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📆 2019-11-23 ➡️WPM ♂️🏆@ligapremaatwp📍Piscina: Sant Jordi 🔛: @cncatalunya 🆚 @waterpolomataro - @timeoutsports.cat @sports_of_our_world - Photo:©️J.Arnau/Atelier Photo - ⚪️🔵🔴 - 🔛 L'enllaç a les fotos ho podeu veure a la bio. El enlace a todas las fotos en la bio. Link to all photos in the bio. -
Dating from 1949, and now in use as the STEADFAST with Puffin Cruises, the former RNLI 'Watson' Class Lifeboat' the RNLB BERYL TOLLMACHE is pictured in Amble Harbour on May 15th 2011. It was based at the RNLI Station at Eastbourne. I first saw the STEADFAST when it was moored on the River Ouseburn, Newcastle Upon Tyne, in April 2006.
BOX DATE: 1993
MANUFACTURER: Mattel
DOLLS IN LINE: Skipper; Courtney; Kevin
BODY TYPE: 1987; articulated waist; bend & snap legs; flat feet
HEAD MOLD: 1987 "Teen Sweetheart"; pierced ears
SPECIAL FEATURES: Crimping hair
Zürich (/ˈzjʊərɪk/ ZURE-ik, German: [ˈtsyːrɪç;) is the largest city in Switzerland and the capital of the canton of Zürich. It is located in north-central Switzerland, at the northwestern tip of Lake Zürich. As of January 2023 the municipality had 443,037 inhabitants, the urban area 1.315 million (2009), and the Zürich metropolitan area 1.83 million (2011). Zürich is a hub for railways, roads, and air traffic. Both Zurich Airport and Zürich's main railway station are the largest and busiest in the country.
Permanently settled for over 2,000 years, Zürich was founded by the Romans, who called it Turicum. However, early settlements have been found dating back more than 6,400 years (although this only indicates human presence in the area and not the presence of a town that early). During the Middle Ages, Zürich gained the independent and privileged status of imperial immediacy and, in 1519, became a primary centre of the Protestant Reformation in Europe under the leadership of Huldrych Zwingli.
The official language of Zürich is German,[a] but the main spoken language is Zürich German, the local variant of the Alemannic Swiss German dialect.
Many museums and art galleries can be found in the city, including the Swiss National Museum and Kunsthaus. Schauspielhaus Zürich is generally considered to be one of the most important theatres in the German-speaking world.
As one of Switzerland's primary financial centres, Zürich is home to many financial institutions and banking companies.
History
Early history
Settlements of the Neolithic and Bronze Age were found around Lake Zürich. Traces of pre-Roman Celtic, La Tène settlements were discovered near the Lindenhof, a morainic hill dominating the SE - NW waterway constituted by Lake Zurich and the river Limmat. In Roman times, during the conquest of the alpine region in 15 BC, the Romans built a castellum on the Lindenhof. Later here was erected Turicum (a toponym of clear Celtic origin), a tax-collecting point for goods trafficked on the Limmat, which constituted part of the border between Gallia Belgica (from AD 90 Germania Superior) and Raetia: this customs point developed later into a vicus. After Emperor Constantine's reforms in AD 318, the border between Gaul and Italy (two of the four praetorian prefectures of the Roman Empire) was located east of Turicum, crossing the river Linth between Lake Walen and Lake Zürich, where a castle and garrison looked over Turicum's safety. The earliest written record of the town dates from the 2nd century, with a tombstone referring to it as the Statio Turicensis Quadragesima Galliarum ("Zürich post for collecting the 2.5% value tax of the Galliae"), discovered at the Lindenhof.
In the 5th century, the Germanic Alemanni tribe settled in the Swiss Plateau. The Roman castle remained standing until the 7th century. A Carolingian castle, built on the site of the Roman castle by the grandson of Charlemagne, Louis the German, is mentioned in 835 (in Castro Turicino iuxta fluvium Lindemaci). Louis also founded the Fraumünster abbey in 853 for his daughter Hildegard. He endowed the Benedictine convent with the lands of Zürich, Uri, and the Albis forest, and granted the convent immunity, placing it under his direct authority. In 1045, King Henry III granted the convent the right to hold markets, collect tolls, and mint coins, and thus effectively made the abbess the ruler of the city.
Zürich gained Imperial immediacy (Reichsunmittelbar, becoming an Imperial free city) in 1218 with the extinction of the main line of the Zähringer family and attained a status comparable to statehood. During the 1230s, a city wall was built, enclosing 38 hectares, when the earliest stone houses on the Rennweg were built as well. The Carolingian castle was used as a quarry, as it had started to fall into ruin.
Emperor Frederick II promoted the abbess of the Fraumünster to the rank of a duchess in 1234. The abbess nominated the mayor, and she frequently delegated the minting of coins to citizens of the city. The political power of the convent slowly waned in the 14th century, beginning with the establishment of the Zunftordnung (guild laws) in 1336 by Rudolf Brun, who also became the first independent mayor, i.e. not nominated by the abbess.
An important event in the early 14th century was the completion of the Manesse Codex, a key source of medieval German poetry. The famous illuminated manuscript – described as "the most beautifully illumined German manuscript in centuries;" – was commissioned by the Manesse family of Zürich, copied and illustrated in the city at some time between 1304 and 1340. Producing such a work was a highly expensive prestige project, requiring several years of work by highly skilled scribes and miniature painters, and it testifies to the increasing wealth and pride of Zürich citizens in this period. The work contains 6 songs by Süsskind von Trimberg, who may have been a Jew, since the work itself contains reflections on medieval Jewish life, though little is known about him.
The first mention of Jews in Zürich was in 1273. Sources show that there was a synagogue in Zürich in the 13th century, implying the existence of a Jewish community. With the rise of the Black Death in 1349, Zürich, like most other Swiss cities, responded by persecuting and burning the local Jews, marking the end of the first Jewish community there. The second Jewish community of Zürich formed towards the end of the 14th century, was short-lived, and Jews were expulsed and banned from the city from 1423 until the 19th century.
Archaeological findings
A woman who died in about 200 BC was found buried in a carved tree trunk during a construction project at the Kern school complex in March 2017 in Aussersihl. Archaeologists revealed that she was approximately 40 years old when she died and likely carried out little physical labor when she was alive. A sheepskin coat, a belt chain, a fancy wool dress, a scarf, and a pendant made of glass and amber beads were also discovered with the woman.
Old Swiss Confederacy
On 1 May 1351, the citizens of Zürich had to swear allegiance before representatives of the cantons of Lucerne, Schwyz, Uri and Unterwalden, the other members of the Swiss Confederacy. Thus, Zürich became the fifth member of the Confederacy, which was at that time a loose confederation of de facto independent states. Zürich was the presiding canton of the Diet from 1468 to 1519. This authority was the executive council and lawmaking body of the confederacy, from the Middle Ages until the establishment of the Swiss federal state in 1848. Zürich was temporarily expelled from the confederacy in 1440 due to a war with the other member states over the territory of Toggenburg (the Old Zürich War). Neither side had attained significant victory when peace was agreed upon in 1446, and Zürich was readmitted to the confederation in 1450.
Zwingli started the Swiss Reformation at the time when he was the main preacher at the Grossmünster in 1519. The Zürich Bible was printed by Christoph Froschauer in 1531. The Reformation resulted in major changes in state matters and civil life in Zürich, spreading also to several other cantons. Several cantons remained Catholic and became the basis of serious conflicts that eventually led to the outbreak of the Wars of Kappel.
During the 16th and 17th centuries, the Council of Zürich adopted an isolationist attitude, resulting in a second ring of imposing fortifications built in 1624. The Thirty Years' War which raged across Europe motivated the city to build these walls. The fortifications required a lot of resources, which were taken from subject territories without reaching any agreement. The following revolts were crushed brutally. In 1648, Zürich proclaimed itself a republic, shedding its former status of a free imperial city. In this time the political system of Zürich was an oligarchy (Patriziat): the dominant families of the city were the following ones: Bonstetten, Brun, Bürkli, Escher vom Glas, Escher vom Luchs, Hirzel, Jori (or von Jori), Kilchsperger, Landenberg, Manesse, Meiss, Meyer von Knonau, Mülner, von Orelli.
