Mural Art in the Context of the Mass Culture of the 21st Century

The purpose of the article is to dentify the specifics and trends of mural art in the context of the mass culture of the 21st century. The research methodology consisted in the set of the following general scientific methods of knowledge: analytical, source study and historical (for processing scientific literature, reference materials and identifying the features of formation of mural art) and cultural approaches: typological (to identify the characteristic features of mural art) and evolutionary methods (to determine the specifics of the development of mural art in the context of the mass culture of the twentieth century), as well as the method of system analysis and synthesis (with the aim of studying mural art as part of the modern socio-cultural space). The scientific novelty of the work. A culturological study of mural art as a trend of modern street art was carried out; the concepts of “mass culture”, “street art”, “mural art” and “mural” in the context of the specifics of domestic and foreign sociocultural space were clarified; it was found that murals can act as a means of communication between various social strata of society and, therefore, are an effective tool for creating a dialogue; it was emphasized that the popularization of images of murals on websites and coverage of the activities of artists in this area in the media disseminates ideas of authors at the world level; the activities of municipal projects of mural art were reviewed and it was revealed that their main goal is the preservation and restoration of historically significant murals, the creation of new murals with the involvement of the community, especially young people, and the creation of new opportunities for monumentalists. Conclusions. Mural art, as a type of spiritual and practical human activity, not only reflects the picture of social consciousness that has developed at a certain stage of cultural development but also has an active influence, which leads to the transformation of the sociocultural space. In the context of trends in the development of the mass culture of the 21st century, mural art has a significant transformational influence in the process of solving most of the social problems of our time. Positioning murals as creativity that has a huge impact on society, we believe that at the present stage they contribute to the possibility of realizing and rethinking many pressing problems, developing strategies for qualitative changes that affect every person in particular, and the world community as a whole.