The Wall - Poor man’s poster and the use of public space

Recently I read a list of the songs that were prohibited during the dictatorship in Argentina. Among them was “The Wall” by Leonard Cohen. A wall can give many different connotations. In the book Patas Arriba by the Uruguayan journalist and writer Eduardo Galeano he refers several times what has been “written on the walls”. Now I am not particularly interested in what has been written on the walls, but more specifically in the use of writing on the walls of public buildings as a use of public space, as a way to express political views. The use of wall writing as a political method in this geopolitical region was corroborated a few days ago when I read in an article about a Uruguayan politician, who recently seemed to have changed political opinion by switching from the alpargatas that he has been wearing since the 70s to dress shoes and tie, which had been questioned in Fray Bentos by someone who had “written a question at the wall”. I cannot help but do a comparison with Sweden, where writing on the walls is often considered a sign of decadence and public pollution. However, here I believe that the possibility to express opinions in the form of stencils and spray painted slogans on the walls have to be considered as the poor or alternative wo/man’s posters. This while the authorities have the option to cover the city in posters on dedicated sites.