The Helvetic Revolution of 1798 saw the fall of the Ancien Régime. Zürich lost control of the land and its economic privileges, and the city and the canton separated their possessions between 1803 and 1805. In 1839, the city had to yield to the demands of its urban subjects, following the Züriputsch of 6 September. Most of the ramparts built in the 17th century were torn down, without ever having been besieged, to allay rural concerns over the city's hegemony. The Treaty of Zürich between Austria, France, and Sardinia was signed in 1859.
Modern history
Zürich was the Federal capital for 1839–40, and consequently, the victory of the Conservative party there in 1839 caused a great stir throughout Switzerland. But when in 1845 the Radicals regained power at Zürich, which was again the Federal capital for 1845–46, Zürich took the lead in opposing the Sonderbund cantons. Following the Sonderbund War and the formation of the Swiss Federal State, Zürich voted in favor of the Federal constitutions of 1848 and 1874. The enormous immigration from the country districts into the town from the 1830s onwards created an industrial class which, though "settled" in the town, did not possess the privileges of burghership, and consequently had no share in the municipal government. First of all in 1860 the town schools, hitherto open to "settlers" only on paying high fees, were made accessible to all, next in 1875 ten years' residence ipso facto conferred the right of burghership, and in 1893 the eleven outlying districts were incorporated within the town proper.
When Jews began to settle in Zürich following their equality in 1862, the Israelitische Cultusgemeinde Zürich was founded.
Extensive developments took place during the 19th century. From 1847, the Spanisch-Brötli-Bahn, the first railway on Swiss territory, connected Zürich with Baden, putting the Zürich Hauptbahnhof at the origin of the Swiss rail network. The present building of the Hauptbahnhof (the main railway station) dates to 1871. Zürich's Bahnhofstrasse (Station Street) was laid out in 1867, and the Zürich Stock Exchange was founded in 1877. Industrialisation led to migration into the cities and to rapid population growth, particularly in the suburbs of Zürich.
The Quaianlagen are an important milestone in the development of the modern city of Zürich, as the construction of the new lakefront transformed Zürich from a small medieval town on the rivers Limmat and Sihl to a modern city on the Zürichsee shore, under the guidance of the city engineer Arnold Bürkli.
In 1893, the twelve outlying districts were incorporated into Zürich, including Aussersihl, the workman's quarter on the left bank of the Sihl, and additional land was reclaimed from Lake Zürich.
In 1934, eight additional districts in the north and west of Zürich were incorporated.
Zürich was accidentally bombed during World War II. As persecuted Jews sought refuge in Switzerland, the SIG (Schweizerischer Israelitischer Gemeindebund, Israelite Community of Switzerland) raised financial resources. The Central Committee for Refugee Aid, created in 1933, was located in Zürich.
The canton of Zürich did not recognize the Jewish religious communities as legal entities (and therefore as equal to national churches) until 2005.
Geography
Zürich is situated at 408 m (1,339 ft) above sea level on the lower (northern) end of Lake Zürich (Zürichsee) about 30 km (19 mi) north of the Alps, nestling between the wooded hills on the west and east side. The Old Town stretches on both sides of the Limmat, which flows from the lake, running northwards at first and then gradually turning into a curve to the west. The geographic (and historic) centre of the city is the Lindenhof, a small natural hill on the west bank of the Limmat, about 700 m (2,300 ft) north of where the river issues from Lake Zürich. Today the incorporated city stretches somewhat beyond the natural confines of the hills and includes some districts to the northeast in the Glatt Valley (Glattal) and to the north in the Limmat Valley (Limmattal). The boundaries of the older city are easy to recognize by the Schanzengraben canal. This artificial watercourse has been used for the construction of the third fortress in the 17th and 18th centuries.
Quality of living
Zürich often performs very well in international rankings, some of which are mentioned below:
Monocle's 2012 "Quality of Life Survey" ranked Zürich first on a list of the top 25 cities in the world "to make a base within". In 2019 Zürich was ranked among the ten most liveable cities in the world by Mercer together with Geneva and Basel.
In fDi Magazine's "Global Cities of the Future 2021/22" report, Zürich placed 16th in the overall rankings (all categories). In the category "Mid-sized and small cities", Zürich was 2nd overall, behind Wroclaw, having also placed 2nd in the subcategory "Human capital and lifestyle" and 3rd under "Business friendliness". In the category "FDI strategy, overall" (relating to foreign direct investment), Zürich ranked 9th, behind such cities as New York, Montreal (1st and 2nd) and Dubai (at number 8).
Main sites
Most of Zürich's sites are located within the area on either side of the Limmat, between the Main railway station and Lake Zürich. The churches and houses of the old town are clustered here, as are the most expensive shops along the famous Bahnhofstrasse. The Lindenhof in the old town is the historical site of the Roman castle, and the later Carolingian Imperial Palace.
(Wikpedia)
Zürich (zürichdeutsch Züri [ˈt͡sʏ̞rɪ, ˈt͡sʏrɪ, ˈt͡sy̞rɪ],[6] französisch Zurich [zyʁik], italienisch Zurigo [tsuˈriːɡo, dzu-], Rumantsch Grischun Turitg) ist eine schweizerische Stadt, politische Gemeinde sowie Hauptort des gleichnamigen Kantons.
Die Stadt Zürich ist mit 427'721 Einwohnern (Stand 31. Dezember 2022) die grösste Stadt der Schweiz und weist eine Bevölkerungsdichte von 4655 Einwohnern pro Quadratkilometer auf. Das Umland ist dicht besiedelt, so dass in der Agglomeration Zürich etwa 1,3 Millionen und in der Metropolitanregion Zürich etwa 1,83 Millionen Menschen leben. Der Bezirk Zürich ist mit dem Stadtgebiet identisch.
Die Stadt liegt im östlichen Schweizer Mittelland, an der Limmat am Ausfluss des Zürichsees. Ihre Einwohner werden Zürcher genannt (bzw. Stadtzürcher zur Differenzierung von den übrigen Einwohnern des Kantons).
Das aus der römischen Siedlung Turicum entstandene Zürich wurde 1262 freie Reichsstadt und 1351 Mitglied der Eidgenossenschaft. Die Stadt des Reformators Huldrych Zwingli wurde 1519 zum zweitwichtigsten (nach Wittenberg) Zentrum der Reformation. Bis heute gilt sie als Ausgangspunkt der weltweiten reformierten Kirche und der Täufer. Die Stadt erlebte im Industriezeitalter ihren Aufstieg zur heutigen Wirtschaftsmetropole der Schweiz.
Mit ihrem Hauptbahnhof, dem grössten Bahnhof der Schweiz, und dem Flughafen (auf dem Gebiet der Gemeinde Kloten) ist die Stadt Zürich ein kontinentaler Verkehrsknotenpunkt. Aufgrund der ansässigen Grossbanken (u. a. UBS, der Zürcher Kantonalbank und Credit Suisse) und Versicherungen (Zurich Insurance Group und Swiss Re) ist sie ein internationaler Finanzplatz und der grösste Finanzplatz der Schweiz, gefolgt von Genf und Lugano. Daneben beherbergt die Stadt mit der Eidgenössischen Technischen Hochschule Zürich und der Universität Zürich die zwei grössten universitären Hochschulen der Schweiz. Trotz der vergleichsweise geringen Einwohnerzahl wird Zürich zu den Weltstädten gezählt. Zürich ist das wichtigste Zentrum der Schweizer Medien- und Kreativbranche. Mit seiner Lage am Zürichsee, seiner gut erhaltenen mittelalterlichen Altstadt und einem vielseitigen Kulturangebot und Nachtleben ist es zudem ein Zentrum des Tourismus.
