"We Really Are Not Artists, We Are Military. We Are Soldiers": The Street Art Culture of Chile and its Power in Art Education

Sammanfattning: This thesis describes the street art culture of Chile and its power in art education. The thesis highlights the didactic questions what, how and why. With the Swedish art curriculum in upper secondary education (Skolverket, 2011) as a starting point, the following research examines what topics street artists in Chile address in their work; and how and how can educators in Sweden use street art in the classroom when they wish to highlight topics such as communication, identity and democracy, and with what purpose. The implementation of the study is based on a method of qualitative research. Semi structured- as well as informal interviews are used. Observation in form of visual field notes is presented through photography. This results in four different themes that is highlighted. The themes are cultural heritage, artivism and democracy, identity and school. The conclusion regarding what benefits street art may serve in school are that Swedish teachers in upper secondary art education can benefit from using street art in the art classroom when they wish to highlight the communicative aspects of street art. Another conclusion being made is that Chilean street artists use street art as a communicative tool when they wish to highlight topics such as cultural heritage, political views and as an identity marker.