Language in the street. 400 years of linguistic landscape

We walk around the city talking, and without realizing it, we never stop reading. This exhibition recovers a part of the writing that was visible in the Spanish streets from 1500 to 1900. Advertisements, posters and banners formed the linguistic landscape seen everywhere in a mostly illiterate society. To sell, to offend, to entertain, to regulate or to subvert regulation were some of the reasons that the street became text. When a community has a written culture, it always overflows the private sphere and can be seen in the public space as an expression of power and of counter-power. The historical linguistic landscape has been almost completely lost; only chance or careful research have allowed us to preserve some documents, such as those shown in this exhibition.