Painting human rights: Mapping street art in Athens

Abstract

Street art in Athens has boomed over the last years, transforming the fixed landscape of a city into a platform for negotiation and dialogue. As an art form, it is largely connected with the existing social conditions. A huge influx of immigrants/new citizens is transforming central areas and traditional notions of Athenian identity, giving birth to a new street-level language that has twisted, innovated and filled in the gaps of a culture’s hegemonic discourse. In this article, street art appears as a visual marker of the shifting, complex discourses of power struggles, marginality and counter-cultures that establish a new reality that must be seen and heard.

Trompe l’œil: an approach to promoting art tourism (case study: Shiraz city, Iran)

“…Public art is a way of enhancing or personalizing impersonal spaces and aims to activate civic dialogue or provide a vehicle for the community to express its identity (Becker, 2004). Tsilimpounidi and Walsh (2011) noted that street art as public and postmodern art has boomed in Athens in recent years and transformed the fixed landscape of a city into a platform for negotiation, response to human rights issues, resistance and dialogue. Skinner and Jolliffe (2017) believed that street art such as murals are more important than a simple tourist attraction or accidental aspect.…”

Unfurling the cultural value of street art experiences

“…First off, street art historically emerged as an opportunity to express political critique, resistance to dominant groups and anti-establishment views and certain contemporary artists continue to practice with such goals in mind (e.g. Shepard Fairey, Scott Marsh, Escif) (Avramidis and Tsilimpounidi, 2016;Christensen and Thor, 2017;Downey and Sherry, 2014;Tsilimpounidi and Walsh, 2010;Moln ar, 2017;Tsilimpounidi, 2015). Thus, street art traditionally opposed the groups (e.g.…”

“…Outside "cultural value" research, street art literature supports that this art offers the public alternative perspectives, social protest messages and disempowered viewpoints that may not pass (for various reasons) through commercial or institutionalised art systems such as galleries and museums (e.g. Avramidis and Tsilimpounidi, 2016;Downey and Sherry, 2014;O'Connell, 2012;Tsilimpounidi, 2015;Tsilimpounidi and Walsh, 2010;Young, 2016). More broadly speaking, street art is gaining attention and legitimacy as a scholarly field, and a form of art and culture with potential social consequences (see Bengtsen, 2013;Costa and Lopes, 2015;Ross et al, 2017 discussion).…”

Writings on the Wall: Textual Traces of Transit in the Aegean Borderscape

“…The country's turbulent political past dating back to the period of the rise of the military junta of 1967-1974 and its fall (Metapolitefsi) 2 , and the toleration with which such unauthorised public writing has generally been dealt with by the authorities and citizens alike have been conducive to the pervasiveness of the phenomenon. These longstanding practices of public expressions of discordance have commonly taken place through politicized street art and slogan writing, which have utilized urban landscapes to engage publics in dialogues about contemporary social conditions (Avramidis 2012;Tsilimpounidi 2015;Tsilimpounidi & Walsh 2010). In recent years, the corrosive effects of the enduring financial crisis, paired with the increasing influx of migrants and refugees, have reinforced sociopolitical discontent and have entrenched a sense of pervasive social injustice.…”

“…As previously discussed, political graffiti in Greece is a prevalent communicative and expressive medium and a ubiquitous part of the urban landscape (Avramidis 2012;Tsilimpounidi 2015;Tsilimpounidi & Walsh 2010). Much like in other Greek cities, writings around Moria and Mytiléne often express political indignation and anger (Karathanasis and Kapsali 2018).…”