Urban Creativity, Lisbon conference and activities, 2026

Intangible: Art Canon and Motion

Lisbon and online, July 2, 3 and 4, 2026

Calls are now open
Proceedings are to be published in:
GSA - Graffiti and Street Art journal and
EGI - Ephigraphy, Graffiti, Iconogrpahy

Submission deadlines:
Abstract until the end of April 2026
Full paper until the end of July.

Submissions should be made through the platform for GSA journal or EGI journal.
Please indicate the thematic call you are submitting to in the “Comments for the Editor” field.

The presentation at the 13th edition of the Urban Creativity conference is dependent on abstract acceptance.
The 2026 thematic issues builds on the Urban Creativity Conference and Activities that run since 2014 (check all previous editions on urbancreativity.org). 



Can graffiti and muralism be considered Intangible Heritage? By fostering a visceral, intuitive bond between the citizen and the city’s physical form, these practices transcend the mere 'art object.' Instead, they represent a dynamic, collective process essential to urban vitality.

These practices challenge the Classical Art Canon, demanding a departure from its historically Eurocentric and exclusionary frameworks. Far from signaling the exhaustion of art, graffiti offers a path for renewal through the hybridization of physical surfaces and the moving image. This evolution encompasses not only digital and cinematic narratives within the landscape but also the profound awareness that the images we construct are never static.

The 2026 edition topic of the Urban Creativity Conference + Activities emerges from 3 axes:

Intagible
Know how about interventions and mural production can be understood as Intangible Heritage? Resides in the spontaneous impulse to mark space and in the fluidity between unregulated graffiti, structured mural production, and the return to organic intervention? It is this knowledge embedded in the visceral relationship between the self and the city materiality — that must be identified and discussed as a vital element for safeguarding urban vitality? The preservation of this agency can be presented as an essential pillar for a democratic urban future?

Art Canon
We invite critical reflections on whether—and how—the classical art canon can, or should, be continued and reconfigured. Recent debates have exposed long-standing structural exclusions, including Eurocentrism and the systematic marginalization of women and non-Western artists. In this context, graffiti and post-graffiti practices raise urgent questions: do they signal the exhaustion of the traditional canon, or might they offer a compelling argument for its renewal?

Moving Image
Inscribed Frames: Hybridizations of the Moving Image: An exploration of the frontiers where Graffiti and Street Art collide with the moving image, creating "inscribed frames" that hybridize physical surfaces with cinematographic and digital narratives.


Under this conceptual framework, the following calls are already defined (more calls to confirm):


Graffiti Expressionism: Updating the Classical Art Canons
for GSA - Graffiti and Street Art journal (Vol.4) and Urban Creativity, conference, 2026
Co-editor: Kai Hendrik Schlusche, Author and Independent Researcher in Graffiti and Street Art
Abstract until the end of April 2026.
Full paper until the end of July 2026.
Publication of the Issue: November 2026.
More info



Inscribed Frames Hybridizations of the Moving Image
for GSA - Graffiti and Street Art journal (Vol.4) and Urban Creativity, conference and activities, 13th edition
Co-editor: Mattia Ronconi, Institute for Research in Design, Media and Culture ID+; Faculty of Fine Art, University of Porto
Abstract until the end of April 2026.
Full paper until the end of July 2026.
Publication of the Issue: November 2026.
More info


As usual this UC Conference + Activities edition seeks to bring together theoretical and practical perspectives to help define the status and significance of urban creativity as a continuous social and material process.


Credits: The organization of the UC Conference is possible with the support of FBAUL/ CIEBA. Images: elisadventure (unsplash); Mattia Ronconi, Porto 2025-2026; (partial) DARE | Sigi von Koeding, Orange vibes 80x80, 2008.

2025 Recap

Two courses associated (from Columbia University, NY, US and Chile University, Santiago de Chile)  and three Conference and Seminars were (co)organized in April, June and October 2025. 
Check here the reports.

Nearly 200 articles were published across the following journals:

GSA - Graffiti and Street Art, Volume 3
UXUC - User Experience and Urban Creativity, Volume 7
BBDS - Black Book Drawing and Sketching, Volume 6
CAP - Public Art Journal, Volume 7
EGI - Epigraphy, Graffiti, Iconography, Volume 1
VAS - Visionary Architecture Studies, Volume 1

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