Palimpsest of Protest
Tbilisi’s Graffiti Landscape in Spring 2025
Deutsche Fassung
Abstract
Since autumn 2024, Georgia’s capital Tbilisi has been the scene of vehement protests against the policies of the ruling party Georgian Dream. The political conflicts manifest themselves not least in hundreds of graffiti texts on the walls of buildings. They are constantly subject to change and amendment, turned to their opposite meaning, painted over by order of the authorities, and put back up. The images and slogans reflect the main themes of the political and social debates taking place within the country: imperial oppression and national resistance, relations with Russia and Ukraine, geopolitical affinities and competing narratives of history. While the protest movement is committed to militant self-assertion, pro-government forces are propagating a peace based on alignment with Russia. In the palimpsest of graffiti, older, newer, and the most recent layers of Georgia’s self-image become visible.
(Osteuropa 5/2025, pp. 45–64)