Street art across the "green line": The geographies of graffiti in the walled city of Nicosia, Cyprus.

Abstract

The walled city of Nicosia is, in other words, the “old town” of the Cypriot capital. Divided by the “green line”, but also, separated in both sides from the rest of the developed city by the Venetian walls, the old town acquires a specific character. Walking through the streets and alleys of the area, among the Venetian, Ottoman and Byzantine monuments, one cannot miss the graffiti on the walls. Old styles of graffiti mix with new and political messages on the walls mix with artistic interventions, all together, changing the landscape. In this paper, I will look at the geographies of the graffiti styles, in an attempt to provide an insight in the ways in which practitioners of graffiti interfere with the landscape of the “old town” and at the same time “draw” on issues that concern the social and political life of the city.

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