Seit Jahren wird Zürich neben Basel und Genf als eine der Städte mit der weltweit höchsten Lebensqualität und zugleich neben Genf mit den höchsten Lebenshaltungskosten weltweit gelistet. Zürich ist nach Monaco und Genf die Stadt mit der dritthöchsten Millionärsdichte weltweit.
Geografie
Zürich liegt auf 408 m ü. M. am unteren (nördlichen) Ende des Zürichsees im Tal der Limmat und im unteren Tal der Sihl, eingebettet zwischen den Höhen von Uetliberg im Westen und Zürichberg im Osten. Die Limmat entspringt dem See, während die westlich des Sees fliessende Sihl nördlich der Zürcher Altstadt beim Platzspitz in die Limmat mündet. Die Altstadt erstreckt sich beidseits der Limmat, die zunächst nordwärts fliesst und dann in einem Bogen allmählich nach Westen abbiegt.
Die einstige Stadt reichte nicht bis zur Sihl, sondern hatte als westliche Abgrenzung den im 17. und 18. Jahrhundert angelegten Schanzengraben. Damals wurde Wasser aus dem See abgeleitet und in einem Graben ausserhalb der Bastionen und Bollwerke zur Limmat geführt. Noch früher erstreckte sich die Stadt im Westen nur bis zum Fröschengraben, der ungefähr parallel zur Limmat verlief. Dieser Graben wurde 1864 zugeschüttet, um Raum für den Bau der Bahnhofstrasse zu schaffen, die vom heutigen Paradeplatz bis zum Rennweg dem Verlauf des einstigen Grabens folgt.
Geschichte
Frühgeschichte, Mittelalter und ältere Neuzeit
Im Unterschied zu den meisten anderen Schweizer Grossstädten stieg Zürich im Frühmittelalter in den Rang einer Stadt auf. In Turīcum gab es zwar bereits zur Römerzeit eine Zollstation, ein hadrianisches Heiligtum auf dem Grossen Hafner im untersten Seebecken beim Ausfluss der Limmat und ein Kastell, die zugehörige Siedlung kann aber noch nicht als Stadt bezeichnet werden. Das frühmittelalterliche, alemannische Zürich war eng verbunden mit dem Herzogtum Schwaben und zwei bedeutenden geistlichen Stiftungen der deutschen Könige, dem Grossmünster und dem Fraumünster, die dem Kult um die Stadtpatrone Felix und Regula geweiht waren. Nach dem Zerfall der zentralen Gewalt im Herzogtum Schwaben und dem Aussterben der Zähringer 1218 konnte sich Zürich den Status der Reichsunmittelbarkeit sichern; 1262 wurde auch die Reichsfreiheit der Bürgerschaft ausdrücklich bestätigt. Der Titel einer Reichsstadt bedeutete de facto die Unabhängigkeit der Stadt. De jure löste sich Zürich jedoch erst 1648 von der Oberhoheit des Kaisers des Heiligen Römischen Reiches.
Im Spätmittelalter erwarb und eroberte Zürich in seinem Umland bedeutende Territorien, die der Stadt bis 1798 politisch untergeordnet waren (siehe Territoriale Entwicklung Zürichs). Im Innern wurden die Geschicke Zürichs seit der Zunftrevolution durch Bürgermeister Rudolf Brun im Jahr 1336 durch den Stadtadel und die Handwerkervereinigungen (Zünfte) gemeinsam geleitet (Brunsche Zunftverfassung). Brun war auch verantwortlich für den Überfall von Rapperswil. 1351 schloss sich Zürich zur Sicherung seiner Unabhängigkeit gegen das aufstrebende süddeutsche Adelsgeschlecht der Habsburger der schweizerischen Eidgenossenschaft an und wurde zusammen mit Bern zum Vorort dieses Staatenbundes.
Der wohl bis heute wichtigste Beitrag Zürichs zur Weltgeschichte war die Reformation von Huldrych Zwingli. Unter seiner geistigen Führung wurde seit 1519 Zürich zum reformierten Rom an der Limmat. Die Zürcher Bibel, eine der ersten deutschen Bibelübersetzungen, entstand in der Prophezei unter Zwingli, Leo Jud und weiteren Mitarbeitern 1524 bis 1525 und wurde vom Zürcher Buchdrucker Christoph Froschauer zuerst in Teilen und später als ganze Bibel herausgegeben.
Die Täuferbewegung nahm ihren Ausgangspunkt ab 1523 in Zürich unter Führung von Konrad Grebel, Felix Manz, Jörg Blaurock, Balthasar Hubmaier und weiteren Personen, die sich von Zwingli trennten und kurz darauf verfolgt und gefangen genommen wurden. Im Januar 1527 wurde Felix Manz in der Limmat ertränkt, viele Täufer flüchteten nach Schaffhausen oder ins Zürcher Oberland.
Heinrich Bullinger 1531–1575 und Rudolf Gwalther 1575–1586 konsolidierten als Antistes und Nachfolger von Zwingli die Reformation in Zürich und pflegten zahlreiche Kontakte europaweit. Während ihrer Zeit wurden viele evangelische Flüchtlinge aus dem Tessin, Italien, Frankreich und England aufgenommen. Diese trugen in der Folge durch Handwerk, Produktion noch unbekannter Textilien und Handel wesentlich zum wirtschaftlichen Gedeihen Zürichs bei.[38][39][40]
Zur Zeit der Hexenverfolgungen wurden in Zürich von 1487 bis 1701 Hexenprozesse gegen 79 Personen geführt. Im Hexenprozess 1701 wurden acht Menschen aus Wasterkingen wegen angeblicher Hexerei verurteilt. Regierungspräsident Markus Notter und Kirchenratspräsident Ruedi Reich verurteilten 2001 diese Justizmorde.
18. und 19. Jahrhundert
Das Zürich des 18. Jahrhunderts galt als «das grösste Rätsel deutscher Geistesgeschichte». Trotz relativ geringer Bevölkerungszahl entwickelte sich rund um Johann Jakob Bodmer neben dem wissenschaftlichen auch ein literarisches Zürich mit entscheidenden Beiträgen zur deutschen Literaturgeschichte.
Mit dem Untergang der freien Republik der Stadt Zürich nach dem Einmarsch der Franzosen in die Schweiz ging die Stadt zusammen mit dem ehemaligen Untertanenland im neuen Kanton Zürich auf, dessen Hauptort sie wurde. Im beginnenden 19. Jahrhundert kam es zwar zu einer Restauration der städtischen Vorherrschaft im Kanton, die jedoch von kurzer Dauer war.
Der Aufstieg Zürichs zum wirtschaftlichen Zentrum der Schweiz begann bereits mit der Textilindustrie im 18. und 19. Jahrhundert. Unter der politischen und wirtschaftlichen Führung der Liberalen, insbesondere von Alfred Escher, wurde die führende Rolle Zürichs ab 1846 durch die Gründung von zahlreichen Banken und Versicherungen auch auf den Finanz- und Dienstleistungssektor ausgedehnt. Seit dem Niedergang der Zürcher Industrie in der Nachkriegszeit hat die Bedeutung dieses Sektors noch zugenommen.
In den Jahren 1855 und 1867 starben in der Stadt Zürich in Folge prekärer hygienischer Verhältnisse in vielen Wohnungen ca. 500 Menschen an Cholera. 1867 wurde mit dem Bau einer Kanalisation begonnen. 1884 brach Typhus aus.
