There are many of forms of protest, but the one that is probably the most visible one lacks attention of the political researchers. Undoubtedly, political graffiti contain ideas that challenge the public opinion or the government’s practices. Nowadays they are an important part of street art that is popular in the global cities, London, Tokyo, Berlin, Barcelona, New York as well as in the cities which suffer from the societal and political crises. It is widely known that in the situations of oppression, people start to resist the dominating forces by using jokes, songs, theater, etc. (Waldner & Dobratz, 2013: 379). Political graffiti can be an effective tool for creative expression of somebody’s ideas too.
Graffiti may consist of images and ⁄or words and can be made with spray print, writing instruments or sharp instruments (Waldner & Dobratz, 2013: 377). Political graffiti usually contains ideas or values that aim to influence public opinion or even government decision making. Political graffiti’s effectiveness may be reduced if the legal status of graffiti shifts from always illegal to sometimes legal (Waldner & Dobratz, 2013: 379). Nowadays, political graffiti have three functions: providing space for the ideas that are rarely discussed in the media, providing a person with an opportunity to voice ideas in public, and providing marginalized people with a venue (Waldner & Dobratz, 2013: 382). Sometimes graffiti is called “small media” and its effectiveness rises if the other forms of political communication cannot be applied (Waldner & Dobratz, 2013: 382). So graffiti may be a kind of micro politics when a person is trying to have an impact on the political actors at the local, national or international level (Waldner & Dobratz, 2013: 383).
In fact, graffiti has a very long history. In the ancient times people drew images and inscriptions on the walls and some ancient graffiti may be seen even nowadays. In the second half of the XX century graffiti became a tool for showing disagreement with the government policies. In the 1970s political tags were popular in the US cities of New York and Philadelphia. In turn in Europe, there was a very strong movement that was called Sutuationist International and consisted of the artists, political theorists and intellectuals. This movement created a large number of political graffiti during the protests in France in 1968 (Colucci, 2011). Now Banksy is one of the most famous contemporary street artists. His latest artwork can be seen in London in front of the French Embassy. It shows a girl with tears in her eyes. Next to her is an image of a tear-gas aerosol. There is also a QR-code next to the graffiti that has a link to the video of the police raid on the refugee camps in the port of Calais in France (Moore, 2016). However, Banksy’s most famous political graffiti was made in the West Bank in 2005. He painted 9 images with the “paradise seeking theme” (Erbland, 2013). On one of the paintings there is a soldier standing near the wall and a young girl that is frisking him.
Most street artworks refer to the current social developments and after some time they may even become a part of the cultural heritage. For example, the Berlin Wall is a central place for remembering the post-World War II events. In the cities that had to live through the revolution or protests not long ago – for example Kiev, Ukraine – the art protest was very strong and three years later one can notice a lot of political graffiti in the places where protesters gathered. These graffiti include messages against the former political regime and Russia as the main supporter of the former regime, and desire for change (Shopinski et al, 2014).
In conclusion, political graffiti is an important part of street art that can be used for communication in the urban environment. Graffiti has a contemporary character and ,usually include a message that is directed against national/foreign governments or international organizations. Nevertheless, nowadays some local authorities communicate with street artists and invite them to create new artworks that are not as radical as usual. As the result, effectiveness of street art and political graffiti declines. Nonetheless, in many countries around the world graffiti is still recognized as an act of vandalism and attracts much attention if the freedoms of the people are suppressed.
Bibliography
Colluci, E. (25 October 2011) Occupying the Walls: Graffiti As Political Protest. [Online]
Available at: http://hyperallergic.com/38778/occupying-the-walls-graffiti
-as-political-protest/
Erbland, K. (23 October 2013). Banksy’s 11 Most Complicated Works. Mental Floss. [Online]
Available at: <http://mentalfloss.com/article/53298/banksy%E2%80%99s-11-most-
complicated-works>
Moore, S. (25 January 2016) Banksy’s refugee piece shows us how to protest – and grieve. The
Guardian. [Online] Available at: <http://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2016/jan/25/banksy-refugee-protest-
political-street-art-stik-stewy>
Moustaka, D. (6 May 2015) Redefining Cultural Heritage: Street Art as Cultural Testimony.
Modern Diplomacy. [Online] Available at:
<http://moderndiplomacy.eu/index.php?option=com_k2&view=item&id=658:redefinin
g-cultural-heritage-street-art-as-cultural-testimony&Itemid=717>
Szopiński, C., Patalong, M, Anselm, A., Lechleider, M., Kozłowska, A. (6 June 2014) Street
Art of the Ukrainian Revolution. Post-Soviet Graffiti. [Online] Available at:
< http://postsovietgraffiti.com/street-art-of-the-ukrainian-revolution/>
Waldener, L., Dobratz, B. (2013) Graffiti as a Form of Contentious Political Participation.
Sociology Compass 7/5: pp. 377–389.
Green, M. (2014) A Beautiful Mess: The Evolution of Political Graffiti in the Contemporary
of-political-graffiti-in-the-contemporary-city>
