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Arts & Communication

ARTICLE
The Callegenera urban expressions festival: The

resignification of urban-mural and street art

Adris Díaz Fernández * , Rodrigo Ledesma Gómez 1 , Yadira Nieves Lahaba 2 ,
1
and Ana Cristina García-Luna Romeo 3
1 Department of Humanities, Facultad de Humanidades, Universidad de Monterrey, San Pedro Garza
García, Nuevo León, México
2 Department of Bachelor of Information and Digital Resources Management, Facultad de Filosofía y
Letras, Universidad Autonóma de Nuevo León, Monterrey, Nuevo León, México
3 Departament of Arquitectura, Facultad de Arquitectura, Universidad de Monterrey, San Pedro Garza
García, Nuevo León, México

Abstract

Urban art festivals are of great importance to strengthen the social and cultural life
of communities, as they provide people with the opportunity to meet and enjoy
various forms of creative expression, such as art, music, and dance, and also stimulate
citizen participation. Evaluating the cultural and social impact generated by these
festivals is essential to understanding their process and development, seeking future
*Corresponding author: improvements, and ensuring their sustainability over time. For this reason, we have
Adris Díaz Fernández focused on the evaluation of the Callegenera Urban Expressions Festival, which
(adris.diaz@udem.edu) has been held uninterruptedly in Monterrey, Mexico, from 2011 to 2022. Through
Citation: Fernández AD, qualitative research with in-depth interviews and life stories, the festival was
Gómez RL, Lahaba YN, explored as a space of introspection where boundaries are blurred to make room for
Romeo ACG. The Callegenera
urban expressions festival: The art. We examined the emotional state of urban artists and graffiti writers, as well as
resignification of urban-mural and the creative process through the intervention of space and economic aspects. In this
street art. Arts & Communication. way, we sought to understand the impact that this festival can have on the growth of
2025;3(2):2864.
doi: 10.36922/ac.2864 the metropolitan area and its surroundings.
Received: February 2, 2024
Keywords: Urban art festival; Artistic interventions; Callegenera; Monterrey
1st revised: March 8, 2024
2nd revised: March 21, 2024
Accepted: April 2, 2024 1. Urban-mural art and the city of Monterrey
Published online: January 3, 2025
st
In the 21 century, the cultural field of urban expressions reflects the perception of
Copyright: © 2025 Author(s).
This is an Open-Access article life in the city, of the routines and figurations that tend to be related to the urban
distributed under the terms environment and that come to move or shake the conditions of life. In the city,
of the Creative Commons
AttributionNoncommercial License, urban art, such as graffiti, establishes a dialog with the city and the society that is
permitting all non-commercial use, built around it, transforming its space directly or indirectly. These expressions have
distribution, and reproduction in any emerged in legality through the participation of their creators in festivals, contests,
medium, provided the original work
is properly cited. and calls.
Publisher’s Note: AccScience At present, there has been a boom in urban and street art festivals in the world,
Publishing remains neutral with and Monterrey, Mexico, is no stranger to this entropy. This is how urban and street art
regard to jurisdictional claims in
published maps and institutional progresses within the city that seeks in some way to claim a territory but also seeks to
affiliations. capture an identity, communicate, denounce, or beautify. In this work, it is described how

Volume 3 Issue 2 (2025) 1 doi: 10.36922/ac.2864