"Knowledge speaks, wisdom listens"
A must-see street artist in Athens is WD, aka Wild Drawing, who has been making his mark on the urban landscape of the capital since his first creations in 2013. Originally from Bali, he became known to the general public in 2015, thanks to his mural depicting an owl at the intersection of Samou and Konstantinou Palaiologou streets, in the heart of Metaxourgeio. WD demonstrates with his owl that art can flourish despite everything. Indeed, the country is then seriously affected by the economic crisis and is just beginning to recover from a tragic period to consider a less gloomy future. In the middle of this neglected neighborhood in the center of Athens, the artist chooses the walls of a building belonging to two cultural institutions to remind us that we must always keep a perceptive and deep look, even in the middle of the darkest night. The owl, eternal symbol of Athens, becomes here a metaphor to express the contemporary situation of the country. The scope of this fresco quickly goes beyond the borders of the Greek capital and becomes viral all over the world. After this success, WD remained faithful to his creative principles and continued to produce works with strong social and political messages. He chose the facade of a dilapidated building in Exarcheia, at the intersection of Methonis and Arachovis streets, for his iconic work No Land for the Poor
to pay homage to the homeless of Greece and beyond. The public space of Athens is thus revealed to the eyes of the world, a veritable art gallery with a thousand works, sometimes unknown, which remain to be discovered. Since WD was brought to light, several street artists, both foreign and Greek, have taken over the walls, awnings and facades of the old, reborn neighborhoods around the city's historic center. They leave works and signatures in color wherever the public space allows, transforming the streets of Athens into a gigantic urban exhibition. In Metaxourgeio, at 2 Megalou Alexandrou Street, let yourself be surprised by the subtlety of a mural by SimpleG, depicting a young woman reading and leaning against a small table with a pile of books behind her. The title of the work speaks for itself: So many Books, so little Time. SimpleG, participating in the rehabilitation project of this neighborhood, which has been abandoned to prostitution for years, wanted to rehabilitate the image of women while casting a critical eye on our era where the frantic pace of life takes people away from deep emotions, especially those generated by reading.Hot spots of street art
Gazi and Kerameikos, the two neighborhoods bordering the historic center of Athens, have become the favorite canvas of street art artists in recent years. Among them, INO, the most recognized Greek artist, owes his international fame to his particular style and his unique talent that he expresses on large format frescoes since the beginning of the 2000s. He can be found on the most unexpected surfaces of the city and many works bear his trademark, namely faces hidden by a gas mask. Having become very well known over the years, he has decided to keep the features of his identity and face preciously hidden, just like in his early days, when he would sneak around the city after dark. The mural messages carried by INO focus on the social and political situation in the country but also on topics of international interest, such as peace, remote monitoring of citizens, the cruelty of capitalism... His 90-meter long mural The Last Supper (2019) transforms the walls of the old bus depot located on Piraios Street in Gazi. It represents a parody of The Last Supper: 11 faceless characters devour money bills while in place of Christ, we distinguish the Parthenon... The composition is completed by hands that desperately try to approach this dinner. Inspired by Leonardo da Vinci, INO precedes his captivating Last Supper with the no less captivating and allegorical eyes of the Mona Lisa..
The other area of central Athens that rhymes with graffiti and street art is Psirri. Here you can admire, among others, the work Apocalypse Now by INO, works by Greek Taxis or Vasmoulalis (Iroon square), Hope dies Last by WD (located at 9 Katsikogianni street), or All Dogs go to Heaven by Billy Gee, Alex Martinez and N. Grams (located at 2 R. Palamidou Street), dedicated to the stray dog known as Loukanikos who protected the demonstrators during the riots produced by the crisis, until his death in 2014. For the record, this dog had been named personality of the year by Time Magazine in 2011..
The hectic neighborhood of Exarcheia willingly and on principle offers its street corners to street art artists. Here, the canvas is often recycled and the ephemeral nature of the tags and graffiti does not detract from the quality of certain works. Thus, the large mural creations of recognized artists are an integral part of the landscape: on Navarinou Street, next to the park managed by the residents of the neighborhood, the Italian artist Blu signs a colorful creation evoking the values of social solidarity, collective struggle and self-management. Elsewhere, the female figures of Sonke can be found throughout the neighborhood.
Finally, the artists are not limited to the central districts of Athens: the students of the Fine Arts School leave their signatures all along Piraios Street, the central axis that connects the capital to the port of Piraeus, without forgetting the permanent gallery that has become the campus of the Polytechnic School in the district of Zografou... Despite some suspicious or even hostile looks concerning graffiti, Athens relies today on the talent of street artists to rethink its relations with the inhabitants and visitors.
