The streets of the ancient city of Baku, which is a unique combination of East and West, have long been a place for various forms of self-expression. One of the most striking and controversial is graffiti. Ancient mosques and a fort now contrast with colorful facades covered in bold paintings and eye-catching inscriptions. They can be seen on fences, building walls and even abandoned objects. Here, street art (the direction of modern urban art. This includes graffiti, posters, stencils, installations – ed.) is not just art: it is a dialogue of young people with the history and culture of the city, a unique form of declaring your identity in a rapidly changing world.
It is interesting that Baku graffiti retains its different characteristics from European and American styles. It is mainly inspired by national culture and other traditional motifs, which gives it a unique color. The development of street art in Baku is becoming part of the city’s cultural life, reflecting its rhythm, its social problems and its unique vision of the future.
This new era of urban culture remains a source of controversy: for some it is an act of vandalism, for others it is an informal open-air gallery. But one thing is certain: it is impossible to remain indifferent to graffiti.
To get a closer look at this branch of urban culture, I went to one of Baku’s courtyards, hidden from the busy street, but full of metallic colors inside. While we were waiting for the heroes of this article, we went out to explore the area with the photojournalist. A wild boar painted in the Japanese style in the yard, a pigeon in an “airfield” hat and red moccasins and a “gagash” chasing her, Audrey Hepburn, of course, a lot of tags (tags are a type of graffiti, which consists of drawing quickly the author’s signature on any surface, often in public places – ed.) and many other things we saw.
My guides in the world of street art were members of the union “Urban Art Azerbaijan”, writers (graffiti artists – ed.) “Tovaich295”, “Gore 103”, “Kojo” and “NE100”. We promised not to reveal the real names of the young people, in turn, they allowed us to observe the creation of two completely different styles of graffiti and answer our questions.
“Barbie”, blueberries and national motifs
Sitting on the railing of the old staircase, which the writers chose as their canvas, they began to present to me the ins and outs of their creations.
“Graffiti has two sides: one is street, dirty and rough, the other is clean, bright and orderly. Maintaining the balance between vandalism and art is the whole essence of graffiti. One cannot exist without the other”, – hip- hop activist, “Urban Art Azerbaijan”, notes the founder of “NE100”.
“There are places where you can’t paint, but you want to,” said Gore 103. “You have to go work at night and create in the ruins.”
“Kojo”, another writer who is dedicated to clothing customization, talked about the alternative: “You find a garage, you agree with the owner, etc. In Europe there is another practice. There is a website “Legal-walls. net”. “, a platform like “Google Maps”, where various legal walls have been marked in countries.”
According to “Gore 103”, in the courtyard where we are they do not make any special comments to the writers: “Before that, there was another painting here. When they repaired the broken wall, they painted the surroundings, but don’t touch the graffiti itself.”
In fact, as I watched the graffiti creation process, locals walked by. Many looked at the paintings with interest and even expressed their approval.
“Surprisingly, they react positively because they look at it (shows Tovaich295’s drawing). But when they see it (shows his drawing), they have a different reaction. They don’t understand and immediately start: “what are you doing?” it’s wrong, you’re drawing bad things “, etc., – says “Gore 103”.
“People are different and, of course, situations are also different,” believes “NE100”: “Someone can show aggression, in such situations we try to make people understand that we do no harm. After all, the first thing is Aggression arises from not understanding what is happening: “Most of the time we have to tell the truth, otherwise we turn away. “Responding to aggression with aggression is definitely not the way we communicate.”
“Tovaich295” is inspired by the culture of Azerbaijan: “For me, everything is related to Baku and national motifs. Recently I painted “Barbie” dolls with balloons (with spray paint, ed.) and glued them to the canvas. I also drew a similar child and wrote: “Gogal is you.” There are also “Kurlık” works in this yard. But mostly everything is local color.
He believes that such unique street art can also interest foreigners: “It hasn’t developed that much here yet, so unusual works with local colors will surely attract attention.”
One of the main problems for the development of graffiti in Azerbaijan is the lack of legal walls to paint on. Many artists are forced to paint illegally at the risk of being fined. The allocation of special facades by the city authorities could encourage street art.
“The number of illegal jobs should not decrease, just like the number of legal jobs, the expansion should go in all directions”, – “NE100” notes: “I cannot say that there are serious decisions from the government towards us Individual business orders are not taken into account yet. In addition, we need legal walls and large facades. In addition, our artists are already prepared for serious projects.”
But the main desire of Baku writers is to achieve recognition of graffiti as art. “We want to help hip-hop culture get government support so there are no barriers,” says Tovaich295. He hopes that an urban park will be created in Baku where artists, dancers and musicians will have their own legal space for creativity: “It would be both a place of tourist interest and a certain cultural center. It is good for the country and for us” . , no one will stop him.”
“Graffiti and hip-hop culture can be boosted with legal walls to paint on. Some people prefer to paint illegally, that has its charm. But there are many artists who don’t like that approach. Your talent is valuable and some suggestions and rejections waiting for orders. A legal wall would solve this problem and give many people the possibility of testing themselves without the risk of being fined. Only the authorities can help in this,” says “NE100”.
For now, this dream is far from reality. But the writers of Baku do not give up and continue to decorate the city, adding life and colors to the boring urban landscape.
“You walk by and you don’t look at a gray wall, you look at a painting. And immediately it seems like it’s alive, it has some soul, it has a message,” explains “Tovaich295.”
Maybe one day this message will be heard and graffiti will acquire the status of true art in Azerbaijan. Who knows, maybe these bold paintings on the walls of ancient courtyards are the new face of modern Azerbaijani culture.
Rufina Abdullayeva
