Graffiti

Panos Zizos: Bringing a New Perspective to Kastoria’s Schools and Mansions
The school nurse and street artist combines his professional role with his hobby under the initiative titled “Graffiti Inclusion.”

Graffiti artists, relatively few in number in the country, have expressed that by painting walls and trains with the necessary permissions from authorities, they strive to bring color to the monotonous gray of Istanbul's city life.

The municipal company "Sofekostroy" is set to receive up to half a million leva to remove graffiti across Sofia, following a decision by the Metropolitan Municipal Council, reports "Dnevnik". The funds will be drawn from levies paid for each ton of waste deposited in landfills.

In the Bulgarian village of Staro Zhelezare, walls and fences have long served as an open-air gallery, showcasing an eclectic mix of art that draws visitors from across the country.

Julian Phethean's first canvas in London was a shed in his backyard where he covered the walls with bold lettering in spray paint. When he moved his art to the city's streets in the 1980s, it was largely unwelcome - and he was even arrested a few times.

"We had nowhere to practice," he said. "It was just seen as vandalism."

A visible pulse to the feelings on the street, the murals are everywhere in Belgrade in upmarket neighborhoods, on the side of the motorways, and stenciled onto concrete apartment blocks.

A rough - and highly contested - history of modern Serbia is written out in murals and slogans on the walls of its capital Belgrade.

The director of Florence's Uffizi Galleries called on Aug. 23 for stiff penalties against vandals who spray-painted graffiti on exterior columns of the Vasari Corridor connecting the famed museum to the Boboli Gardens.

Hours later, Italy's Culture Minister Gennaro Sangiuliano said the presumed vandals have been identified by Carabinieri police. He did not identify the suspects.

But the process of peacebuilding is never a straight line and is often slowed down by chauvinistic and nationalist narratives and actions coming from key politicians, state-controlled media and extremist groups.

He emphasized that precisely because of that, he believes that the graffiti of hatred and threats addressed to the former president of Serbia and the president of the SDS, Boris Tadic, are absolutely inadmissible.

After completing similar projects in other parts of the historic center of Athens, municipal crews this week began cleaning graffiti off street walls in the picturesque Anafiotika neighborhood of Plaka that flanks the northeast side of the Acropolis, which is popular with visitors during the summer months.