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The response to the Miami bombing was more awe than outrage, perhaps because the building will soon be torn down. Over the course of a few days, graffiti artists – some of whom rappelled down the side of the building – tagged the brutalist, concrete structure with colorful bubble letters spelling their graffiti names: “EDBOX,” “SAUTE” and “1UP,” and hundreds more. So Miami was a natural gathering place for graffiti artists during Art Basel in December 2023, and One Bayfront Plaza became the canvas for taggers from around the world. There’s also a rich tradition of graffiti in the city. Miami is known for its elaborate spray-painted murals.
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In November 2023, the city of Miami announced that a permit to demolish One Bayfront Plaza site, an abandoned former VITAS Healthcare building, had been filed. But it seemed to have been inspired by a similar project that took place in Miami during Art Basel, the city’s annual international art fair. It may never be publicly known how the idea was formed and by whom. Hundreds of taggers were involved in the Los Angeles graffiti bombing.
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It’s located in one of the priciest parts of the city, right across the street from Arena, where the 2024 Grammy Awards were held. The Beijing-based developer was unable to pay contractors, and ongoing financing challenges forced the company to put the project on pause. Since late 2019, Los Angeles’ billion-dollar Oceanwide Plaza – a mixed-use residential and retail complex consisting of three towers – has stood unfinished. They also get to the heart of how money and politics can make individuals feel powerless – and how art can reclaim some of that power. As someone who has researched the intersection of graffiti and activism, I see these works as major milestones – and not just because the artists’ tags are perhaps more prominent than they’ve ever been, high above street level and visible from blocks away.