Graffiti artists the new ad men? Why business is booming for muralists

It could be a scene from a cartoon strip and in some ways it ialbeit one that has been plastered across the walls of a Chilean restaurant and its car park entrance in the heart of Santiago.

Snapshots of social interactions like this are captured on some of the hundreds of murals that have been commissioned across the city over the past year, reflecting a growing trend towards the commercialization of underground culture in the country.

Graffiti used to be seen as merely an underground expression of youthful rebellion, an image reinforced during the years of the dictatorship between 1973 and 1989. Now, however, it has undergone a makeover as business owners have recognized the potential for using the enduring appeal of this often forbidden art form in advertising.

More than a hundred muralists now work in the city, according to local estimates, and the number is rising as more artists seek to cash in on the mainstream’s fascination with guerrilla art.

Wearing two-day stubble and a baseball cap on backwards, Alan Zárate sprays yellow paint on the walls of a hip-hop nightclub. The 31-year-old from Puente Alto, a neighborhood on the fringes of the city, is one of the capital’s most sought after muralists. His mantra in life is simple: “siempre para adelante” — always go forward.

With a waiting list and monthly income averaging 750,000 pesos ($1,211), he now finds himself with semi-regular work in a field notorious for not knowing where the next peso will come from.

For muralists like Zárate, though, what makes him fill his rucksack full of aerosols each morning is less a question of riches than the satisfaction of expressing himself on concrete.

“There are more profitable ways of making money but they’re monotonous. This is my passion. At its best, it’s like a form of therapy. It’s using artistic creation to represent the imagination in a visible way. I find it a very interesting challenge.”

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CNN