INDENTITY NARRATIVES IN THE GRAFFITIS IN CHIŞINĂU

Abstract

The post-Soviet history of Republic of Moldova is tantamount to the history of Chişinău. With almost 800 600 inhabitants, that is 22 percent of the total population of the Republic of Moldova, the city of Chişinău stands out not only as the major urban contributor to Republic of Moldova’s economy (almost 60 percent of the GDP), but also as the site of the most intense symbolic clashes and protest marches, the latter being organized by both political parties and retired people, war veterans, public clerks, journalists, students etc. However, the most prominent clashes, that have shaped the city of Chişinău in a particular way from an architectural perspective, are the identity ones. Starting with the “Twitter Revolution” (April 7–9, 2009) one could easily notice that the “identity battle” has reached a new level: from a collective and public level, coordinated by the state, to an individual level. This individual level, with collective reach and underground characteristics, is expressed by the graffiti messages. We argue that once the parades are over, fanfare silences, and public celebrations come to an end the graffiti message still keeps on the public agenda the following identity dilemma: “Who are we?” Trying to answer this question, we have focused our research on the otherness pictured by the graffiti messages in Chişinău. We have strived to find out how the identity borders drawn through public discourses over the last twenty years in the Republic of Moldova have influenced the art of unknown public artists. In doing so, we have examined the three main identity narratives articulated in the Republic of Moldova since 1991 with a focus on power mechanisms employed in order to engender identity strategies. Then, employing a processual approach to culture, we have captured the way that public identity discourses imprint on the graffiti message