2021 marks the tenth anniversary of the start of the Arab Spring, a time when many people – especially young people – took to the streets en masse, full of hope for political and social change. A few years earlier, in 2009, it was the so-called Green Movement in Iran, and in 2013 it was the protests in Istanbul's Gezi Park that promised hope.
All these protests were accompanied by slogans and graffiti on walls and in the streets. It was not only a physical and visible appropriation of public space, but also an important attempt to create a counter-public sphere to the prescribed ‘truth’, at least for a certain period of time.
In addition to these events with international experts on the situation in Tehran, Beirut and Istanbul, the XENOS association highlights the significance of political graffiti in Graz. Here, too, the focus is on resistance, partly against those in power, but also against certain social groups.
