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Popularity Of Graffiti Grows In Iranian Streets

By Orkhan Jalilov February 18, 2018

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"Painting is not a crime" was depicted in Persian, in one of the streets of Tehran. / The Post Internazionale

The popularity of street art is growing in Iran, thanks to the state support, and at the same time, underground artists.

“The base and root of graffiti and street art in Iran is absolutely political,” a former Iranian street artist, now residing within the UK, Ghalamdar, said, adding, “Walls are powerful medias.”

Graffiti has played a complicated role during political transformations as well as protests in Iran. Before and during the 1979 Islamic Revolution, and the Iran-Iraq war (1980-1988), graffiti was widely used to popularize ideological issues. Political slogans, anti-western propaganda, religious symbolic elements, or images of leaders of the revolution were posted walls during the post-revolutionary period.

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The founder of Iran as an Islamic Republic and the leader of its 1979 Iranian Revolution, Ayatollah Sayyid Ruhollah Khomeini was portrayed on a building in Tehran. / majesticdisorder.com

In most countries, painting property without the property owner’s permission is considered defacement and vandalism, which is a punishable crime. Today, graffiti in Iran is mostly painted illegally by underground artists who are expressing public views regarding critical topics.

But the Iranian authorities are also attempting to control and even boost street artworks. Its history of street art runs to the very heart of the creation of the modern Islamic Republic.

During the Iranian hostage crisis (1979-1981), when revolutionary students occupied the U.S. Embassy in Tehran and held captive 52 Americans inside for 444 days, the walls of the building were covered in mostly anti-American murals. Currently, part of the embassy has been turned into an anti-American museum.

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Statue of Liberty with a skull face on the wall of former Embassy of the USA in Tehran, Iran. / Wikipedia

In 2006, the Tehran municipality selected the painter Mehdi Ghadyanloo to decorate walls across Tehran, following an announcement for Iranian artists to send in their designs and ideas. Ghadyanloo designed over 100 wall murals in Tehran, under the name “Utopian Tehran Project,” in which he depicted a green and clean city with blue skies and happy people.

Meanwhile, the graffiti artist "Mad" said that most street artists boycotted the municipality’s call at the time because of censorship, as “the artist was not allowed to paint just any theme.”

“For instance, 90 percent of my paintings would not go over well with the Iranian municipalities because it contradicts their ideology, position and demands,” he said.

“You are no artist if you are drawing on a wall with spray paint. You are either a vandal or a political activist scribbling a slogan,” Iranian graffiti artist "Mad" said, criticizing censorship of street art.

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The artwork by an Iranian underground painter nicknamed "Mad". / Al-Monitor

But Iran’s authorities are concerned about the prevalence of the art form. Municipalities regularly combat underground street artworks, often in which political themes are displayed, quickly washing them off or painting over them. Spray painting on a public street is considered damaging public property and is illegal; however Iranian law does not stipulate a clear punishment for the crime.

Iran hosted four national graffiti biennial festivals till 2017, where selected works are introduced and awarded on the concluding day of the event which is dubbed as the City Witnesses.