In der zweiten Hälfte des 19. Jahrhunderts begann ein bis in die 1970er Jahre andauernder Bauboom, der Zürich von einer Kleinstadt zur Grossstadt mit all ihren Problemen wachsen liess. Das stürmische Wachstum beschränkte sich zuerst auf einen Um- und Neubau des Zentrums und erfasste zunehmend die umliegenden ländlichen Gemeinden. In zwei Eingemeindungswellen wurden 1893 und 1934 20 Landgemeinden mit der alten Stadtgemeinde zusammengefasst. Die Errichtung eines «Millionenzürich» scheiterte jedoch bis heute. Während nämlich ursprünglich die Finanzstärke der Stadt bzw. die leeren Kassen der Vororte Motor der freiwilligen Stadterweiterungen waren, sind heute die verbleibenden Vororte finanziell eher besser gestellt als die Stadt. Dies schlägt sich insbesondere in den Steuersätzen nieder.
Zwei ausgeprägte Wachstumswellen in den Jahren 1888–1910 sowie 1950–1970 entstanden durch Zuzüger aus dem Ausland. Im Jahr 1912 waren die Bewohner Zürichs zu einem Drittel Ausländer, und Zürich war wie ein grosser Teil der Deutschschweiz im Vorfeld des Ersten Weltkriegs deutschfreundlich, wobei Hochdeutsch zu sprechen in gehobenen Kreisen zum guten Ton gehörte.
20. Jahrhundert
In der ersten Hälfte des 20. Jahrhunderts stand Zürich politisch im Bann der Arbeiterbewegung. Schon vor dem Landesstreik 1918 war in Zürich die Konfrontation zwischen Bürgertum und Arbeiterschaft besonders heftig ausgefallen, da Zürich grosse Industriebetriebe mit tausenden von Arbeitern aufwies und zugleich eine Hochburg des Grossbürgertums war. Als 1928 die Sozialdemokratische Partei unter der Führung von David Farbstein erstmals eine absolute Mehrheit in Stadtrat (Exekutive) und Gemeinderat (Legislative) erlangte, wurde in der Zwischenkriegszeit das Rote Zürich zu einem Aushängeschild für die Regierungsfähigkeit der Sozialdemokratie. Trotzdem wurde gerade in Zürich 1939 die als Landi bekannt gewordene Landesausstellung zu einem Symbol für den Zusammenhalt und den Widerstandswillen der Schweiz im Zeichen der Geistigen Landesverteidigung gegen Hitlerdeutschland. Schliesslich wurde 1943 der Zürcher Stadtpräsident Ernst Nobs als erster Sozialdemokrat in den Bundesrat gewählt. In der Nachkriegszeit blieb Zürich Sammelbecken und Bühne für Protestbewegungen, wie 1968 anlässlich der Globus-Krawalle und 1980 für die Jugendunruhen. Noch heute ist der 1. Mai in Zürich jährlich von Auseinandersetzungen des autonomen «Schwarzen Blockes» mit der Polizei gekennzeichnet.
Ein Problem der Stadt war lange auch die offene Drogenszene. In der Mitte der 1980er Jahre wurde der Platzspitz weltweit als Needlepark bekannt. Er wurde am 5. Februar 1992 zwangsgeräumt und abgeriegelt, daraufhin verschob sich die Drogenszene an den stillgelegten Bahnhof Letten.
Das Areal des stillgelegten Bahnhofs Letten bot ab 1992 die Kulisse für die grösste offene Drogenszene Europas. Mehrere tausend Drogenabhängige aus dem In- und Ausland lebten hier oder besorgten sich ihren Stoff. Hundertschaften von Polizisten nahmen des Öfteren in der Anwesenheit von Kamerateams Razzien vor und versuchten so den Markt auszutrocknen. Diese Versuche blieben erfolglos und so wurde der Letten am 14. Februar 1995 polizeilich geräumt. Auswärtige Drogenabhängige wurden grösstenteils an ihre Herkunftsgemeinden respektive Wohnortgemeinden zurückgeführt, ausländische Abhängige zwangsausgeschafft. Die Reste der Drogenszene verlagerten sich zunehmend ins Gebiet entlang der Langstrasse. Zur Entschärfung der Situation trug dabei sehr stark der Versuch der staatlichen Heroinabgabe bei, so dass sich nicht umgehend eine neue Szene bildete. Heute ist die staatliche, ärztlich kontrollierte Drogenabgabe gesetzlich verankert und vom Volk per Referendum abgesegnet.
Die Langstrasse ist ein Zentrum des Zürcher Nachtlebens. Seit der Auflösung der offenen Drogenszenen wurde das Viertel zur Jahrtausendwende hin zum Zentrum des Drogenhandels. Die Kriminalitätsrate im Langstrassenquartier ist zwar weiterhin verhältnismässig hoch, jedoch verbesserte sich die Situation aufgrund verschiedener Projekte der öffentlichen Hand. Heute hat sich die Situation stabilisiert und der Stadtteil ist zu einer festen Grösse im Kultur- und Nachtleben Zürichs geworden. Nach wie vor ist die Stadt Anziehungspunkt für Drogenkonsumenten aus den benachbarten Kantonen.
Gegenwart
In den 1980er Jahren war Zürich in einem Teufelskreis zwischen der Nachfrage nach mehr Bürofläche in der Innenstadt, der Stadtflucht und der drohenden Verslumung ganzer Stadtkreise wegen der Drogenprobleme gefangen. Massnahmen zur Attraktivitätssteigerung der Innenstadt wie die Verkehrsbefreiung des Niederdorfs konnten nicht verhindern, dass die Innenstadt Zürichs immer unattraktiver wurde. Veränderungen schienen unmöglich – 1986 brachte die damalige Baudirektorin Ursula Koch mit ihrem berühmtgewordenen Satz «Zürich ist gebaut» die Perspektivlosigkeit der Politik in Bezug auf die weitere Zukunft Zürichs zum Ausdruck. Erst Mitte der 1990er Jahre konnte die Blockade überwunden werden, zuerst durch eine neue Bau- und Zonenordnung 1996 und die Liberalisierung des Gastgewerbegesetzes 1997. Besonders letzteres wirkte enorm belebend auf das Nachtleben Zürichs und liess innerhalb kürzester Zeit unzählige neue und innovative Restaurants, Bars und Diskotheken aus dem Boden schiessen. 1998 konnte unter dem neuen Baudirektor Elmar Ledergerber (von 2002 bis April 2009 Stadtpräsident) die jahrelang nur langsam vorankommende Neugestaltung der Industriebrachen in Zürich-West und in Oerlikon beschleunigt werden, so dass sich bis heute an beiden Standorten trendige und moderne neue Stadtquartiere entwickeln konnten. Bis 2020 entsteht westlich des Hauptbahnhofs das neue Quartier Europaallee.
Im Tourismusbereich trat Zürich in den 2000er Jahren (bis 2011) mit dem Zusatz «Downtown Switzerland» auf.
Wirtschaft
Zürich gilt als das Wirtschaftszentrum der Schweiz. Der gesamte Wirtschaftsraum in und um Zürich wird auch als Greater Zurich Area bezeichnet. International zeichnet er sich insbesondere durch tiefe Steuersätze und eine hohe Lebensqualität aus, weshalb einige internationale Konzerne einen Sitz in Zürich haben. 2018 waren 5,4 % der Bevölkerung Millionäre (gerechnet in US-Dollar). Zürich ist damit, hinter Monaco und Genf, die Stadt mit der dritthöchsten Millionärsdichte weltweit. Aufgrund ihrer internationalen wirtschaftlichen Bedeutung wird die Stadt Zürich oft zu den Global- bzw. Weltstädten gezählt.
Die Wirtschaft ist sehr stark auf den Dienstleistungssektor ausgerichtet, in dem knapp 90 % der Zürcher Beschäftigten tätig sind. Im Industriesektor sind rund 10 % tätig und in der Landwirtschaft sind es heute weniger als 1 %. Bei einer erwerbstätigen Wohnbevölkerung von 200'110 (Stand: Volkszählung 2000) weist die Stadt 318'543 Arbeitsplätze vor. Die Mehrheit der Beschäftigten (56 %) waren Pendler aus anderen Gemeinden. Neben den rund 178'000 Zupendelnden gibt es rund 39'000 aus der Stadt Wegpendelnde.
