Friday

PEDESTRIAN RITES







...Keep walking!!

Athens Pedestrian organization PEZH (www.pezh.gr) stop traffic on Dionyssiou Aeropagitou St and generate debates with drivers, cyclists, pedestrians and coppers. Apparently (according to witnesses) there was some out-of-order man-handling, with a motorbike driver and his girlfriend being literally hauled off the bike by enraged pedestrians, which only goes to show the levels of rage that prevail amongst Athens' walkers. Being one of them, I have to say I too have regularly flown off the handle upon being faced by drivers who literally speed along PEDESTRIAN walkways, and it has happened a few times that I was about to be RUN OVER by various vehicles. Luckily for me I am not a child, an elderly person or a disabled individual, so I can at least try to leap out of the way when midst leisurely walk a moving vehicle comes roaring towards me because no copper has bothered to stop him/her. And while walking my dog in Thisseio park (aka local parking ground on any weekend night) I once witnessed at least 100 motorbikes zapping through it because there was some strike going on in Syntagma Sq that caused a traffic diversion. I walked up to a ROW of policemen in their kinky leather trousers, sipping frappe coffees and smoking their fags and enquired why they were letting this happen, RIGHT BEFORE THEIR EYES; Answer 1. "We are not here to monitor traffic",
Answer 2. If we were to stop these guys it would not prevent another 300 people doing the same thing later on (? To this I asked whether there's any point in arresting rapists, thieves and murderers as there will still be others in future) and Answer 3. "Why doesn't you dog have a muzzle on? That's the law!". So you might just get the picture...

There are many abused pedestrian stories to be told, and I hope to receive some from you! All I can say is that the picture is VERY ugly for walkers in Athens. The government & municipality want the image of having pedestrian walks but clearly does not take the responsibility & committment that goes with creating that. Ugh!

PHOTOS: Thank you to James Corsi

greek anarchy


"Arrests will not deter struggling individuals" Anarchic message on pristine white wall of nice house, corner of Amfyktionos & Ap. Pavlou Streets in Thisseio.

PHOTO: Thank you to George Divanis

Monday

Feminism is rare


"Your vulgar looks vomit manliness
You call it pride
We
A cop-out"
('don't touch me' in Spanish)

I captured this image on a wall in Metaxourgeio near Anoixis Theatre. It is indeed an extremely rare example of feminist expression in this city... I for one have never seen any other, at least not written on the walls like anarchic, political, social or any other expression spray-painters and graffiti artists seem so keen to express. Why? It may be a strong statement, an aggressive statement, a comment on the urban message-board that from the mere use of words in its message reveals pain and rage, but it is a feminist expression nonetheless. If anyone has seen more of these, especially in different forms, please send them in!

Saturday

Neoclassical beauty with modern scrawlings



Building in Mets. Nasty tags covering a neoclassical
building
that has been lovingly preserved amongst a
sea of appartment buildings.
Are the graffitti taggers there jealous or blind?
Photos & text: Thanks to Angelike Contis

Graffiti for the birds






Pangrati School - Photos Thanks to Angel

Wednesday

What is media?


Eleftheros (Free) and Adesmeftos (Uncommitted)
Promising what I question whether I can achieve by discovering truth
through their voices, rather than my own.
Man, Status, OK! Maxim, Hello!

And a woman whose been haunting someone's mind
with hair that expels stars
and a brow that is bruised.

AA
Photo: Thank you to Adrian

In the path of the Anarchists

16.30 Skoufa, Phileon CafĂ© – I am sitting there to drink a cappuccino and to write a bit when...

Suddenly anarchists appear in Skoufa. People sitting at the outer edge of the café spring up from their tables and flee away from the street. Bricks fly. Car windows are smashed. Some pull even bricks out of their bags. They are all very tall, dressed in black and hooded. No face visible. A fierce force. No one dares to intervene. They leave behind a path of destruction. In a split second the windows of a luxury BMW, a Jeep and a Porsche are smashed. They are parked alongside of Phileon. Some women not dressed in black run along with the hooded anarchists. They wear as well masks. The group moves fast, like a throng or a swarm of hornets. The leave in their wake excited people behind. Some smile at the sight of the luxury cars having been damaged. Others are aghast. What is happening to the city of Athens. Excharchia is not very far from Skoufa corner Lycabettus. No police gives chase.

