My first encounter with Sotiris Fokeas, aka Soteur, took place during a photo stroll around the Athens School of Fine Arts on a sunny January day—once in person and then again through his work. First, I ran into Sotiris, at the time an MFA student at the university, leisurely working on a colorful mural on [...]
When it comes to female graffiti writers in Athens, it is impossible to find someone as prolific and as sucessful as Nique, whose characters and pieces have adorned the walls of Athens since 2015. Having closely followed her rise to become one of the most recognized writers in the scene, I finally got to share [...]
Cleo43, one of the most prolific female street artists active on the walls of Athens, is best known for her colorful and elaborate masks but got her start writing graffiti as a young teenager. She kindly sat down with me last summer to share some insights about her artistic biography, her aesthetic politics, and how [...]
If you've spent any time in Athens in the past year chances are you've stumbled upon a curious tag stating simply 1€ (or sometimes One Yuro), written compulsively all over the city. It can be found on obsolete urban objects and surfaces, parking barriers, electricity boxes, and vacant shop windows. At times the tag is accompanied [...]
I first came across one of the impressive stencils of AFI while researching political street art dealing with the European elections and have been a fan of her strong political works ever since. I was lucky enough to ask her some questions about her motivations and artistic process as well as her perspective on the [...]
Since the beginning of aesthetics of crisis in early 2013 the scope of the project and with it the range of interview partners has been steadily extending, leading to exciting new collaborations. As the city of Istanbul has been a particularly fascinating place for me in the past year, I was very happy to connect [...]
There have been a number of documentaries dealing with the social and political impact of the greek crisis and particularly the violent rise of the neo-fascist party χρυσή αυγή - better known as golden dawn. Marsia Tzivara, a Greek filmmaker and video activist that has been living in Berlin for the past 2 years, takes a [...]
This interview with Tvboy, an Italian street artist and designer working both Milan and Barcelona, is the first one at Aesthetics of Crisis to look beyond the specific context of Athens. Even though he does not consider his work to be distinctly political, the context of the crisis has emerged for as a somewhat inevitable topic. [...]
Many political artists in Athens make use of stencils, but no one has perfected this art form like Mapet. He made his first attempt at a stencil in 2006 while living in Bristol, but these days he has an archive of about 200 motifs to chose from. The reason for this productivity boost is quite [...]
Graphic design student Refur has been exploring the creative potential of the streets of Athens for the past two years. In fact, she is one of the few Athenian artists strategically using the medium of the sticker. She also paints larger pieces, often in collaboration with other artists such as Mapet, EX!T, and Yiakou. Furthermore [...]
If you stroll through any major European city, you will most likely find a paste-up, sticker, or tile by Hamburg-based artist Tona. So of course I was not surprised to find some of his signature artworks in Athens. However, the sheer amount of them seemed extraordinary. I got in touch with Tona and found out [...]
My first encounter with the short Spanish girl that goes by Galldindie was quite lucky: I found her spraying a wall in Exarcheia while I was just showing my new roommate the neighborhood. Naturally, I had to chat her up about the huge lion she was just painting. I found out she was an art [...]
If you happen upon one of the many artworks of Cacao Rocks in the streets of Athens, their colorful and unique style will most certainly leave an impression on you. In fact, the Corfu-born artist picked up the spray can for the first time at the tender age of 12. He talked to me about [...]
Going back about 15 years, D! is a true veteran of the Athens graffiti and street art scene. Over the years he has arrived at a distinct aesthetic and typographic vision that stands out quite clearly from the chaotic walls of the city. Here's some more on his artistic evolution and intentions, his recent "Their [...]
Oré is one of the many international artists that have paid Athens a creative visit in the past years. Yet, his connection with the city is not a fleeting one but rather something that has been building for 30 years. Spending a few weeks of every year in Athens he has left quite a few [...]
