This is Athens - Polis

Visual pollution in public spaces is often linked to decay, communities out of control and lack of safety. Experience has shown that overcoming the phenomenon goes hand in hand with prosperity on a local level. At the same time, tag-free walls and facades encourage the creation of art and murals that bring colour and vibrancy in the streets. Athenians strolling the city center have very few options to relieve their fatigued eyes as tagging and posters are among the most common encounters.

This is Athens - Polis was designed to support systematic cleaning that combats tagging, combined with a community building strategy which will lead to sustainability and change of locals' relation to the public space.

Aims of the program:

Clean and maintain the Athens Commercial Triangle area.
Engage local stakeholders: organise events and small-scale interventions.
Promote art in public spaces: commission murals and art.
Coordinate various anti-tagging initiatives: create a GIS mapping which will include all the tag- and poster-free areas in the City of Athens and will work as a platform to coordinate the various anti-tagging initiatives, while also directing assigned Municipal Workers to the areas that need to be maintained tag-free.

The program runs within the framework of This is Athens & Partners, the unique public-private partnership led by the City of Athens, brings together major stakeholders including the Greek Tourism Confederation (SETE), AEGEAN, the Athens International Airport, Lampsa S.A., Lamda Development, and Ioniki Hotel Enterprises S.A., with the mandate of developing, managing and promoting Athens as an attractive year-round destination for visitors, residents, professionals, and investors, through introducing a number of wide-ranging projects. The strategic plan of This is Athens & Partners is centrally coordinated by the Athens Development and Destination Management Agency and will be implemented in collaboration with SETE's Marketing Greece and Athens Partnership.