Only after the group has vanished down the street in the direction of Excharchia two policemen make their appearance on motor cycles, inspect briefly the damages and then speed off but in the opposite direction. They seem not to wish to give pursuit. Then journalists appear with video cameras and mobile phones by which they transfer the images. Then, finally a police car comes. The elegant man with tie of the BMW has been telephoning all the time. It was not clear if he had been sitting inside. He is not harmed from smashed glass.

It is amazing how calm everyone is taking the incidence but it is creating already waves of worries and anxieties. My mother in law phones at 17.45 asking me where is my daughter. She hears reports about the anarchists having left more destruction in other streets than Skoufa behind. All this makes me think about what we started to discuss with Alexia about graffiti.

While some put this down to sheer vandalism or mere scrawls on walls others are wondering out aloud as to what this development means for future life in Athens as the intensity seems to be on the increase with such incidences erupting without any pre warning or linkage to memorable days like the students’ uprising against the Junta and which has been commented upon on a yearly basis with anarchists taking to the streets.

hATTO fISCHEr

Tuesday

Chat with a street art-lover


Zofka (pictured R) has her own blog on 'street art'. Her photo blog presents three pages of images from around Athens and could be said to be a graffiti-lover’s dream. Here she speaks to Athens Street Art’s artastica about it and raises an interesting point regarding just how much the street art of each city says a lot about its residents.



The link to her photo blog is:

http://www.flickr.com/photos/zofka/sets/72157594492655215/


artastica: How do you define 'street art'?
zofka: I define “street art” as human creativity expressed in any form through different media, openly and freely in an urban context.

a: why do you prefer to call it 'street art' rather than 'graffiti'?
z:
I prefer this label to “graffiti” because the latter has inherited the notion of “scripture” and is predominantly linked to the medium of spray can – “spray can art” being, in my opinion, the closest synonym to "graffiti" – whereas “street art” includes all imaginable media whether it be spray cans, all kinds of paints, stencils, collages, chalk drawings, stickers, mosaics etc.

a: What drew you to capture these images of street art?
z:
I have always been fascinated by street art which for me is one of the most universal and democratic forms of creative expression. I find street art to be one of the best and most direct ways to understand a culture and the mentality and political situation of a country. I have been travelling a lot lately and am amazed by the extent to which cultural differences are literally imprinted in the surfaces of the various cityscapes.


a: What do you believe this street art says about our city today?

z:
I believe that in these times of indispensable global regeneration, Athens is crying out for a funkier, more positive aesthetic, a lighter, more humorous communal existence and the riddance from the complexes and stereotypes of the past. Through my photo-documentation of the Athenian street art, I am glad to notice that some change is already happening and am very optimistic about it.


On this whole notion of the freedom of the individual to use his spraycan wherever and whenever...

Who defines the notion of the canvas? Is the surface that is sprayed genuinely a blank canvas or is it already an artwork in itself? Is a wall a wall or an existing artwork?

If someone has spent time painting the outside wall of their house, is this not in a sense a work of art?

If a wall is bare brick, is that wall a blank canvas or an exhibition of the art of bricklaying? etc etc etc.

Does the spraypainter consider this when they are wielding their cans so expertly? Does the spraypainter consider the location (as Banksy would appear to) when he rips off the cap and palnts his first daub?

Because surely even to the lovers of graffitit art has the right to impose itself over existing art. This is surely vandalism by any other name.


These are all important elements in squaring the debate about whether these fine upstanding fellows are indeed artists - or just urban pillagers posing as artists.

Not that I care of course.

Oh and if anyone has the time, camera and inclination I recommend a walk around the old Panathinaikos stadium on Leoforos Alexandros. Some interesting stuff there mixed in with basic attempts to spell.

Barney

Photos: Thanks to Evi
(Lord) Byron signature on a column in Cape sounion. What a vandal that Philhellene poet was! ;-)

Thank you to Sozita.

Monday


Thank you to Evi.

Monastriraki. Thanks to Evi.

