Graffiti in Avlona

A graffiti project at the Detention Premises for Young Persons in Avlona

This has become personal, since one of the 23 students of the Athens School of Fine Arts who covered the 1000 m2 of the gray prison walls, was my son. This graffiti project has been given tremendous publicity, political, artistic, cultural – there is nothing more to be said about that – excellent works of street art have been produced, the prison walls have come to life!

But I want to talk as a mom, confronting my 22 year old boy, who, for 3 whole weeks, would come home in the evening exhausted. It wasn’t the unbearable heat and complete lack of shade, it wasn’t the long hours of painting, it wasn’t the confined living space with absolutely no sign of what we call “quality living”…. It was the shock of the everyday exposure to a world completely unknown to a middle class young man. The feelings rotated from sympathy towards those boys of the same age, to pity for their unjust confinement, to anger for their impenitent attitude, to rage towards the detention system for the inhuman living conditions, friendship, fear, disappointment…

I don’t agree with the motto many parents would use to say that such an experience is good for our kids because they will know what it’s like of they go astray. No, my boys know better – they don’t need the boogie man to be “law abiding citizens”. For me, this experience is the ultimate act of greatness. To overcome any personal fears and inhibitions, to give openhandedly, either it’s just a kind conversation, or the graffiti images the inmates wished for. After all, this is the view from their cells for the next years. Even if the result is not “artistically perfect”, it’s their wish.

It’s an oxymoron to say that he made friends – these are people that he won’t ever see again, but for a few days, for a moment, he touched their souls and they definitely touched him – and that is graceful!