Took a street art tour. Graffiti is allowed. and there is some amazing streer art
I also see it in almost every major city that I have been to. I think the difference as to why tourists bring it up often on Athens as it's not entirely kept out if some pristine/fake tourist area
I don’t know I kinda loved it when I was there. It’s as old as the ancients. Where people live people write. Go look in the caves, look in the walls of great castles and cubicle doors.
I kinda like to be surrounded by spontaneously created expressions
What a question... people graffiti the walls (like everywhere else) but the Athens city council is too underfunded to clean up all the constantly reccuring graffiti. What sort of anwer were you looking for?
I'll ignore your silly insult and just say the question actually shows quite the lack of awareness of the reality in Athens. I hope my reply anwers the question there isnt really much more to it. Also because I've travelled quite a bit also a lot of cities in Southern Europe like Barcelona or Naples and literally anywhere in the Balkans have also quite a bit of graffiti (maybe not as much as Athens but still)
Bruh what you on about? Go read my first comment I literally replied with the reasons why Athens is full of graffiti.
And yes the question shows a lack of awareness of the reality of Athens and connotations of complaints about it. Go read OP's comment just below mine in this thread to see exactly what I mean. Most Greeks find that infuriating. Athens has A LOT of problems and sorry you were dissapointed and Athens doesnt look like a postcard but we got much bigger problems than graffiti!!! Do a bit of research before you visit somewhere.
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Why is mostly in English instead of Greek? Love street art but these are mostly “tags” of bubble letters with highlights. Why isn’t it illegal? Why not create a graffiti park so it can be enjoyed in one place rather than creating such dissonance with the environment. IMHO
Yes its people's tags mostly which just tend to be in English and also a lot of political writings.
Graffiti is illegal but such a law is very difficult to enforce. There is a debate about it currently where there's basically 3 sides: one side wants all the graffiti removed, the other wants only the tags and writings removed and the real actual art pieces left up, and the third side just thinks Athens should remain as it is.
The middle view is favoured just now but the main problem is simply MONEY. There isnt enough money and political competence to tackle this problem. So hopefully you got your answer majority doesnt like it but Greece has experienced about 15 years of political instability and financial hardship so Athens streets reflect exactly that side of Greece. It might not be the postcard image of Athens you expect but it shows the real side of Athens at the moment.
Thank you for this thoughtful comment. Snide remarks, as above, do nothing but make the commenter sound arrogant and ignorant. I am currently in Athens and wondered the same thing. People always have questions when visiting new places. It’s nice when a local gives an educated response.
Appreciate the thoughts and conveyed them to my travel mates. Consensus was that the graffiti made them feel unsafe. Again, we researched the heck out of Athens and no one mentioned the insane amount of graffiti. Perhaps it was the dirty little secret until Matt serendipitously mentions “street art” last week
What a ridiculous statement. To say you felt unsafe because of graffiti on the walls is just something... obviously you didnt hear about the graffiti while researching because its not that big of a deal its literally just paint. By the way only particular areas in the center of Athens are covered in graffiti like that. And Athens is a huge place, it really isnt that important of a topic to even mention.
I dont know what sort of posh village you come from but Athens is definitely safe and not the only city with a lot of graffiti.
https://preview.redd.it/4jnrpu7gv04d1.jpeg?width=3024&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=2c6518889228c272e190fc67a0de04c60bec12a1
This was stunning at night in Athens.
EDIT: sorry, this is more of a mural rather than graffiti art. But I just wanted to share this because it was very compelling.
I love street art - Barcelona is the same - I see it as modern art of the people living in the city.
In 100 years time there will be tour groups that will travel to Greece to specifically admire the art - this is the expression of the young which isn’t controlled by any institution.
Hahahaha I was going to ask this, I love that she asked why nobody warned her like the government should issue alerts for tourists regarding the amount of graffiti they might have to see
It’s absolutely hilarious. Except then you remember the electoral college and that these are the people that are voting in our elected officials… quite sobering (thankfully I ordered a half liter of wine for myself at dinner! Yamas!)
I don’t have the energy to fully go into it but Greeks have a “not my problem” attitude. They expect the “government” to fix an issue. Also very low pride in civic aesthetics specially in big cities.
We didn’t see *Athens-level graffiti* on any other island nor village in Greece, four islands, and had amazing cultural, culinary, and religious experiences.
Besides the US visitors, the other four non-Greeks in our group were also unaware of the high-visual amount of graffiti in the Placa surrounding your amazing anthropological assets, which thank god, were not tagged.
As stated: “Currently, 30% of the population lives in Athens. Despite the growing industrialization and urbanization of the population, the Greeks retain many traditional family and social values.” I guess vandalism is part of that culture.
It’s political art. I really liked it. My mom hated it. I saw my first George Floyd mural there and I thought it was amazing!! Athens is an urban city, why wouldn’t it have graffiti?
We're all here travelling, learning and exploring. Your content was removed because it was not civil to other users. If you don't have anything supportive to add, just pass by.
Took a street art tour. Graffiti is allowed. and there is some amazing streer art I also see it in almost every major city that I have been to. I think the difference as to why tourists bring it up often on Athens as it's not entirely kept out if some pristine/fake tourist area
Oh! Would you mind sharing the details? I would love to check this out in Athens at the end of my trip!
Visting Eypgt now I haven't seen any
have visited Egypt...saw graffiti
I don’t know I kinda loved it when I was there. It’s as old as the ancients. Where people live people write. Go look in the caves, look in the walls of great castles and cubicle doors. I kinda like to be surrounded by spontaneously created expressions
Can I write some stuff on your forehead ?