Thanks to KK!
"Gay, straight, lesbian

All bosses are the same"


Thanks to KK

Mets







Thanks to Konstandinos K
I don't think the pretension there exists clarity about the issue of graffiti will help further a very much needed discussion.

First of all, there is a difference between aesthetical reflections and recommendations approaching policy levels i.e. what measures to take against those scrawling on walls.

Secondly, graffiti as art form on all kinds of walls translates itself into "my city as a gallery". Therefore, expressions should not be judged as having been completed nor all walls are private spaces.

Thirdly, the legal demand pertaining to 'respect for private and public property' has to do with a value system which allows the owner to do what he likes within certain conditions (with here in Greece often legal and illegal constructions confusing the difference) and the non owner nothing but to respect that piece of property.

Fourthly, there are many forms of communication by which people and especially younger ones wish to express themselves in public without however being seen when doing it hence the question arises who is responsible for these types of actions if not those who attempt to do something in anonymity?

If we wish people to break out of silence and speak their minds, we need to grant them such freedom of expression that they can also make incomplete statements. It is up to the public to take this matter further. Altogether a consensus has to be reached if the image of the city is to be safeguarded and this in more than one practical way. Adoption of cultural monuments and
heritage is one way to reach such a cultural consensus provided everyone gets involved and participates in the planning and implementation process.

Surely the same applies then to those trying to think out aloud was to how to respond to the various forms of expressions put on different types of walls.

There needs to stated collectively how
a) the Plaka and area around the Acropolis should be safeguarded
b) where Graffiti has a place in the culture of Athens
c) what understanding by artists and others has been shown so far for the development of graffiti
d) where freedom of artistic expression ends and respect for property (whether private or public) begins.

Valorization of graffiti is another aspect by which market forces begin to affect these artistic expressions. The painting over as you have pointed out is more often a political will which attempts to leave the city deprived of some real pieces of memory. We had similar cases in Berlin, that is after the squatter movement was either pushed out or domesticated wall murals disappeared even though from a cultural heritage point of view it would have been important for these art works to remain as 'memories of the future' or evidence how times lived then
can still be viewed 50 years later.

Finally in the discussion the question appears whether or not a distinction can be made between artistic expressions in graffiti and mere scrawling on walls?

In some cities movements have been created by youth which use walls but fix on them only temporary graffiti whereby the idea is to make the move so fast before the police can come and catch them. It is an urban sport.

The challenge to all is the way anyone responds even to a child's drawing which is at the very early age just a free flow of lines. Do you make sense of that or deny the fact that it is an expression of something?

ciao
Hatto


If you look at the iconic murals across Technopolis, on Pireos Street, I must say that I quite like them, and so do my children!


And also the iconic murals on the walls surrounding the Elais factory in Neo Faliro are very "different" and far more original than most of those boring factory walls that I normally see when driving on Pireos Stre
et and elsewhere in this city.

Perhaps what Athens needs is a major (annual?) international mural competition -- which could tentatively be called the "Big Olive Mural Bash" ("BOMB") -- and to invite "guerrilla artists" and talented young people from all around the world to come to the Big Olive to create colourful, iconic, new, "fresh" murals on especially "ugly" walls throughout Greater Athens (pre-selected by the organisers, of course), which could then be sponsored or even "auctioned" for charity (like the Cow Parade) by Greek and international socially-responsible companies. Proceeds could be donated to non-profit urban youth projects and perhaps even a Greek or international campaign to educate all stakeholders on this hotly-debated issue.


This could in turn contribute to a healthy debate, bring in tourism revenues and global publicity for Athens, educate people, provide a legal (!) and organised (!) platform for young people and artists to express themselves on walls they are allowed to work on, and avoid such mistakes as the one referred to in the BBC article, among many other benefits.

In this recent article ("Iconic Banksy image painted over"), the BBC mentioned... "People used to come from all over to see it and photograph it."

Well, hopefully we will start posting more photographs on Alexia's blog!

Keep up with the excellent work, Alexia!!!

Kali evdomada,

Peter Michel Heilmann
Athens
http://www.eurocharity.org/en/

Iconic Banksy image painted over


London transport workers have painted over an iconic mural by "guerrilla artist" Banksy estimated to be worth more than £300,000.

