOI:

https://doi.org/10.21669/tomo.v45.24525

Keywords:

urban art, governmentality, Concreto Festival, urban peripheries, neoliberalism

Abstract

This article analyzes the dynamics of visual governmentality within the Concreto International Urban Art Festival in Fortaleza, Ceará, Brazil, focusing on the editions held at the José Euclides Ferreira Gomes (2020) and Cidade Jardim 2 (2022) housing complexes. Drawing on a qualitative approach that includes iconological analysis, it discusses how graffiti – a practice historically associated with youth resistance in urban peripheries – is mobilized as a tool for urban requalification and symbolic control in these contexts. The argument posits that the Festival operates within a constitutive tension; while it democratizes access to art and reframes marginalized territories, it simultaneously reinforces neoliberal logics of city management, acting as a governmentality device that shapes subjectivities and urban landscapes. The study contributes to the debate on art, city, and power within urban sociology, highlighting the ambiguities of cultural policies in peripheral contexts.

Downloads

Download data is not yet available.

Author Biographies

Natanael Nathan Pereira da Silva, Universidade Estadual do Ceará (UECE)

I am a sociologist and researcher dedicated to understanding the dynamics between urban art, public space, and forms of governance in peripheral urban areas. My academic trajectory began in the Social Sciences program at the State University of Ceará (UECE), where I was a scholarship holder in the Tutorial Education Program (PET) and developed my initial approaches to the city as a field of investigation.

Since 2018, I have closely followed the Concreto International Urban Art Festival, an experience that included direct involvement in the event’s production and assistance to artists during their interventions. This field experience, combined with the theoretical reflections developed within UECE’s Social Sciences and Cities (CSC) research group, under the supervision of Professor Wellington Maciel, led to my master’s research, defended in 2025.

In this study, I investigate how visual government operates on the urban margins of Fortaleza, analyzing editions of the Concreto Festival held at the José Euclides Ferreira Gomes Housing Complexes (2020) and Cidade Jardim 2 (2022). Drawing on a dialogue between Michel Foucault, Henri Lefebvre, and the sociology of art, the research examines urban art as a device of governmentality, exploring the tensions between its potential for cultural resistance and its instrumentalization by neoliberal agendas of urban regeneration.

Since 2022, I have been a researcher affiliated with the Graduate Program in Sociology at UECE, where I continue to develop research on the intersections between aesthetics, power, and the city in Brazil’s peripheral urban areas.

Wellington Ricardo Nogueira Maciel, Universidade Estadual do Ceará (UECE)

He is an Associate Professor in the Social Sciences program at the State University of Ceará (UECE), where he is also a permanent faculty member of the Graduate Program in Sociology (PPGS). He previously served as an Associate Professor at the University for International Integration of the Afro-Brazilian Lusophony (UNILAB).

He holds a PhD in Sociology from the Federal University of Ceará (UFC), as well as a bachelor’s degree in Social Sciences from the State University of Ceará (2003) and a master’s degree in Sociology from the Federal University of Ceará (2006).

He has research and teaching experience in Sociology, with an emphasis on Urban Sociology, focusing primarily on the following topics: the city, architectures of violence, power, and everyday practices of leisure and consumption. He is the leader of the Social Sciences and the City (CSC) research group.

He is the author of the book The Airport and the City: Uses and Meanings of Urban Space in Tourist Fortaleza (EdUECE, 2010). He is currently dedicated to the study of forms of urban governance in the neoliberal era.

References

BARBOSA, Lucas. Residencial José Euclides chega a 100 dias sem homicídios; reunião marca data. O POVO, Fortaleza, 24 de janeiro de 2025. Disponível em: https://www.opovo.com.br/noticias/fortaleza/2025/01/24/residencial-jose-euclides-chega-a-100-dias-sem-homicidios-reuniao-marca-data.html. Acesso em: 28 jan. 2026.

BECKER, Howard S. Uma teoria da ação coletiva. Rio de Janeiro: Zahar, 2008. 308 p.

BOURDIEU, Pierre. A distinção: crítica social do julgamento. Porto Alegre: Zouk, 2007. 560 p.

BRENNER, Neil; THEODORE, Nik. Cities and the geographies of “Actually Existing Neoliberalism”. Antipode, Reino Unido, v. 34, n. 3, p. 349-379, 2002. DOI: 10.1111/1467-8330.00246. Disponível em: https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/epdf/10.1111/1467-8330.00246. Acesso em: 5 jan. 2026

CAMPOS, R. Poder Local, Arte Urbana e Festivalização da Cultura. Revista Crítica de Ciências Sociais, n. 125, p. 53-76, 2021.

CERTEAU, Michel de. A invenção do cotidiano: artes de fazer. Petrópolis: Vozes, 2003.

CONCRETO#7. [Documentário/Relatório da 7ª edição do Festival Concreto]. 2021.

DIÓGENES, Glória. Cidade, arte e criação social: novos diagramas de culturas juvenis da periferia. Estudos Avançados, São Paulo, v. 34, n. 99, p. 373-390, 2020. DOI: 10.1590/s0103-4014.2020.3499.022. Disponível em: https://www.scielo.br/j/ea/a/FhF4HRhNzQsRcpfzSZpGKfd/?format=pdf&lang=pt. Acesso em: 5 fev. 2026.

FOUCAULT, Michel. Segurança, território, população. São Paulo: Martins Fontes, 2008. 572 p.

