One of my very favourite places in the world to see and photograph graffiti is here. Beautiful Roman graffiti & street art is prolific, incredible and can be quite controversial.
Freedom
Rome seems to let its artists have an immense amount of freedom or leniency when it comes to graffiti and street art. What many other countries bar and ban, and label as vandalism, Rome seems to embrace. Arriving from Mexico, where the street art is controlled by allowing artists to paint murals, I find this type of expression more real.
One cannot venture even a few meters down the street without seeing tags, graffiti, paintings, stickers and posters. This street art is displayed in public and created by anyone.
It’s glorious.
Graffiti
A lot of the graffiti here is tags or tagging. Simple and single colour writing of a word, name, or small phrase. Many see this type of graffiti as ugly. To me, it is akin to writing “I was here” on anything and anywhere.
There is a sense of belonging when you are able to express a simple word or phrase such as this. It marks territory. It plants your feet in one place or space. It is grounding. There are many reasons for tagging, some nefarious. In Rome this type of graffiti is everywhere.
Picture Graffiti
I have seen some extraordinary paintings on the walls here in Rome. I’ll stop mid sidewalk, and just stare at a painting, some are that good. It really is art, there is no way around that fact.
Stickers
One thing I have noticed a lot of this trip that was not evident on my last visit is the use of stickers. I’m not talking about the small stickers, which are scattered everywhere like pieces of used gum on a sidewalk. I’m talking about large hand made, original paintings that have been glued onto the walls. They are amazing! Look at these below and tell me they are not great!
I love Rome. It is a big city, and has a lot of negative things that many large cities have. But the artistic talent evident in this city is extraordinary.