The image depicted a scene from Quentin Tarantino's Pulp Fiction, with Samuel L Jackson and John Travolta clutching bananas instead of guns. It had become one of the most famous graffiti paintings by the artist.


Transport for London said a tough line had to be taken on graffiti because it created an atmosphere of social decay. The Pulp Fiction mural was visible near Old Street Tube station. In place of the famous image, another graffiti artist has spray-painted the words "come back" in large letters.


Our graffiti removal teams are staffed by professional cleaners not professional art critics
Spokesman
Transport for London
Banksy has become one of art's hottest properties, with Angelina Jolie and Christina Aguilera among those who are reported to have splashed out on his work. George Thomas, who owns a barber's shop near the site, told the Independent the image was a "real draw" to the area. "People used to come from all over to see it and photograph it," he said. "There is no way it could have been mistaken for graffiti. Whoever destroyed it is an idiot."


Lost Banksys

In March a wall mural in east London by the artist was almost entirely removed by thieves. One of Banksy's early murals was mistakenly painted over in the same month by Bristol council's graffiti-removal contractors.

And in February two smaller works in London were also painted over. Commenting on the latest incident, a spokesman said Transport for London had to take a tough line on removing graffiti because it created a "general atmosphere of neglect and social decay which in turn encourages crime".

"We have no intention of changing this policy as it makes the transport system safer and more pleasant for passengers." The spokesman added that the company recognised that there were some who viewed Banksy's work as legitimate art but that their graffiti removal teams were "staffed by professional cleaners not professional art critics". Last year Banksy left a life-size replica of a Guantanamo Bay detainee at the California theme park Disneyland. And in 2005, he decorated Israel's controversial West Bank barrier with satirical images of life on the other side.


Source: BBC ONLINE




"Write what is of use

and not hooliganisms and

obscenities"

Pireos St
Hi there again My main concern with this whole situation is that there is a serious problem in the realisations of those in charge, by this i mean both with the beautiful houses and the grafiti situation. In a lot of cases, i love it when people re-furbish the old houses in and around Athens (these days we are losing too much heritage by bad classification of what is architecture, let's not just say the Acropolis is something to be saved, the old houses and stoa in Athens are something which defined a whole era in Greece, and the craftsmanship spans millenia). OK, maybe i was a bit off-ball with the RICH statement. In most cases, these people are doing a favour by saving the houses, and I am truly sorry that your hard work also got destroyed by the scrawls of a kid. BUT Who shouts at those that tear them down though & build a terastio 7 block apartment with cement? No one, there are a few shows of scorn and disapproving looks, but the people with money are quick enough to move into their fully kitted out apartment with all the luxuries in downtown Athens, and the whole concern just goes away, just like the history they ripped down and made disappear. But - I'm trying to separate the definition of scrawl (which you got hit with) and a work of art, because in many cases of well done graffiti, this is what it is, a form of modern art, where the kids are the creators, and the whole city are the viewers. And in my personal opinion, there are some damn fine works out there.

Now, the fact that kids scrawl is a big problem, because most people classify the scrawls and the good works together in one bucket, and this is wrong.
It's also wrong that these kids have nowhere to do their works, I mean, have you ever seen any organised graffiti areas where kids can create their works? (And we already have examples how this can be a positive thing to clean the scene up, its been done in the States, and the public can view if they want, almost like an arena - surely, this will not solve the problem completely, but im sure it will help a hell of a lot and maybe, just maybe, change the mentality on both sides). A billion times the state and society is asking kids to get active and do stuff in their youth, they are, but the whole world doesnt like it that they are being creative and trying to communicate their views and concepts through pictorial expresionism and typographic works of graffiti on buildings, fine then, lets just put up a 70 meter advert of vodafone instead to terrorise my eyes, is that acceptable? No because they are selling something. Or how about the amount of posters by companies pasted on walls, and they fall off during the rainy period and pollute blocks and screw the enviroment. Take a look at BANKSY if you want: http://www.banksy.co.uk/menu.html

