Athens Street Art Reflects Stress of Debt and Suffering of Poor

As bankers put the final screws to the people of Greece with crushing unsustainable debt and Greece itself struggles with a flood of Syrians fleeing that war-torn country, art on the street is expressing some of the virulent discontent of the everyday people who are watching the economic ground slip out from beneath.

WD. Athens, Greece. August 2015 (photo © Aline Mairet)

“Rage is all over, you can feel it just by looking all around you,” says photographer and BSA contributor Aline Mairet who shares new images from Athens today with you. The city itself is covered with graffiti tags and political sentiments but the police take almost no interest in the expression of speech that manifests in this way. Curiously, commercial interests do.

WD. Detail of piece entitled “No Land for the Poor”. Athens, Greece. August 2015 (photo © Aline Mairet)

“I saw a street artist, Nikos Tsounakas, working illegally on his piece,” Aline says as she describes shooting him while he worked. “He explained to me that the only problems he encountered are with the advertisers and their displays, but really not with the police!”

The large mural that has most people engaged and talking with one another is the sleeping figure by Street Artist WD. Entitled “No Land for the Poor,” it lays out the impact of and ultimate economic violence that is happening to people who are dispossessed of home and country.

Another less elaborate but poignant shot is the black text that reads ‘λάθος‘, translated as ‘mistake’.

A “magnet wall” in Athens, Greece. with Laus, 1Up and onter artists. August 2015 (photo © Aline Mairet)

Wake Up people! Athens, Greece. August 2015 (photo © Aline Mairet)

The tag in Greek reads “Mistake”. Athens, Greece. August 2015 (photo © Aline Mairet)

T14. Athens, Greece. August 2015 (photo © Aline Mairet)

Nikos Tsounakas. Athens, Greece. August 2015 (photo © Aline Mairet)

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