RT Article
T1 Art and urban space in Athens: The spatial composition of a street art paradise
JF The Australian journal of anthropology
VO 36
IS 3
SP 493
OP 513
A1 Karanicolas, Johnny
LA English
YR 2025
UL https://ixtheo.de/Record/1950746410
AB This paper explores how Athens's urban spaces, shaped by historical processes of rapid growth, unplanned development, and urban decay, have actively fostered a vibrant street art scene and related subversive practices during Greece's economic crisis. Based on ethnographic fieldwork (2015–2019) in central neighbourhoods like Exarchia and Psirri, it argues that the city's irregular urban landscape and contested public spaces empower heterotopic practices such as street art, squatting, and grassroots activism. Framed by Lefebvre's spatial triad and Foucault's heterotopia, urban space emerges as an active agent in shaping social resistance against homogenising forces. Amid the socioeconomic turmoil of the crisis, Athens became a ‘graffiti paradise’, where artists and collectives reclaimed derelict spaces, challenged gentrification and resisted control. Ultimately, the paper illustrates how urban space and social action intertwine to produce a dynamic, resilient, and anti-institutional art scene on Europe's periphery, highlighting the role of urban space as a social agent.
K1 Urban anthropology
K1 Street art
K1 Resistance
K1 heterotopia
K1 Economic Crisis
DO 10.1111/taja.70036