ART, SUBJECT, AND HISTORY: A DISCURSIVE ANALYSIS OF BOMBS THAT MATERIALIZE IN THE URBAN BODY OF CITIES IN MATO GROSSO
Discourse; Urban Art; Bombs; Mato Grosso; City.
This research is situated in the field of materialist Discourse Analysis and aims to understand urban art as a discursive practice in cities of the state of Mato Grosso, Brazil. The study focuses on bombs — graphic inscriptions that materialize on walls and other urban surfaces — understood as gestures that transform the urban space into a symbolic territory of enunciation. It is based on the conception that the city is not limited to its architectural or functional dimension but is constituted as a space of circulation of discourses, memories, and identities in constant dispute. The theoretical framework draws on the works of Michel Pêcheux and Eni Orlandi, which make it possible to comprehend discourse in its relationship with ideology, memory, and the constitution of the subject. Methodologically, the research adopts a qualitative approach, grounded in materialist Discourse Analysis, and uses as its corpus photographic and audiovisual records of bombs collected in the cities of Cáceres, Cuiabá, and Várzea Grande, as well as interviews and videos produced by local collectives. The analysis was conducted based on the dimensions of constitution, formulation, and circulation of discourse, observing the effects of meaning produced in urban practices. The results show that bombs are linguistic practices that re-signify urban space, establishing subject positions marked by resistance and belonging. By analyzing these inscriptions, it is possible to understand how they reactivate collective memories, challenge hegemonic discourses about art and the city, and inscribe peripheral subjects in spaces historically regulated and homogenized. In this way, bombs demonstrate processes of subjectivation and symbolic re-existence, reaffirming the political character of urban art and its role in the constitution of identities and social memories.