Specific Features of Middle Eastern Street-Art

Abstract

The article focuses on the distinctive features of street-art, presented by artists from the Middle East. The origin and development of this artform in the Middle East differs from the Western one. In European countries and the United States (within the framework of Western culture) street-art was originally a way of personal self-expression, of saying «I was here», the possibility of individual opposition to the system and even its conceptual destruction. On the contrary, in the East, graffiti is characterized by a collective or communal character. It became a type of a mirror reflecting the city’s life and its inhabitants. It is believed that the first graffiti, as means of communication, an exchange of current news, appeared in Palestine. But the tradition of graffiti on walls has existed in the Middle East before. Today, many artists have been influenced by Western aesthetics and one of the modern trends in the development of street art is English-language graffiti. In this article, special attention is paid to the origins and development of Middle Eastern street-art, its message, tasks and goals, and what conceptually distinguishes it from similar art in the West. Particular emphasis is placed on one type of the street art — graffiti.