MURAL STREETS - STREET ART IN ATHENS VOL. I
Murals – Street Art in Athens Vol. I by Dimitris Theodosis & Panagiotis Menegou
OXY Publications presents a scrapbook-ode to urban culture and street art that is gaining ever-increasing respect from art communities everywhere. Graffiti, the visual expression in public spaces that hosts socio-political comments and the need of young people to create alternative works of art, was one of the most important forms of urban subculture of the 20th century, gaining its place in the third millennium. Important pieces of urban culture developed around these modern murals, such as the hip hop and punk music movements or the risky figures of skaters and BMXers. The history of graffiti has gone from the inevitable stage of moral panic towards children who "dirty" the city, to that of acceptance by the mainstream of the media and businesses, who now use it in their commercial practices... and of course it has now become an object of admiration for passers-by who in the majority consider it a sign of love for the city itself. Dimitris Theodosis toured the streets of Athens and scanned with his lens the paintings that decorate it and Panagiotis Menegos gave some thoughts on the need to defend the public space and the contradictions of street art. Art right for all or "urban vandalism"? Murals have some answers A FEW WORDS ABOUT THE CREATORS Dimitris Theodosis was born in Piraeus and has been involved in photography and collage for over 25 years. He has made slideshows with the main theme of travel photography, in various parts of Athens. From time to time he has shown part of his work in exhibitions at the Stavlos gallery (2002), the art section of the European Forum Against Globalization (2006), the Manifactura gallery (2006), the Bacaro gallery (2007) and the Municipal Market of Kypseli ( 2007). His slideshows of a socio-political nature have been shown in various places in Athens, while for the last 2 years his exhibition on Street Art has been shown in Athens at the Bacaro gallery. For the last five years, he has been mainly involved in street photojournalism. Panagiotis Menegos was born in 1981 in Athens. He lives in Athens, writes about Athens and loves to hate it. He also loves Córdoba and adores Brighton, the other two cities he lived in for short or long periods. His first degree from the Athens University of Economics and Business was Marketing & Communication, but he quickly discovered that in these professions you work a lot and wake up early. So he decided to write and ended up at the University of Sussex doing a master's degree in Media and Cultural Studies. There he formulated his own, not particularly original, but certainly passionate theories about youth subcultures. He belongs to the editorial team of Athens Voice and collaborates with various magazines (Tachydromos, Soul, Sonik) writing about his obsessions: urban culture and human geography, music and sports, the various aspects of pop culture that ultimately define us...