Graffiti in Athens

Graffiti in Athens

 Athens is by no means a large or densely populated city, but one can come here and find a rather interesting assortment of graffiti art. Likely due to the fact that the majority of the population is made up by the University Students; young, artistic and ever looking for ways to express themselves. Fortunately however, the graffiti isn't as big of a problem as it could possibly be. Yes, there is illegal graffiti done upon the walls and back alleyways of many of the buildings, but it's relatively minimal in comparison to other cities. Mostly the cause, I'd say, would be that Athens has locations such as the graffiti wall (as seen above) to act as places for people to freely express themselves without fear of punishment. It definitely does it's job at channeling graffiti onto specific places. Though, it seems that the wall is more used for advertisements, but it can be freely painted over by anyone.

 Athens being a college town, and a very liberal college town at that, the city is filled with people and students who need avenues to express their opinions on either world, social or political events. Rather than causing vandalism or damage to property, the wall allows for that avenue.

 This being said though, there is still a problem with illegal graffiti in Athens, as well as a clash between residents of Athens on whether or not graffiti is considered vandalism or actual public art.

http://thepost.ohiou.edu/content/drawing-line

The line as to whether it is art or vandalism, I suppose would be narrowed down to the intent of the graffiti "artist." If it is done in an improper location or with a design around offending somewhere, or simply being destructive, than I think it would be pretty hard to consider it art on any level.