Graffiti Writing in Sofia: Identity Construction and Urban Space

2018

Public Art Dialogue, 2018

Topos, 2011

This article examines graffiti as the illicit strategy of contemporary urban space formation and presents the non-conventional cityscape perception of the graffiti subculture members. The findings of the study based on detailed interviews with graffiti writers from Vilnius, the capital of Lithuania, reveal their motivations towards illegal spatial practices and their attitudes towards politics of urban structure and design. The main difference between traditional perception of urban space and the views of graffiti writers lies in the distinction of ‘free’ and controlled, public and private, striated and smooth space experience. The social context of the struggles over ‘free’ urban space is determined by the emergence of symbolic economy in post-industrial city and its hyper-aestheticised and commercialized cityscape that enables the visual resistance – a subversed form of production of symbols known as illegal graffiti practice.

Space and Culture, 2018

Culture Crossroads

This article describes characteristics of graffiti and street art in Riga. The aim of the article is to present features of street art and graffiti phenomenon, as well as to highlight portrait of a typical urban Riga artist by analysing types of activities, motivation and other characterizing aspects of graffiti writers and street artists. The author of the article introduces general street art and graffiti phenomenon, highlighting differences between these forms of art, following analysis of such topics as manifestation of street art and graffiti in Riga, the most common forms of street art and graffiti in urban environment of Riga. The author of the article also provides analysis of street art and graffiti artists’ motivation of their activities and describes street artist’s one-night run that was studied during conducted inclusive observation thus allowing understanding the characteristics of typical Riga urban environment artist.

The article discusses the paremic (proverbial-phraseological) element in the public space in Tartu. I concentrate in particular on dynamic spaces which are freely accessible to all without any limitations (incl. important elements of urban space, such as shopping centres, cultural and leisure time centres, stations). They involve the values, symbols and signs of urban life.

Avramidis, K., & Tsilimpounidi, M. (Eds.). (2017). Graffiti and Street Art: Reading, Writing and Representing the City. London: Routledge.

Graffiti and street art images are ubiquitous and enjoy a very special place in collective imaginary due to their ambiguous nature. Sometimes enigmatic in meaning, often stylistically crude and aesthetically aggressive, yet always visually arresting, they fill our field of vision with texts and images that no one can escape. As they take place on surfaces and travel through various channels, they provide viewers an entry point to the subtext of the cities we live in, while questioning how we read, write and represent them. This book is structured around these three distinct, albeit by definition interwoven, key frames. The contributors of this volume critically investigate underexplored urban contexts in which graffiti and street art appear, shed light on previously unexamined aspects of these practices, and introduce innovative methodologies regarding the treatment of these images. Throughout, the focus is on the relationship of graffiti and street art with urban space, and the various manifestations of these idiosyncratic meetings. In this book, the emphasis is shifted from what the physical texts say to what these practices and their produced images do in different contexts. All chapters are original and come from experts in various fields, such as Architecture, Urban Studies, Sociology, Criminology, Anthropology, and Visual Cultures, as well as scholars that transcend traditional disciplinary frameworks. This exciting new collection is an essential reading for advanced undergraduates as well as postgraduates and academics interested in the subject matter. It is also accessible to a non-academic audience, such as art practitioners and policy makers alike, or anyone keen in deepening their knowledge on how graffiti and street affect the ways urban environments are experienced, understood and envisioned.

Cyprus Review, 2009

This paper is rooted in the observation that there is radically less graffiti of any kind in the north (Lefkosha) than there is in the south (Lefkosia). It was revised in 2010 for the IFJP (12:1). This version presents an overview of kinds, presence and absence of anonymous public writing – graffiti – in Lefkosia/Lefkosha, and then poses possible reasons for this discrepancy. What social and political identity differences does this discrepancy indicate? Why are murals not part of the visual public discourse in Lefkosia/Lefkosha, as they are in other divided societies? What is the graffiti writer's role, in the absence of murals? What political meanings are articulated in the interactions of graffiti writers in specific areas of Lefkosia/Lefkosha, and how does whitewashing fit into a much larger civic discourse that includes individuals, groups and authority? In particular this paper aims to parse the group-oriented visual discourse from the discourse related to individuals, and at the same time looks at gender equality in these expressions. Why, and in what ways do women seem to be less visible in terms of public political expression? How can reconciliation programmes clarify the audiences they target when designing cultural projects? Under what circumstances would a public mural arts programme be appropriate in Lefkosia/Lefkosha, and why is there none in place now? The methodology for collecting data is peripatetic and qualitative, because the emergent nature of graffiti and its erasure calls for a visual-ethnographic and documentary approach to sources and data. The instances of graffiti that shape the content of this paper have been selected from specific parallel areas located in Lefkosia/Lefkosha, although they sit within an expanding and temporal textual framework of graffiti documented in paint and in incision on Cyprus. This 'expanding temporal and textual framework of graffiti' is a documentation that began in 1997. At that time much graffiti in Lefkosia, and elsewhere on the island had to be collected by frottage: graphite rubbings of incisions in the walls. The walls near the Buffer Zone were especially interesting in that regard. As spray paint became more popular photography was used to catalogue this and other emerging trends. The catalogue now includes a thousand or more images, digital and film, contemporary and historical graffiti from both sides of the island, including some twenty remaining wall rubbings from 1997.

La Tesis Doctoral "25 Años de Graffiti en Valencia: Aspectos Sociológicos y Estéticos" es un estudio que pone en valor todo el espectro de las escenas de graffiti y creatividad pública independiente -Street Art- de la ciudad de Valencia. El marco teórico del estudio son los Estudios Culturales, Subculturales y Postsubculturales. La metodología específica de su abordaje es la Observación Participante. El estudio se inicia con el análisis de los precedentes visuales, actitudinales y estratégicos de las prácticas del graffiti y la creatividad pública independiente: el cómic, el cartoon animado, la cultura popular, el cine, la televisión,la rotulación comercial, el diseño gráfico y la contracultura global anterior a la década de los años 70 del siglo XX. Para posicionar los objetos de estudio también se realiza un estudio en profundidad del desarrollo de las escenas de graffiti en Filadelfia y Nueva York, así como se analizan 3 escenas europeas y 3 escenas estatales de referencia. Organizado en 5 periodos diferentes y abordado con un enfoque interdisciplinar se analiza el desarrollo de la subcultura del graffiti en Valencia y la gestación de la escena de creatividad pública independiente. Aspectos subculturales y postsubculturales, estéticos, comunicativos, lúdicos, psicosociales, urbanos, económicos y políticos definen la relación de ambos objetos de estudio con el contexto de la ciudad de Valencia. El análisis ofrecido queda enmarcado con un carácter visual destacado que incluye 2262 fotografías de los diferentes fenómenos abordados. El estudio se cierra con unas extensas conclusiones donde se combinan reflexiones, mapas conceptuales, gráficas y tablas que apuntalan de forma brillante el análisis subcultural de las escenas objeto de estudio.