Der wichtigste Wirtschaftszweig in Zürich ist der Finanzdienstleistungssektor, der am Paradeplatz sein Zentrum hat. Die beiden bis 2023 selbständigen Grossbanken UBS, die weltweit grösste Vermögensverwalterin, und Credit Suisse, die Schweizerische Nationalbank, die Zürcher Kantonalbank, die traditionsreiche Privatbank Julius Bär sowie etliche kleinere Bankinstitute haben ihren Sitz in der Stadt. Auch über 100 Auslandbanken sind in Zürich vertreten. Auf dem Bankenplatz Zürich sind rund 45'000 Personen beschäftigt, knapp die Hälfte aller Bankangestellten der Schweiz. Eine grosse Bedeutung hat das Privatkundengeschäft, da über 25 % der weltweit grenzüberschreitend angelegten Vermögenswerte in Zürich verwaltet werden (schweizweit sind es rund ein Drittel). Die schweizerische Post betrieb von 1920 bis 1996 in Zürich ein Rohrpostsystem, zu deren diskreten Kunden auch die Banken zählten. Auch die Börse SIX Swiss Exchange spielt international eine wesentliche Rolle und verstärkt die Bedeutung des Finanzplatzes Zürich. Sie gehört zu den technologisch führenden Börsen der Welt. Im Weiteren repräsentiert Zürich weltweit den drittgrössten Versicherungsmarkt. Swiss Re, eine der weltweit grössten Rückversicherungen, und Swiss Life, der grösste Lebensversicherungskonzern der Schweiz, haben ihre Hauptsitze in Zürich. Eine weitere Versicherungsgesellschaft von internationaler Bedeutung ist die Zurich Insurance Group. Der gesamte Finanzdienstleistungssektor generiert nahezu 50 % der Steuereinnahmen der Stadt Zürich.
Als zweitwichtigster Wirtschaftszweig folgen die unternehmensbezogenen Dienstleistungen wie Rechts- und Unternehmensberatung, Informatik oder Immobilienverwaltung. Zu erwähnen ist etwa das Unternehmen IBM Schweiz, das in Rüschlikon ein bedeutendes Forschungslabor betreibt. Seit 2004 betreibt zudem Google in Zürich das europäische Forschungszentrum. Auf dem ehemaligen Areal der Hürlimann AG wurde der zweitgrösste Standort des Unternehmens nach Mountain View eingerichtet.
Infolge des Strukturwandels hat die Bedeutung der produzierenden Industrie und der Bauwirtschaft abgenommen. Allerdings haben immer noch bedeutende Industriefirmen Niederlassungen in der Stadt Zürich, so zum Beispiel Siemens. Der Elektrotechnikkonzern ABB hat zudem seinen Hauptsitz in Zürich.
Aus den übrigen Wirtschaftszweigen sind insbesondere zu erwähnen: der grösste Schweizer Detailhandelskonzern Migros, der weltgrösste Schokoladenproduzent Barry Callebaut, die beiden grössten Automobilhändler AMAG-Gruppe und Emil Frey Gruppe, sowie der grösste Schweizer Reisekonzern Kuoni.
Nicht zuletzt dank der kulturellen Vielfalt in Zürich ist auch der Tourismus in den letzten Jahren ein bedeutender Wirtschaftsfaktor geworden. Jedes Jahr empfängt die Stadt Zürich rund neun Millionen Tagestouristen sowie zwei Millionen Übernachtungsgäste, von denen sich eine Mehrheit auch geschäftlich in Zürich aufhält.
Lebensqualität
Zürich galt bis zum Jahr 2008 siebenmal in Folge als Stadt mit der höchsten Lebensqualität weltweit. In der Studie «Worldwide Quality of Living Survey» («Studie zur weltweiten Lebensqualität») untersuchte die renommierte Beratungsfirma Mercer 215 Grossstädte anhand von 39 Kriterien, darunter Freizeit, Erholung, Sicherheit, Sauberkeit, politische und ökonomische Stabilität, sowie medizinische Versorgung. Seit 2009 rangiert Zürich neu an zweiter Stelle hinter Wien. Zudem wird Zürich als eine der Städte mit den weltweit höchsten Lebenshaltungskosten gelistet.
In einer Studie der Globalization and World Cities Research Group an der britischen Universität Loughborough landete Zürich in der Kategorie der Beta-Weltstädte auf dem ersten Rang, zusammen mit San Francisco, Sydney und Toronto.
Zürich besitzt die Auszeichnung Energiestadt Gold für eine nachhaltige Energiepolitik. Die offiziellen Gebäude im Eigentum der Stadt Zürich werden in der Regel nach Minergie gebaut.
Um die Lebensqualität für Geringverdiener im Hinblick auf den Wohnungsmarkt zu verbessern, hat die Stadt Zürich die Stiftungen Wohnungen für kinderreiche Familien und Alterswohnungen der Stadt Zürich gegründet.
Kunst, Kultur und Tourismus
Allgemeine Sehenswürdigkeiten
Die meisten Sehenswürdigkeiten Zürichs sind in und um die Altstadt gruppiert und deswegen am einfachsten zu Fuss oder mit kurzen Fahrten in Tram oder Bus erreichbar. Neben Gebäuden und Denkmälern ist auch die Lage Zürichs am Zürichsee einen Blick wert. Am Bellevue oder am Bürkliplatz bietet sich bei gutem Wetter ein schöner Blick auf den See und die Alpen. Beide Seeufer mit ihren Promenaden und Parkanlagen sind dann jeweils Anziehungspunkte für viele Einheimische und Touristen.
Der Zürcher Hausberg Uetliberg ist mit der Sihltal-Zürich-Uetliberg-Bahn (SZU) zu erreichen, die ab dem Hauptbahnhof verkehrt.
(Wikipedia)
A couple dating in a park on a Sunday day. Due to strict and conservative moral in Indian society couples have difficulties in seeing each other in an intimate place.
Graffiti (plural; singular graffiti or graffito, the latter rarely used except in archeology) is art that is written, painted or drawn on a wall or other surface, usually without permission and within public view. Graffiti ranges from simple written words to elaborate wall paintings, and has existed since ancient times, with examples dating back to ancient Egypt, ancient Greece, and the Roman Empire (see also mural).
Graffiti is a controversial subject. In most countries, marking or painting property without permission is considered by property owners and civic authorities as defacement and vandalism, which is a punishable crime, citing the use of graffiti by street gangs to mark territory or to serve as an indicator of gang-related activities. Graffiti has become visualized as a growing urban "problem" for many cities in industrialized nations, spreading from the New York City subway system and Philadelphia in the early 1970s to the rest of the United States and Europe and other world regions
"Graffiti" (usually both singular and plural) and the rare singular form "graffito" are from the Italian word graffiato ("scratched"). The term "graffiti" is used in art history for works of art produced by scratching a design into a surface. A related term is "sgraffito", which involves scratching through one layer of pigment to reveal another beneath it. This technique was primarily used by potters who would glaze their wares and then scratch a design into them. In ancient times graffiti were carved on walls with a sharp object, although sometimes chalk or coal were used. The word originates from Greek γράφειν—graphein—meaning "to write".
The term graffiti originally referred to the inscriptions, figure drawings, and such, found on the walls of ancient sepulchres or ruins, as in the Catacombs of Rome or at Pompeii. Historically, these writings were not considered vanadlism, which today is considered part of the definition of graffiti.
The only known source of the Safaitic language, an ancient form of Arabic, is from graffiti: inscriptions scratched on to the surface of rocks and boulders in the predominantly basalt desert of southern Syria, eastern Jordan and northern Saudi Arabia. Safaitic dates from the first century BC to the fourth century AD.
