Capre diem graffiti team in Athens

Carpe Diem graffiti crew explain to Stephanie Bailey how their public art programme has been livening up grimy school facades, giving kids a free lesson in creativity and communication into the bargain Yiannis Antoniou, headmaster of Athens’ Second Experimental High School, expresses his enthusiasm: “Cooperating with Carpe Diem was a wonderful surprise for all of us. The walls not only changed the aesthetics of the school, but of the entire neighbourhood” Carpe Diem has come a long way since its establishment as Greece’s first active graffiti crew in 1991. Comprised of established artists, including graduates of the School of Fine Arts, graphic artists, designers and illustrators, this is one group of people who just might take offence to being labelled as vandals, although in Athens, where the abundance of graffiti is obvious to everyone..., who can blame someone for making that assumption? But Carpe Diem is different. United in their aim to contribute positively to Athens through the support of art and alternative culture, not only did they want to paint the city, they wanted to paint the city with the cooperation and participation of the city’s citizens. “For more than a decade we were trying to encourage the idea of murals as a public art form for the city,” explains Kyriakos Iosifidis, coordinator of the group’s mural projects. And this is precisely what sets Carpe Diem apart – in order to realise their vision of a city filled with murals, they have worked closely with local authorities and local communities, and their work has since taken them all over Greece. In 2002, Carpe Diem became an official, legally recognised, association, and embarked on its first major public mural project, “Chromopolis”, in conjunction with the Ministry of Culture. Part of the Cultural Olympiad, 16 Greek and international graffiti writers travelled the country as “Delegates of Culture”, imbibing grey, concrete building walls with colour. Since then, their public projects have included murals for the Goethe Institute, participation in Façade en Fete, 2007, organised by the French Institute, and annual commemoration of World Car-Free Day with the support of the Ministry of Transportation – their best-known contribution being the large mural that adorns the bus terminus on Pireos Street, opposite Technopolis, Athens. With a steadily growing reputation, Iosifidis recalls the time being right to propose an idea that had long been part of the crew’s original dream – the development of a comprehensive public education programme based on mural art that would be acceptable to the authorities, the schools, the parents and students, a dream that was realised in 2008 under the title, “Painting School Buildings”. It is a project in which artists from the Greek graffiti and street art scenes design and paint large murals onto school buildings with the involvement of students, teachers and parents in the approval of the design, as well as in the painting on the lower surfaces of the school area. “The programme operates at three levels: the microcosm of school-teachers, pupils, parents and the neighbourhood,” elaborates Iosifidis. “Students get outdoors and come together to make something beautiful: essentially claiming public space as their own. They even call friends and members of the neighbourhood to join in!” On whether a programme such as this might encourage graffiti of the vandal-variety amongst students, artists Vangelis and Giorgos Hoursoglou, otherwise known as Woozy and Kez, disagree with the term: “Graffiti is not vandalism; it is communication, creativity, and art. As long as there is the right education and correct technical training, graffiti can be a great way to develop creativity and freedom of expression. We as a team want to enforce the audience to have a critical way of thinking… Kids can realise the difference between vandalism and an aesthetic image.” And it seems the authorities involved have the same opinion. In 2009, the Mayor of Athens, Nikitas Kaklamanis gave the programme official endorsement from the Athens Municipality, saying, “Graffiti began as a way of protest against a monochrome city and a monotonous society. The municipality supports this aim to give colour and new form to school buildings.” The programme was immediately well-received by Yiannis Antoniou, principal of the Second Experimental High School of Athens, who told Insider: “Cooperating with Carpe Diem was a wonderful surprise for all of us – the school, the Parent-Teacher Association, and the local education authority. The walls not only changed the aesthetics of the school, but of the entire neighbourhood.” With 48 current applications from schools around the country, and full support from the Ministry of Education and the General Secretariat for Youth, this is the venture the crew are most proud of, bringing them one step closer to their true aim, which resonates in all of their public programmes. “Our opinion is that organized graffiti should be promoted to a larger extent – we need this kind of art,” say the Hoursoglou brothers. Iosifidis continues: “Giving expression to human life is what we want to do. We want to intervene in the public domain not to cover up ugliness, but to develop the senses and imagination. We want to attack the grey, neutral colour and uniform school environment that repudiates anything different and original.” No better way to do that than to seize the day and charge ahead to make dreams become reality – Carpe Diem are doing just that. See http://www.carpe-diemact.gr/