Dear Ed,
we had a similar discussion in Germany, at least amidst all Greens interested in cultural policy. This was at a time when the Greens were still forming the government together with the Social Democrats. Otto Schily, then the Minister of Interior, proposed to have graffiti artists be chased by helicopters. In the debate it became quite clear that the Green Party had amidst its members and supporters many more house owners than those who started off from the student movement, went into the anti war protest and ended up practicing alternative living forms. That was 1967 – 89, a period which ended with beautiful murals depicting on the one side of the Berlin Wall what fast changing images projected on a wall which divides not only a city but its people can mean to the other side where there was no such artistic freedom of expression. Instead many voices pleaded like you do for no understanding and even to chase if not with helicopters then with a hayfork those night bandits away before they can do further damage to the walls.
You remark quite rightly so what defacement newly restored buildings especially in the Plaka but not only there face once some scrawl is sprayed rather than painted on the walls. It is a kind of vandalism not only on private but public property. However I say ‘vandalism’ with great reservation for fear of a misunderstanding.
Let me start from another angle. So far I believe the Metro of Athens has been kept free of such kind of vandalism. It seems as if Athenians take pride in this new system and so everyone takes care. Such public support is important as the costs go into the million if windows are scratched, seats slit open and all kinds of signs sprayed against doors, walls and platforms.
In all cases I would not begin such a discussion with the kind of ‘zero tolerance’ policy like statement as if police and chasing those committing this kind of vandalism is the only answer.
First of all you react to Alexia’s call for photos of not just any graffiti but which have an artistic demand. As you know graffiti artists pride themselves in the work they do. They even attach a copy right to their work. No one else is allowed to touch it (contrary to the paintings on the Berlin wall where everyone could paint over the older ones). They do follow and keep their own rules but rules nevertheless. It is important to recognize this category of graffiti artists before you generalize everything into vandalism. Moreover there is now a new law in Germany with regards to the possibility or not of claiming damages if the graffiti destroys the substance of the house rather than being just on the surface. Also there has been made efforts to provide public space for graffiti artists to express themselves. Especially people like Bob Palmer, director of first Glasgow and then Brussels when Cultural Capital Cities of Europe, made sure that space was given for such kind of expression. This takes me back to my initial remark: public ownership of public spaces is one thing, creating a confusion between spaces quite another and graffiti of different categories have to be included before we speak about vandalism since there is also political protest, sheer outcry of helplessness, and revolt against the omnipresence of consumer society linked to tourism that has altered the images and spaces of cities. So I would not lump everything together and leave at that. Any sensible reaction has to be differentiated and in the spirit of the enlightenment attempt also to reach that youth left in silence so that they scream out at night what they think no one wishes to hear. Like alcoholism you don’t resolve it by taking away
the bottle; you have to look at the reasons behind such often pointless screaming but screaming nevertheless.
If children and youth can adopt monuments and begin to deal with by writing different texts about them, then the interface of that building with the street and the life in that street will alter. Public ownership means then becoming responsible for the upkeep of these buildings.
I think furthermore there is a land use policy especially here in Athens which destroys more of the historical architecture since the coalition of interest is not the upkeep of the city but the speculative making of a lot of money from ownership. That leaves little or no playfulness in between the big and small buildings. Rather they stamp the local environment with their specific brand.
A reply of those who have no consciousness about anything can only scrawl as it is like a memory mark, absent minded and really an indication of how suppressed they feel by the uniformity of the environment which surrounds them. Especially in areas which are depleted, down graded and lonely it can be observed that this scrawl increases in intensity. And I don’t think this is merely a reflection of the interface between individuals, groups and the rest of the city having become too distorted to call it still a proper communication (most Greek children complain how little time their parents have for them to talk) but also what is happening inside the houses with neglect being shown how things are discarded and disorder rather than any kind of human order existing. Even television with its multiple images flashed out to advertise this or that can but confuse the mind. There is no culture. Culture is at a still stand.
That is why these scrawls are fore most signs of human pain being screamed out at night all in silence. The helicopter noise would cut through that silence but only frighten away the birds and awake those already asleep but it would not resolve the problem.
A solution begins by letting especially younger people adopt the streets and the city in which they have to grow up so that they can with the years feel a responsibility for what is going on. It takes time until even the own room is a place of personal identification rather than a mere protest against what the parents tell one what to do.
In brief, furthering understanding through highlighting the difference between a scrawl and a truly artistic graffiti work is a beginning to foster an understanding for crucial differences in the artistic freedom of expression. It means exactly this: not anything or everything goes but for those who scrawl they have first to learn to make up their own rules and how they will respond if one of their members breaks such a rule like ‘you should not scrawl on restored buildings’. As we all know if rules are not kept then the rule itself needs to be changed. It is difficult to bring about a morality of aesthetics but nevertheless we can try by approaching graffiti and lessons written on walls with a public debate.
You made here a valuable start.
Hatto Fischer
POIEIN KAI PRATTEIN
Coordinator
Lycabettusstr. 23
Athens 10672
Greece
Tel. 003 0 210 36 17 792
Mobile 003 0 697 45 39 333
e-mail: hfischer@poieinkaiprattein.org
www.poieinkaiprattein.org
PHOTO: Bookstore in Exarcheia. Thanks to Konstandinos K
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Our graffiti removal teams are staffed by professional cleaners not professional art critics 
