Graffiti in Iran: Between Art and Subculture

Graffiti art is one of the new popular phenomena, especially in terms of its relationships with youth subcultures; youth protest culture and street art in big cities around the world. Graffiti is also a way to express political and cultural opinions of marginalized and excluded groups have no serious access to the official propaganda facilities. Not only is graffiti a way to express their ideas and ideals symbolically, but also it is a way to distinguish their culture (the underground culture) from the official culture. The Iranian graffiti is so much young and its beginning dates back to 2001-2002. According to some websites, the first graffiti was done by ECNCE in 1995-1996 in the capital city of Tehran. By now, the serious Iranians graffiti creators are Alone, Magoy, Old Nike, Salome and CK1. There is a hidden link between graffiti and other elements of the Iranian youth lifestyle (especially the underground music) in major cities (Tehran, Karaj, Mashhad, and Shiraz). Although one can see political and social criticism in the Iranian graffiti as well, the most striking aspect of it is the social one. There is no serious experience in graffiti in the pre-revolutionary Iran. Stencils and murals with revolutionary themes are the most common forms of graffiti in the post-revolutionary Iran. Contrary to the past, present use of graffiti in Iran is a critical and sub-cultural use. A quick glance at the related websites shows that the new use of graffiti in Iran is a sub-cultural one that is more than anything else associated with a kind of underground art. Thus, the Iranian new graffiti creators are young people who do not act in line with the official culture, but sometimes conflict with it and even find fun in such an experience. It is a way of identification for them. So, there is a hidden relationship between diverse aspects of such an underground culture: graffiti, music, skateboard and other parts of their lifestyle. However, understanding this phenomenon with the help of concepts like Bricolage and post-subculture is more understandable. According to this view, the Iranian youth take diverse elements from different cultures and integrate them into a new integrated whole. Thus, the present youth culture or subculture is composed of elements borrowed from the West and indigenous elements. This culture, more than anywhere else is visible in the underground culture (music and graffiti). The underground youth cultures, thus, has a critical stance towards the status quo socially, culturally and sometime politically. So, their culture is in accordance with what is called ‘the global youth culture’. There is no serious research on the social background of the Iranian graffiti creators, thus at the present time one can only suggest some primary hypothesis. Observers believe that there is no clear link between social class and graffiti in Iran. However, it appears that, at least in Tehran, graffiti is most visible among the (upper) middle class young people. It seems that most of the Iranian graffiti creators are middle class boys, although there are some female graffiti creators like Salome in big cities like Tehran.