I recently saw some of the Brazilian works in the Psirri area and on a road in Sygrou, they were a mind-bending experience, full of color and life. And bigger than i had ever seen before, they were not trying to sell me anything, or tell me what i should buy, they just told me what the creator believes, how he sees the world. This is true graffiti art, and its what Alexia is showing on her blog; ok, and statements that people make called stenciling.
We live in a modern filthy world, and i think it is bad if, like Ed, you had something like this happen to your dream which you worked so hard on, but at the same time, remember when you were a kid, I'm sure there was some point where you revoked society and had distain for it because they never listened to your voice and what you had to say, or you had no platform to stand and shout on - they don't, and this in their eyes, graffiti is the only way they can do it, and make a statement. Its better for us to stand back and try to understand why they do this, rather than to immediately classify all graffiti as "abomination" because your house was scrawled on (i hate that shit, most of it is rubbish), but then again, it's a world of freedom and we can have our own views - well, i hope this world is free, from all the crap i am seeing going on, i believe it is soon becoming the opposite of that... I hope this makes a bit more sense, my brain is mash potato because i work a lot. This is greece :-D

PAUL
Paul,
I am not sure at all what you mean. Are you saying that rich people who own beautiful downtown houses should throw the towel in, and give in to the lure of easy money and pull down any beautiful house they might own?
The few people who are not doing that should surely be supported, no?
If I had just spent a fortune putting to rights some worthwhile old pile only to wake up next morning to find that some halfbrain in a hoodie has spewed an aerosol over it, I might just go along with you and wonder why should I bother? Surely beautiful buildings are not just to be appreciated by those who live in them. Surely they are a desperately needed visual lung for all who behold them, especially in a city like Athens.
The graffiti kids' doltish daubings do indeed have their place, but its on a soft canvass you can throw down a functional shiny porcelain bowl with a flush mechanism. Sadly, too, too many house walls are treated as pictorial latrines, leaving us with rows of buildings scarred by repeated sprayings of 'DAWG' or 'TAG' or some other jumped-up inanity purporting to be art, (whatever that is in any day and age). Do these really deserve any higher value than would be given to the widdlings of a know-no-better mongrel marking out its territory?
But maybe the supposed rich who might want to spruce up their houses should just call it a day and sell it off to let another featureless, ugly polikathikeia sprout up. Just buy the beachhouse and to hell with the city where half the country lives, eh?
Ed

Art Vs Scribbles

Part of an artwork commissioned by the Athens municipality to create a message for European No Car Day (September 22) in 2005. It was created by some of the world's most famous wall artists, Brazilians Os and Gemeos, who worked alongside Nina and Nunca - also Brazilians - as well as with Greek artists Woozy, Same, the OFK team, Jason, Live2 and Nade in order to achieve this extraordinary result.

The giant graffiti's main subject is "Smart Moves for a Viable City." Indeed, the artists have managed to communicate in an original manner that car-mania and a high level of quality of life are not compatible.






Scribbles on a bus stop outside Technopolis on Pireos 100.
Dear all, I want to add my 500 cents here, instead of spending it on a lurvely souvlaki.

In many terms, I would agree that graffiti in certain senses is an abomination (tags and scrawls), but you miss the focal point of what is being shown, and, that a struggle takes place on many levels.

I myself have tried and failed at organising an exhibit of works, 1) it takes money, a lot of money which they usually keep, 2) people are only interested in their restricted genre of ART if you can call it that (oooooo that looks lovely OR ohhhh thats the French artist blah blah blah). 'No one cares about your point of view when it comes to art, you are not an expert' is usually what i get in response (as i have been told before, i can blow any of these fakes out of the water with the works i can create).

I do believe that the focal works here are actual art pieces, debateable upon your selective art genre or movement yes, but undoubtably talented people have created these works, have you ever tried to pick a paint can up to do something like this, i can tell you it is definately not easy and takes a lot of dedication to learn and create.

Now, my most outright anger at the whole situation is based on the following:
Your city gives nothing but toss about you and your interests, funnily enough, instead of embracing that this thing will never go away, and creating somewhere for these people to display and create their works, like yourself, they just want to catch them and punish them, concerned are they not that these kids live in a different age, a megolithic mass communication overwhelming broil of technology and information, where can they go, what can they do, the provisions for such kids in Athens is (forgive my French) FUCKING SHIT, if you are not interested in playing basket ball or football (and you urn for more artistic experiences), then dont bother, go to the local kosmopolis and become the latent zombie kids running around like hysterical hyenas who will soon get their first 200cc motorcycle and cut off the exhaust and rip around your street.