FÓRUM BRASILEIRO DE SEGURANÇA PÚBLICA. Anuário Brasileiro de Segurança Pública 2023. 17. ed. São Paulo: FBSP, 2023. 357 p. Disponível em: https://institutomol.org.br/wp-content/uploads/2023/07/anuario-2023.pdf. Acesso em: 28 jan. 2026.

GALDINO, Pedro Danilo. Foucault e Rancière: perspectivas e crítica ao conceito de biopoder. Kalágatos, [S. l.], v. 14, n. 2, p. 133-144, 2017. DOI: 10.23845/kalagatos.v14i2.6269. Disponível em: https://revistas.uece.br/index.php/kalagatos/article/view/6269. Acesso em: 28 jan. 2026.

HARVEY, David. O neoliberalismo: história e implicações. São Paulo: Loyola, 2008.

LEFEBVRE, Henri. O direito à cidade. São Paulo: Centauro, 2011.

LEMOS, Aliria Aiara Duarte. Mapear é preciso: arte urbana, relações de poder e o Festival Concreto na cidade de Fortaleza. Dissertação (Mestrado em Artes) – Programa de Pós-Graduação em Artes, Instituto de Cultura e Arte, Universidade Federal do Ceará, Fortaleza, Ceará, 2019. 183 p. Disponível em: https://repositorio.ufc.br/bitstream/riufc/62926/5/2019_dis_aadlemos.pdf. Acesso em: 28 jan. 2026.

MACIEL, Wellington Ricardo Nogueira. Cidade fortificada e governo dos resíduos: segregação e gestão das margens urbanas. In: MACIEL, Wellington Ricardo Nogueira. (Org.). Urbano e Político: sociologias da cidade. Fortaleza: EdUECE, 2024.

PECK, Jamie; TICKELL, Adam. Neoliberalizing space. Antipode, Reino Unido, v. 34, n. 3, p. 380-404, 2002. DOI:10.1111/1467-8330.00247. Disponível em: https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/epdf/10.1111/1467-8330.00247. Acesso em: 28 jan. 2026.

SILVA, Natanael Nathan Pereira da. Governo visual e arte urbana nas margens residuais de Fortaleza: o caso do festival concreto. Dissertação (Mestrado em Sociologia) – Programa de Pós-Graduação em Sociologia (PPGS), Centro de Estudos Sociais Aplicados, Universidade Estadual do Ceará (UECE), Fortaleza, Ceará, 2025. 102 p. Disponível em: https://siduece.uece.br/siduece/publico/resultadosPesquisarItemPublicoResumido/ppgs/7/2025#. Acesso em: 30 jan. 2026.

PANOFSKY, Erwin. Significado nas artes visuais. 3. ed. São Paulo: Perspectiva, 2014. 440 p.

PIFANO, Raquel Quinet. História da arte como história das imagens: a iconologia de Erwin Panofsky. Fênix - Revista de História e Estudos Culturais, v. 7, n. 3, p. 1-21, 2010

RANCIÈRE, Jacques. A partilha do sensível. São Paulo: Editora 34, 2005.

ROSE, Gillian. Visual methodologies: an introduction to researching with visual materials. London: Sage, 2012. 408 p.

WEYNE, Rachel Gadelha. O campo da produção cultural no Ceará: conformações, configurações e paradoxos. Dissertação (Mestrado em Políticas Públicas e Sociedade) - Centro de Estudos Sociais Aplicados, Universidade Estadual do Ceará, Fortaleza, Ceará, 2014. 159 p. Disponível em: https://siduece.uece.br/siduece/trabalhoAcademicoPublico.jsf?id=85063. Acesso em: 13 fev. 2026.

ZUKIN, Sharon. The Cultures of Cities. Cambridge: Wiley-Blackwell, 1996. 338 p.

Downloads

Published

2026-09-30

How to Cite

Silva, N. N. P. da, & Maciel, W. R. N. (2026). Urban art and visual governmentality in the margins of Fortaleza, Ceará, Brazil: the Concreto Festival between resistance and neoliberal requalification. TOMO Review, 45, e24525. https://doi.org/10.21669/tomo.v45.24525

Issue

Vol. 45 (2026): TOMO Journal (Rolling Pass)

Section

Special Issue Urban Visualities: Power, Subjectivities, Sociabilities, and City Life

Categories

License

Copyright (c) 2026 Natanael Nathan Pereira da Silva, Wellington Ricardo Nogueira Maciel

Creative Commons License

This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License.

TOMO journal adopts the Creative Commons CC-BY 4.0 license which allows:

• Share: copy and redistribute the material in any medium or format.

• Adapt: remix, transform, and create from the material for any purpose, even commercial.

Authors who publish in this journal agree to the following terms:

a) Authors retain copyright and grant the journal the right of first publication, with the work simultaneously licensed under the Creative Commons which allows sharing the work with acknowledgment of authorship and initial publication in this journal.

b) Authors are authorized to assume additional contracts separately, for non-exclusive distribution of the version of the work published in this journal (eg, publishing in an institutional repository or as a book chapter), with acknowledgment of authorship and initial publication in this journal.

c) Authors are allowed and encouraged to publish and distribute their work online (e.g., in institutional repositories or on their personal page) at any point before or during the editorial process, as this can generate productive changes, as well as increase the impact and citation of the published work (O Efeito do Acesso Livre).