Some of the oldest cave paintings in the world are 40,000 year old ones found in Australia. The oldest written graffiti was found in ancient Rome around 2500 years ago. Most graffiti from the time was boasts about sexual experiences Graffiti in Ancient Rome was a form of communication, and was not considered vandalism.
Ancient tourists visiting the 5th-century citadel at Sigiriya in Sri Lanka write their names and commentary over the "mirror wall", adding up to over 1800 individual graffiti produced there between the 6th and 18th centuries. Most of the graffiti refer to the frescoes of semi-nude females found there. One reads:
Wet with cool dew drops
fragrant with perfume from the flowers
came the gentle breeze
jasmine and water lily
dance in the spring sunshine
side-long glances
of the golden-hued ladies
stab into my thoughts
heaven itself cannot take my mind
as it has been captivated by one lass
among the five hundred I have seen here.
Among the ancient political graffiti examples were Arab satirist poems. Yazid al-Himyari, an Umayyad Arab and Persian poet, was most known for writing his political poetry on the walls between Sajistan and Basra, manifesting a strong hatred towards the Umayyad regime and its walis, and people used to read and circulate them very widely.
Graffiti, known as Tacherons, were frequently scratched on Romanesque Scandinavian church walls. When Renaissance artists such as Pinturicchio, Raphael, Michelangelo, Ghirlandaio, or Filippino Lippi descended into the ruins of Nero's Domus Aurea, they carved or painted their names and returned to initiate the grottesche style of decoration.
There are also examples of graffiti occurring in American history, such as Independence Rock, a national landmark along the Oregon Trail.
Later, French soldiers carved their names on monuments during the Napoleonic campaign of Egypt in the 1790s. Lord Byron's survives on one of the columns of the Temple of Poseidon at Cape Sounion in Attica, Greece.
The oldest known example of graffiti "monikers" found on traincars created by hobos and railworkers since the late 1800s. The Bozo Texino monikers were documented by filmmaker Bill Daniel in his 2005 film, Who is Bozo Texino?.
In World War II, an inscription on a wall at the fortress of Verdun was seen as an illustration of the US response twice in a generation to the wrongs of the Old World:
During World War II and for decades after, the phrase "Kilroy was here" with an accompanying illustration was widespread throughout the world, due to its use by American troops and ultimately filtering into American popular culture. Shortly after the death of Charlie Parker (nicknamed "Yardbird" or "Bird"), graffiti began appearing around New York with the words "Bird Lives".
Modern graffiti art has its origins with young people in 1960s and 70s in New York City and Philadelphia. Tags were the first form of stylised contemporary graffiti. Eventually, throw-ups and pieces evolved with the desire to create larger art. Writers used spray paint and other kind of materials to leave tags or to create images on the sides subway trains. and eventually moved into the city after the NYC metro began to buy new trains and paint over graffiti.
While the art had many advocates and appreciators—including the cultural critic Norman Mailer—others, including New York City mayor Ed Koch, considered it to be defacement of public property, and saw it as a form of public blight. The ‘taggers’ called what they did ‘writing’—though an important 1974 essay by Mailer referred to it using the term ‘graffiti.’
Contemporary graffiti style has been heavily influenced by hip hop culture and the myriad international styles derived from Philadelphia and New York City Subway graffiti; however, there are many other traditions of notable graffiti in the twentieth century. Graffiti have long appeared on building walls, in latrines, railroad boxcars, subways, and bridges.
An early graffito outside of New York or Philadelphia was the inscription in London reading "Clapton is God" in reference to the guitarist Eric Clapton. Creating the cult of the guitar hero, the phrase was spray-painted by an admirer on a wall in an Islington, north London in the autumn of 1967. The graffito was captured in a photograph, in which a dog is urinating on the wall.
Films like Style Wars in the 80s depicting famous writers such as Skeme, Dondi, MinOne, and ZEPHYR reinforced graffiti's role within New York's emerging hip-hop culture. Although many officers of the New York City Police Department found this film to be controversial, Style Wars is still recognized as the most prolific film representation of what was going on within the young hip hop culture of the early 1980s. Fab 5 Freddy and Futura 2000 took hip hop graffiti to Paris and London as part of the New York City Rap Tour in 1983
Commercialization and entrance into mainstream pop culture
Main article: Commercial graffiti
With the popularity and legitimization of graffiti has come a level of commercialization. In 2001, computer giant IBM launched an advertising campaign in Chicago and San Francisco which involved people spray painting on sidewalks a peace symbol, a heart, and a penguin (Linux mascot), to represent "Peace, Love, and Linux." IBM paid Chicago and San Francisco collectively US$120,000 for punitive damages and clean-up costs.
In 2005, a similar ad campaign was launched by Sony and executed by its advertising agency in New York, Chicago, Atlanta, Philadelphia, Los Angeles, and Miami, to market its handheld PSP gaming system. In this campaign, taking notice of the legal problems of the IBM campaign, Sony paid building owners for the rights to paint on their buildings "a collection of dizzy-eyed urban kids playing with the PSP as if it were a skateboard, a paddle, or a rocking horse".
Tristan Manco wrote that Brazil "boasts a unique and particularly rich, graffiti scene ... [earning] it an international reputation as the place to go for artistic inspiration". Graffiti "flourishes in every conceivable space in Brazil's cities". Artistic parallels "are often drawn between the energy of São Paulo today and 1970s New York". The "sprawling metropolis", of São Paulo has "become the new shrine to graffiti"; Manco alludes to "poverty and unemployment ... [and] the epic struggles and conditions of the country's marginalised peoples", and to "Brazil's chronic poverty", as the main engines that "have fuelled a vibrant graffiti culture". In world terms, Brazil has "one of the most uneven distributions of income. Laws and taxes change frequently". Such factors, Manco argues, contribute to a very fluid society, riven with those economic divisions and social tensions that underpin and feed the "folkloric vandalism and an urban sport for the disenfranchised", that is South American graffiti art.
Prominent Brazilian writers include Os Gêmeos, Boleta, Nunca, Nina, Speto, Tikka, and T.Freak. Their artistic success and involvement in commercial design ventures has highlighted divisions within the Brazilian graffiti community between adherents of the cruder transgressive form of pichação and the more conventionally artistic values of the practitioners of grafite.
Graffiti in the Middle East has emerged slowly, with taggers operating in Egypt, Lebanon, the Gulf countries like Bahrain or the United Arab Emirates, Israel, and in Iran. The major Iranian newspaper Hamshahri has published two articles on illegal writers in the city with photographic coverage of Iranian artist A1one's works on Tehran walls. Tokyo-based design magazine, PingMag, has interviewed A1one and featured photographs of his work. The Israeli West Bank barrier has become a site for graffiti, reminiscent in this sense of the Berlin Wall. Many writers in Israel come from other places around the globe, such as JUIF from Los Angeles and DEVIONE from London. The religious reference "נ נח נחמ נחמן מאומן" ("Na Nach Nachma Nachman Meuman") is commonly seen in graffiti around Israel.
Graffiti has played an important role within the street art scene in the Middle East and North Africa (MENA), especially following the events of the Arab Spring of 2011 or the Sudanese Revolution of 2018/19. Graffiti is a tool of expression in the context of conflict in the region, allowing people to raise their voices politically and socially. Famous street artist Banksy has had an important effect in the street art scene in the MENA area, especially in Palestine where some of his works are located in the West Bank barrier and Bethlehem.
There are also a large number of graffiti influences in Southeast Asian countries that mostly come from modern Western culture, such as Malaysia, where graffiti have long been a common sight in Malaysia's capital city, Kuala Lumpur. Since 2010, the country has begun hosting a street festival to encourage all generations and people from all walks of life to enjoy and encourage Malaysian street culture.
The modern-day graffitists can be found with an arsenal of various materials that allow for a successful production of a piece. This includes such techniques as scribing. However, spray paint in aerosol cans is the number one medium for graffiti. From this commodity comes different styles, technique, and abilities to form master works of graffiti. Spray paint can be found at hardware and art stores and comes in virtually every color.
