Graffiti as a tool of urban environment appropriation: a study of spatial practices

The relevance of this research lies in the fact that graffiti has consistently existed and continues to exist within a legally ambiguous or outright illegal context. Consequently, there is a need to manage and regulate public spaces within cities. It is important to note that graffiti today can be created for various reasons, including personal messages (such as love letters), commercial purposes (advertisements), or as expressions of the graffiti subculture, encompassing forms like “tags”, “bombing”, “writing”, and “murals”. In all these cases, graffiti aims to communicate with an intended audience. This raises the question of who that audience is and, consequently, what limitations, if any, should be placed on it. In other words, the central question is the extent to which the spaces chosen for graffiti application are truly public. Therefore, the purpose of this study is to identify the characteristics of graffiti's spatial distribution within the urban environment. This article proposes using the concept of symbolic urban space construction to analyze this spatial localization. Following this approach, the research employs methods such as observation and mapping of graffiti. Using data collected from four administrative districts of Moscow (2241 instances of graffiti recorded in February 2022), we analyzed both the content of the graffiti and their locations. The results characterize the relationship between graffiti's placement and the issue of its perceived excessive public visibility. While many contemporary graffiti works extend beyond the boundaries of purely subcultural expression, they are often applied in spaces less frequented by the general public. This contrasts with simpler subcultural drawings and inscriptions, which are more commonly found in spaces already actively used and appropriated by the urban community.