Overview

This is a unique collection of 243 graffiti and other street art work found on the streets of different European cities in countries like Germany, Portugal, Ireland, Poland, France, Belgium and the United Kingdom. Many of these graffiti are authentic works of art which are here preserved for the pleasure of actual and future generations, just as if they were graffiti from Pompeii in the old Roman times, preserved by ashes for the posterity. The majority of these images depict challenging ideas about reality and about art itself. Some of them are feminist graffiti and other graffiti against animal cruelty. I have selected them for their artistic or philosophical value. Also, I have not included strictly political graffiti attacking countries and religions, most of them poorly executed. In a sense, these graffiti represent ideas that challenge to the socially accepted ones. Many depict the youth and the lust for life while others are even philosophical, going as far as the Greek philosophers in their content. One can only but amaze at the time and energy employed by artists to present a street message to all of us. I would compare this activity with a message in a bottle thrown to the ocean of time, general indifference and oblivion. Sometimes, upon reading the messages left on the walls, one has the impression of living in an Orwellian-like world, with underground artist-fighters leaving challenging art here and there, like an act of resistance against reality and the surveillance authority. From this point of view, street art is an art of resistance against reality, the art of non-conformists. Often, graffiti portray happy young people in the act of laughing. For what is more subversive than to show happiness and a broad smile to the serious world, to those who do not want us to be happy and would like us to live under the fear of some imaginary enemy or power?. Laughing and happiness have always been suspects to the powers on this earth, this is why philosophies of pleasure have been actively shunned and forgotten while philosophies and religions that remind us of death and prepare us for death have obtained the backing of the civil powers, as a means to instil fear and control. Any philosophy that proclaims love and pleasure has been actively persecuted. From this point of view as well, these graffiti insert themselves in those positive philosophies and ideas and are in a way subversive because they advocate pleasure, freedom and the joy of being alive. They are a celebration of youth and also of its excesses. What would be youth without excesses?. At the end of the day, the motor of progress in History is Youth, with its desire to break free from the conventions and ideas and art and clothing and chains of the past. Sometimes, the messages are simple reflections on the nature of our societies, like the graffiti that wonders why alcohol is legal, when we all know that alcohol can be a powerful drug that causes acute social problems, addictions, the malformation of foetus in the womb and so on. There is a huge amount of talent out there on the streets of Europe and, if one is patient, one can discover authentic artistic graffiti and other works of art when strolling and visiting forgotten back alleys. The images have been treated digitally so as to make them more visually attractive, as some works of art were already damaged by the elements. I have to admit that in some cases, I have played with the image so as to meet my aesthetic taste. I am proud to have had the patience and the determination to keep these images in my collection, for many have already disappeared and would have never been known to anyone else than to the attentive walker of past times. Well, here is a collection of some images that try to preserve this art for as long as we can and other people will enjoy them. I hope to have extracted the best of each work and that you will enjoy the contemplation of these images. The author.

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