Graffiti: The voice of the margins or an imperative of power?

Abstract

This paper examines graffiti and street art as a socially recognizable urban visual language employed in the public spaces of Yerevan by diverse social and political actors. The analytical focus shifts from questions of legitimation and institutional recognition to an exploration of how the same visual language is used both from “grassroots” and “top-down” positions to articulate memory, values, and ideological messages. The article’s theoretical framework approaches graffiti not as an isolated artistic practice, but as a form of social interaction and public expression operating within specific spatial and institutional contexts.The empirical basis of the study consists of a series of wall paintings depicting fallen soldiers, created in the aftermath of the 2016 “Four-Day-War” in Karabakh on the campus of Yerevan State University, as well as their subsequent reinterpretations through local initiatives in other Armenian cities. The analysis makes it possible to trace how a visual language perceived as “folk” and widely accessible is mobilized to address different audiences — from university students to local communities — and how it becomes involved in the formation of a competitive field of memory and interpretation. As a result, the article proposes to conceptualize graffiti in the Armenian context not so much as a means of struggle for the right to expression, but rather as a shared visual language through which various actors relate the past to the present and construct models of social action.The final part of the article examines the process of “returning downward,” through which an institutionalized visual language is transformed into practices of local and personalized memory and is once again appropriated by grassroots actors.