free style

Western-style graffiti appeared infrequently as of the mid-1990s. It was not until 2005 that a new scene emerged, taking on the task to create a uniquely Lebanese style of this art form. In Beirut, the walls of the city carry the scars of war. They are abandoned and covered with propaganda posters and redecorated with tags, logos and graffiti. Investigation on this developing street culture.

In the middle of 1990s till 2005, graffiti was rejected in Lebanon. Posters and illustrations made for civil war and politics issues. At that time, the Lebanese government did not have a written law to ban graffiti art. For example, the Quarintina and the Saida highway were full of graffiti art which was said to be drawn by rebels and outlaws. In addition, Graffiti artists in that time were too accompanied with the situation at hand which consisted of the war and and the mantillas. That portrayed graffiti as a rebellious mean of vandalisim.

On the other hand, when the organization of the White Wall in Beirut started portraying the graffiti drawing on the wall as art, the subsequent idea of graffiti started sinking in to the old Lebanese ideology. Furthermore, an issue was raised in order to understand how it is possible to bring and outdoor and accessible art to indoor space like Beirut Art Center without betraying the art. That gave more importance to the art in graffiti rather than the negativity portrayed by the naked eye and the stone aged ideology of out ancestors.

Moreover, when graffiti was fully acceptable, television commercials and billboards were bombarded with graffiti on almost every highway of Lebanon. For example, Rami Mouallem is a product of graffiti's recent commercialization. He done advertisements for Coca-Cola, Stolichnaya, Nokia, Addidas, Quicksilver and many more. He also states that graffiti is a very creative way of advertising a product. In the late 2000 companies in Lebanon were more interested in using graffiti to advertise their products as they can deliver their message across in a fast way as it is eye-catching and attractive. In addition, it is a new scene in Beirut which makes graffiti more and more acceptable.

In conclusion, the negative demonstration of graffiti in the 1990 till the late 2000 has lowered the standards of what graffiti art can become. As the times moved on and graffiti artisits got out of the political situation that they were submerged them in, they started thinking out of the box their for the abstarct and organic ideas that are shown in several commercials. Graffiti has become the art of commercial and not the rebellious thought from the outside.