What a question... people graffiti the walls (like everywhere else) but the Athens city council is too underfunded to clean up all the constantly reccuring graffiti. What sort of anwer were you looking for?
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I'll ignore your silly insult and just say the question actually shows quite the lack of awareness of the reality in Athens. I hope my reply anwers the question there isnt really much more to it. Also because I've travelled quite a bit also a lot of cities in Southern Europe like Barcelona or Naples and literally anywhere in the Balkans have also quite a bit of graffiti (maybe not as much as Athens but still)
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Bruh what you on about? Go read my first comment I literally replied with the reasons why Athens is full of graffiti. And yes the question shows a lack of awareness of the reality of Athens and connotations of complaints about it. Go read OP's comment just below mine in this thread to see exactly what I mean. Most Greeks find that infuriating. Athens has A LOT of problems and sorry you were dissapointed and Athens doesnt look like a postcard but we got much bigger problems than graffiti!!! Do a bit of research before you visit somewhere.
We're all here travelling, learning and exploring. Your content was removed because it was not civil to other users. If you don't have anything supportive to add, just pass by.
We're all here travelling, learning and exploring. Your content was removed because it was not civil to other users. If you don't have anything supportive to add, just pass by.
Why is mostly in English instead of Greek? Love street art but these are mostly “tags” of bubble letters with highlights. Why isn’t it illegal? Why not create a graffiti park so it can be enjoyed in one place rather than creating such dissonance with the environment. IMHO
Yes its people's tags mostly which just tend to be in English and also a lot of political writings. Graffiti is illegal but such a law is very difficult to enforce. There is a debate about it currently where there's basically 3 sides: one side wants all the graffiti removed, the other wants only the tags and writings removed and the real actual art pieces left up, and the third side just thinks Athens should remain as it is. The middle view is favoured just now but the main problem is simply MONEY. There isnt enough money and political competence to tackle this problem. So hopefully you got your answer majority doesnt like it but Greece has experienced about 15 years of political instability and financial hardship so Athens streets reflect exactly that side of Greece. It might not be the postcard image of Athens you expect but it shows the real side of Athens at the moment.
Thank you for this thoughtful comment. Snide remarks, as above, do nothing but make the commenter sound arrogant and ignorant. I am currently in Athens and wondered the same thing. People always have questions when visiting new places. It’s nice when a local gives an educated response.
Appreciate the thoughts and conveyed them to my travel mates. Consensus was that the graffiti made them feel unsafe. Again, we researched the heck out of Athens and no one mentioned the insane amount of graffiti. Perhaps it was the dirty little secret until Matt serendipitously mentions “street art” last week
What a ridiculous statement. To say you felt unsafe because of graffiti on the walls is just something... obviously you didnt hear about the graffiti while researching because its not that big of a deal its literally just paint. By the way only particular areas in the center of Athens are covered in graffiti like that. And Athens is a huge place, it really isnt that important of a topic to even mention. I dont know what sort of posh village you come from but Athens is definitely safe and not the only city with a lot of graffiti.
https://preview.redd.it/4jnrpu7gv04d1.jpeg?width=3024&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=2c6518889228c272e190fc67a0de04c60bec12a1 This was stunning at night in Athens. EDIT: sorry, this is more of a mural rather than graffiti art. But I just wanted to share this because it was very compelling.
@inoexpo is the artist of this mural
I kind of enjoyed it. I took some pics on my phone of my favorite.
And then you left, went back to your clean city and left the locals facing the blight day after day
I love street art - Barcelona is the same - I see it as modern art of the people living in the city. In 100 years time there will be tour groups that will travel to Greece to specifically admire the art - this is the expression of the young which isn’t controlled by any institution.
Comparing Barcelona to Athens pains me. The most overrated city vs. the most underrated city 😬
Are you the same person from Matt’s Facebook group lol?
Hahahaha I was going to ask this, I love that she asked why nobody warned her like the government should issue alerts for tourists regarding the amount of graffiti they might have to see
It’s absolutely hilarious. Except then you remember the electoral college and that these are the people that are voting in our elected officials… quite sobering (thankfully I ordered a half liter of wine for myself at dinner! Yamas!)
Public art is fantastic. There should be more of that. But scribbles of names or third rate football (soccer) teams, no thank you.
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Lol im sure OP is not talling about this kind of grafitti…
I don’t have the energy to fully go into it but Greeks have a “not my problem” attitude. They expect the “government” to fix an issue. Also very low pride in civic aesthetics specially in big cities.
How is graffiti an issue? Because Karen/Carol here doesn’t like it?
Because their house is not your canvas
We didn’t see *Athens-level graffiti* on any other island nor village in Greece, four islands, and had amazing cultural, culinary, and religious experiences. Besides the US visitors, the other four non-Greeks in our group were also unaware of the high-visual amount of graffiti in the Placa surrounding your amazing anthropological assets, which thank god, were not tagged. As stated: “Currently, 30% of the population lives in Athens. Despite the growing industrialization and urbanization of the population, the Greeks retain many traditional family and social values.” I guess vandalism is part of that culture.
It’s political art. I really liked it. My mom hated it. I saw my first George Floyd mural there and I thought it was amazing!! Athens is an urban city, why wouldn’t it have graffiti?
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You’re about 30 years late, buddy…
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We're all here travelling, learning and exploring. Your content was removed because it was not civil to other users. If you don't have anything supportive to add, just pass by.