The people doing these works and making their mark are trying to say something, through the only channel which they know, no one has shown them any different, and most likely, no one will ever bother to try and look at this differently. PUNISHMENT is not the model of mankind, stop, think and realise that there are far better ways to deal with this than scourning.

PS.
The refurbishment of these old derelict houses also contains many irritants that i totally disagree with, who the hell do you think owns these houses, the rich, and if they really dont care for such architecture (which i think is totally stunning) tear the fucker down and put an
apartment block up, that will cash you in and let you build the next beach house for your oh so well treated kids.

There are far to many parameters to the modern day problems such as graffiti that we all brush over and ignore, so lets not throw our 2 cents in and try to brush the stuff which we dont like under the carpet, it just doesnt work anymore.

Kids are the ones that will inherit the future world we are currently building, treat them bad and ignore them, and dont expect any patientce and care from them when they do take things over in their later life.

Paul

Photos: Thank you to Konstandinos K

I appreciate the interest and time you have taken in furthering the discussion on graffiti. The reason I was inspired in creating the blog was exactly that - whether one agrees with seeing graffiti in the city or not, it is part of our lives (as I wrote in the header, since ancient times, because people are people and essentially our nature or instinct does not really change through the ages, only the way we perceive power in different forms does).

Graffiti is part of human expression, and essentially significant for developing a better understanding not only in what is outside us but ultimately of what comes from within each of us and causes - intentionally or not - a chain reaction in the mirrors of our self (those we choose to see).

I personally do not like or appreciate spray-painted scribbles, because they are a form of rebellious expression that reveals intentional disrespect for anything beautiful or presentable according to socially acceptable aesthetics; thus those scribbles sadden me because of the anger and sense of betrayal they are rooted in, and I can understand the irritation of having one's own home or favourite buildings scribbled on (I wouldn't call it defacing, but instead perhaps forcing on a 'new face').

Yet is that not part of urban life - like cars parked in parks or driving along pedestrian walks, like road rage and pointless or uncalled for aggression between strangers on the street, like air and sound pollution, filth, too little greenery & skylines/open spaces...etc etc? My point is that instead of sitting on a high horse and looking down at what we don't like (and I sustain that the reasons for not liking things can be as confused, hypocritical and incompassionate about human nature, including our own human nature, as they can be logical and hopeful), we should accept, tolerate, celebrate and / or (at least)
learn from it, particularly when it is indeed an expression of creative vision, heartfelt ideals, evocative perspectives, oppressed talent?.

I am glad that the blog has generated a discourse, it has made me think a lot more about the whole issue and all its surrounding issues.

Communication is the key to life! (I wouldn't mind spray-painting that somewhere!!!, ha ha ;-)

Thanks again,
Alexia

Photo: Thanks to Konstandinos K

"The return of Chagall"


Exarcheia, Athens - Posted by Hatto Fischer

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

And the spray-paint debate begins...


Graffiti is an abomination, a bleeding gash inflicted on the city of Athens by huddling morons after midnight.

The miracle in Athens is that individuals who love architecture and street beauty continue to attempt to restore old buildings, despite the certainty that these cretin scrawlers will inevitably come slouching by in the dead hours with their spray cans and their barely opposable thumbs.

This was always my view, even when it happened to other people's homes. The repeated defacing of the exterior marble on our flat in downtown Athens just reinforces it.

Rather than chase pictures of their aerosolular spewings, it would be more interesting perhaps to get some photographs of the perpetrators in action to secure a few prosecutions.
Ed





Photos: Thanks to Konstandinos K

Friday

zoe zillion

Your heart will be taken care of...If you trust enough
but don't trust too much or you might get lost in the dream.

WON'T LOOK


I hide my eyes from you
I conceal my truth
I'd rather look into the distant future
Or cherry-pick through the past.


What a gorgeous walk that was, alas,
now I must rest!


RATSISMOS / RACISM

RACISM IS THE CIVILIZATION OF IDIOTS

Thisseio, along railway lines