![]() While neighborhoods are still being tagged with militia graffiti, there is a lot of work coming from a younger generation who aspire to beautify their city and have no political agenda. Graffiti has been pervasive in Beirut since the Civil War when militias would stencil their tags onto the neighborhoods they occupied. That’s what happened last spring with Lebanese artist Semaan Khawam, who was apprehended after stenciling an abstract image of a military man with an AK-47 as his torso. However, graffiti that is perceived as political will be persecuted. ![]() ![]() Ashekman even had a police officer stop them while they were tagging and when he found out that they were the renowned Lebanese hip-hop group Ashekman, the officer asked them to sign a CD for his son and let them continue their work. Some of the crews interviewed have had police question them about what they were doing, but none have been arrested. We are not doing it on private property, we are not doing something political or an evil message,” said Chakhtoura. “We don’t get the permits because we are not aggressing anyone. While the Dizhanyers, a Beirut artists’ collective, has applied for permits for most of their projects, the other artists interviewed did not as they felt they should not have to ask permission to make the street more beautiful. In theory, artists are supposed to go to the municipality and get a permit to spray. “We think all the walls belong to us-they don’t belong to the government-so we have a free medium to write whatever we want,” says Ashekman, explaining how they use graffiti as one avenue to distribute their sociopolitical messages. Limiting as this might sound, many artists keep within the rules by focusing on messages that can be applied to the whole of society, rather than linking their support to one political faction, for example. While graffiti is technically considered disturbing the peace, artists are only apprehended if their graffiti deals with sex, religion or politics. “If you know how, graffiti is close to legal in Beirut,” says Don Karl, one of the curators behind the recent “ White Wall” project where famous graffiti artists from all over the world and Lebanon were invited to Beirut to show their work on the city’s walls, with the aim of inspiring the local street art scene. This massive mural, by Chilean graffiti artist Inti, was one of the pieces made for the “White Wall”. “The fact that there is a computerized part and that there is a part more handiwork, I think is a good combination,” says Chahine as he watches his cohort Chakhtoura taping up the paper panels.Īs graffiti culture has grown mainstream and commercialized worldwide since its inception in 1960s and 1970s New York City, it has become increasingly common for street artists in Beirut to support themselves by working on commercial projects for big brands or events, and use those earnings to fund their personal projects. Then they used Photoshop to get the right highlight, shadow and background layers printed out massive paper panels of the highlight and shadow layers and then carefully cut along the lines, creating the stencil that they would then use to spray between the cutouts onto the wall. ![]() “The human element always adds life to it,” says Chahine referring to the process behind creating stencils.įor this project, the artists took a picture of a close friend who happened to fit the part.
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