Walls and Places: Political Murals in Iran

This paper is rooted in the photography and observation of Graffiti that presents an overview of presence and absence of anonymous public writings in Tehran. It is based on over 150 digital photographic examples collected from Tehran, where the flourishing of artistic dissent is formed by widespread poverty and the recent political history followed by an economic collapse that radicalized youth of middle-class. According to Gehl‟s argument that art objects and places which form their causal milieu share social agency with the artists who produce them, the aim of this paper is to show how Graffiti confront institutional power by expanding semiotic street arts in the west areas of Tehran like Shahrak-e Gharb and Ekbatan Complex. The active role of open public spaces in the cultural and political performance of social changes is investigated in this study. Why murals are not part of the visual public discourse in Tehran, as they are in other divided societies? What is the Graffiti writers‟ role in the existence of murals? What political meanings are articulated in the interactions of Graffiti writers in specific areas of Tehran? How does whitewashing fit into a much larger civic discourse that includes individuals, groups and authorities? This paper tries to find acceptable answers to these questions. In particular, this paper aims to analyze the group-oriented visual discourse and discourse related to individuals. The Graffiti that studied in this paper have been selected from specific parallel areas located in the west of Tehran