Stencil graffiti is created by cutting out shapes and designs in a stiff material (such as cardboard or subject folders) to form an overall design or image. The stencil is then placed on the "canvas" gently and with quick, easy strokes of the aerosol can, the image begins to appear on the intended surface.
Some of the first examples were created in 1981 by artists Blek le Rat in Paris, in 1982 by Jef Aerosol in Tours (France); by 1985 stencils had appeared in other cities including New York City, Sydney, and Melbourne, where they were documented by American photographer Charles Gatewood and Australian photographer Rennie Ellis
Tagging is the practice of someone spray-painting "their name, initial or logo onto a public surface" in a handstyle unique to the writer. Tags were the first form of modern graffiti.
Modern graffiti art often incorporates additional arts and technologies. For example, Graffiti Research Lab has encouraged the use of projected images and magnetic light-emitting diodes (throwies) as new media for graffitists. yarnbombing is another recent form of graffiti. Yarnbombers occasionally target previous graffiti for modification, which had been avoided among the majority of graffitists.
Theories on the use of graffiti by avant-garde artists have a history dating back at least to the Asger Jorn, who in 1962 painting declared in a graffiti-like gesture "the avant-garde won't give up"
Many contemporary analysts and even art critics have begun to see artistic value in some graffiti and to recognize it as a form of public art. According to many art researchers, particularly in the Netherlands and in Los Angeles, that type of public art is, in fact an effective tool of social emancipation or, in the achievement of a political goal
In times of conflict, such murals have offered a means of communication and self-expression for members of these socially, ethnically, or racially divided communities, and have proven themselves as effective tools in establishing dialog and thus, of addressing cleavages in the long run. The Berlin Wall was also extensively covered by graffiti reflecting social pressures relating to the oppressive Soviet rule over the GDR.
Many artists involved with graffiti are also concerned with the similar activity of stenciling. Essentially, this entails stenciling a print of one or more colors using spray-paint. Recognized while exhibiting and publishing several of her coloured stencils and paintings portraying the Sri Lankan Civil War and urban Britain in the early 2000s, graffitists Mathangi Arulpragasam, aka M.I.A., has also become known for integrating her imagery of political violence into her music videos for singles "Galang" and "Bucky Done Gun", and her cover art. Stickers of her artwork also often appear around places such as London in Brick Lane, stuck to lamp posts and street signs, she having become a muse for other graffitists and painters worldwide in cities including Seville.
Graffitist believes that art should be on display for everyone in the public eye or in plain sight, not hidden away in a museum or a gallery. Art should color the streets, not the inside of some building. Graffiti is a form of art that cannot be owned or bought. It does not last forever, it is temporary, yet one of a kind. It is a form of self promotion for the artist that can be displayed anywhere form sidewalks, roofs, subways, building wall, etc. Art to them is for everyone and should be showed to everyone for free.
Graffiti is a way of communicating and a way of expressing what one feels in the moment. It is both art and a functional thing that can warn people of something or inform people of something. However, graffiti is to some people a form of art, but to some a form of vandalism. And many graffitists choose to protect their identities and remain anonymous or to hinder prosecution.
With the commercialization of graffiti (and hip hop in general), in most cases, even with legally painted "graffiti" art, graffitists tend to choose anonymity. This may be attributed to various reasons or a combination of reasons. Graffiti still remains the one of four hip hop elements that is not considered "performance art" despite the image of the "singing and dancing star" that sells hip hop culture to the mainstream. Being a graphic form of art, it might also be said that many graffitists still fall in the category of the introverted archetypal artist.
Banksy is one of the world's most notorious and popular street artists who continues to remain faceless in today's society. He is known for his political, anti-war stencil art mainly in Bristol, England, but his work may be seen anywhere from Los Angeles to Palestine. In the UK, Banksy is the most recognizable icon for this cultural artistic movement and keeps his identity a secret to avoid arrest. Much of Banksy's artwork may be seen around the streets of London and surrounding suburbs, although he has painted pictures throughout the world, including the Middle East, where he has painted on Israel's controversial West Bank barrier with satirical images of life on the other side. One depicted a hole in the wall with an idyllic beach, while another shows a mountain landscape on the other side. A number of exhibitions also have taken place since 2000, and recent works of art have fetched vast sums of money. Banksy's art is a prime example of the classic controversy: vandalism vs. art. Art supporters endorse his work distributed in urban areas as pieces of art and some councils, such as Bristol and Islington, have officially protected them, while officials of other areas have deemed his work to be vandalism and have removed it.
Pixnit is another artist who chooses to keep her identity from the general public. Her work focuses on beauty and design aspects of graffiti as opposed to Banksy's anti-government shock value. Her paintings are often of flower designs above shops and stores in her local urban area of Cambridge, Massachusetts. Some store owners endorse her work and encourage others to do similar work as well. "One of the pieces was left up above Steve's Kitchen, because it looks pretty awesome"- Erin Scott, the manager of New England Comics in Allston, Massachusetts.
Graffiti artists may become offended if photographs of their art are published in a commercial context without their permission. In March 2020, the Finnish graffiti artist Psyke expressed his displeasure at the newspaper Ilta-Sanomat publishing a photograph of a Peugeot 208 in an article about new cars, with his graffiti prominently shown on the background. The artist claims he does not want his art being used in commercial context, not even if he were to receive compensation.
Territorial graffiti marks urban neighborhoods with tags and logos to differentiate certain groups from others. These images are meant to show outsiders a stern look at whose turf is whose. The subject matter of gang-related graffiti consists of cryptic symbols and initials strictly fashioned with unique calligraphies. Gang members use graffiti to designate membership throughout the gang, to differentiate rivals and associates and, most commonly, to mark borders which are both territorial and ideological.
Graffiti has been used as a means of advertising both legally and illegally. Bronx-based TATS CRU has made a name for themselves doing legal advertising campaigns for companies such as Coca-Cola, McDonald's, Toyota, and MTV. In the UK, Covent Garden's Boxfresh used stencil images of a Zapatista revolutionary in the hopes that cross referencing would promote their store.
Smirnoff hired artists to use reverse graffiti (the use of high pressure hoses to clean dirty surfaces to leave a clean image in the surrounding dirt) to increase awareness of their product.
Graffiti often has a reputation as part of a subculture that rebels against authority, although the considerations of the practitioners often diverge and can relate to a wide range of attitudes. It can express a political practice and can form just one tool in an array of resistance techniques. One early example includes the anarcho-punk band Crass, who conducted a campaign of stenciling anti-war, anarchist, feminist, and anti-consumerist messages throughout the London Underground system during the late 1970s and early 1980s. In Amsterdam graffiti was a major part of the punk scene. The city was covered with names such as "De Zoot", "Vendex", and "Dr Rat". To document the graffiti a punk magazine was started that was called Gallery Anus. So when hip hop came to Europe in the early 1980s there was already a vibrant graffiti culture.
The student protests and general strike of May 1968 saw Paris bedecked in revolutionary, anarchistic, and situationist slogans such as L'ennui est contre-révolutionnaire ("Boredom is counterrevolutionary") and Lisez moins, vivez plus ("Read less, live more"). While not exhaustive, the graffiti gave a sense of the 'millenarian' and rebellious spirit, tempered with a good deal of verbal wit, of the strikers.
I think graffiti writing is a way of defining what our generation is like. Excuse the French, we're not a bunch of p---- artists. Traditionally artists have been considered soft and mellow people, a little bit kooky. Maybe we're a little bit more like pirates that way. We defend our territory, whatever space we steal to paint on, we defend it fiercely.
The developments of graffiti art which took place in art galleries and colleges as well as "on the street" or "underground", contributed to the resurfacing in the 1990s of a far more overtly politicized art form in the subvertising, culture jamming, or tactical media movements. These movements or styles tend to classify the artists by their relationship to their social and economic contexts, since, in most countries, graffiti art remains illegal in many forms except when using non-permanent paint. Since the 1990s with the rise of Street Art, a growing number of artists are switching to non-permanent paints and non-traditional forms of painting.
Contemporary practitioners, accordingly, have varied and often conflicting practices. Some individuals, such as Alexander Brener, have used the medium to politicize other art forms, and have used the prison sentences enforced on them as a means of further protest. The practices of anonymous groups and individuals also vary widely, and practitioners by no means always agree with each other's practices. For example, the anti-capitalist art group the Space Hijackers did a piece in 2004 about the contradiction between the capitalistic elements of Banksy and his use of political imagery.
Berlin human rights activist Irmela Mensah-Schramm has received global media attention and numerous awards for her 35-year campaign of effacing neo-Nazi and other right-wing extremist graffiti throughout Germany, often by altering hate speech in humorous ways.
In Serbian capital, Belgrade, the graffiti depicting a uniformed former general of Serb army and war criminal, convicted at ICTY for war crimes and crimes against humanity, including genocide and ethnic cleansing in Bosnian War, Ratko Mladić, appeared in a military salute alongside the words "General, thank to your mother". Aleks Eror, Berlin-based journalist, explains how "veneration of historical and wartime figures" through street art is not a new phenomenon in the region of former Yugoslavia, and that "in most cases is firmly focused on the future, rather than retelling the past". Eror is not only analyst pointing to danger of such an expressions for the region's future. In a long expose on the subject of Bosnian genocide denial, at Balkan Diskurs magazine and multimedia platform website, Kristina Gadže and Taylor Whitsell referred to these experiences as a young generations' "cultural heritage", in which young are being exposed to celebration and affirmation of war-criminals as part of their "formal education" and "inheritance".
There are numerous examples of genocide denial through celebration and affirmation of war criminals throughout the region of Western Balkans inhabited by Serbs using this form of artistic expression. Several more of these graffiti are found in Serbian capital, and many more across Serbia and Bosnian and Herzegovinian administrative entity, Republika Srpska, which is the ethnic Serbian majority enclave. Critics point that Serbia as a state, is willing to defend the mural of convicted war criminal, and have no intention to react on cases of genocide denial, noting that Interior Minister of Serbia, Aleksandar Vulin decision to ban any gathering with an intent to remove the mural, with the deployment of riot police, sends the message of "tacit endorsement". Consequently, on 9 November 2021, Serbian heavy police in riot gear, with graffiti creators and their supporters, blocked the access to the mural to prevent human rights groups and other activists to paint over it and mark the International Day Against Fascism and Antisemitism in that way, and even arrested two civic activist for throwing eggs at the graffiti.
Graffiti may also be used as an offensive expression. This form of graffiti may be difficult to identify, as it is mostly removed by the local authority (as councils which have adopted strategies of criminalization also strive to remove graffiti quickly). Therefore, existing racist graffiti is mostly more subtle and at first sight, not easily recognized as "racist". It can then be understood only if one knows the relevant "local code" (social, historical, political, temporal, and spatial), which is seen as heteroglot and thus a 'unique set of conditions' in a cultural context.
A spatial code for example, could be that there is a certain youth group in an area that is engaging heavily in racist activities. So, for residents (knowing the local code), a graffiti containing only the name or abbreviation of this gang already is a racist expression, reminding the offended people of their gang activities. Also a graffiti is in most cases, the herald of more serious criminal activity to come. A person who does not know these gang activities would not be able to recognize the meaning of this graffiti. Also if a tag of this youth group or gang is placed on a building occupied by asylum seekers, for example, its racist character is even stronger.
By making the graffiti less explicit (as adapted to social and legal constraints), these drawings are less likely to be removed, but do not lose their threatening and offensive character.
Elsewhere, activists in Russia have used painted caricatures of local officials with their mouths as potholes, to show their anger about the poor state of the roads. In Manchester, England, a graffitists painted obscene images around potholes, which often resulted in them being repaired within 48 hours.
In the early 1980s, the first art galleries to show graffitists to the public were Fashion Moda in the Bronx, Now Gallery and Fun Gallery, both in the East Village, Manhattan.
A 2006 exhibition at the Brooklyn Museum displayed graffiti as an art form that began in New York's outer boroughs and reached great heights in the early 1980s with the work of Crash, Lee, Daze, Keith Haring, and Jean-Michel Basquiat. It displayed 22 works by New York graffitists, including Crash, Daze, and Lady Pink. In an article about the exhibition in the magazine Time Out, curator Charlotta Kotik said that she hoped the exhibition would cause viewers to rethink their assumptions about graffiti.
From the 1970s onwards, Burhan Doğançay photographed urban walls all over the world; these he then archived for use as sources of inspiration for his painterly works. The project today known as "Walls of the World" grew beyond even his own expectations and comprises about 30,000 individual images. It spans a period of 40 years across five continents and 114 countries. In 1982, photographs from this project comprised a one-man exhibition titled "Les murs murmurent, ils crient, ils chantent ..." (The walls whisper, shout and sing ...) at the Centre Georges Pompidou in Paris.
In Australia, art historians have judged some local graffiti of sufficient creative merit to rank them firmly within the arts. Oxford University Press's art history text Australian Painting 1788–2000 concludes with a long discussion of graffiti's key place within contemporary visual culture, including the work of several Australian practitioners.
Between March and April 2009, 150 artists exhibited 300 pieces of graffiti at the Grand Palais in Paris.
Spray paint has many negative environmental effects. The paint contains toxic chemicals, and the can uses volatile hydrocarbon gases to spray the paint onto a surface.
Volatile organic compound (VOC) leads to ground level ozone formation and most of graffiti related emissions are VOCs. A 2010 paper estimates 4,862 tons of VOCs were released in the United States in activities related to graffiti.
In China, Mao Zedong in the 1920s used revolutionary slogans and paintings in public places to galvanize the country's communist movement.
Based on different national conditions, many people believe that China's attitude towards Graffiti is fierce, but in fact, according to Lance Crayon in his film Spray Paint Beijing: Graffiti in the Capital of China, Graffiti is generally accepted in Beijing, with artists not seeing much police interference. Political and religiously sensitive graffiti, however, is not allowed.
In Hong Kong, Tsang Tsou Choi was known as the King of Kowloon for his calligraphy graffiti over many years, in which he claimed ownership of the area. Now some of his work is preserved officially.
In Taiwan, the government has made some concessions to graffitists. Since 2005 they have been allowed to freely display their work along some sections of riverside retaining walls in designated "Graffiti Zones". From 2007, Taipei's department of cultural affairs also began permitting graffiti on fences around major public construction sites. Department head Yong-ping Lee (李永萍) stated, "We will promote graffiti starting with the public sector, and then later in the private sector too. It's our goal to beautify the city with graffiti". The government later helped organize a graffiti contest in Ximending, a popular shopping district. graffitists caught working outside of these designated areas still face fines up to NT$6,000 under a department of environmental protection regulation. However, Taiwanese authorities can be relatively lenient, one veteran police officer stating anonymously, "Unless someone complains about vandalism, we won't get involved. We don't go after it proactively."
In 1993, after several expensive cars in Singapore were spray-painted, the police arrested a student from the Singapore American School, Michael P. Fay, questioned him, and subsequently charged him with vandalism. Fay pleaded guilty to vandalizing a car in addition to stealing road signs. Under the 1966 Vandalism Act of Singapore, originally passed to curb the spread of communist graffiti in Singapore, the court sentenced him to four months in jail, a fine of S$3,500 (US$2,233), and a caning. The New York Times ran several editorials and op-eds that condemned the punishment and called on the American public to flood the Singaporean embassy with protests. Although the Singapore government received many calls for clemency, Fay's caning took place in Singapore on 5 May 1994. Fay had originally received a sentence of six strokes of the cane, but the presiding president of Singapore, Ong Teng Cheong, agreed to reduce his caning sentence to four lashes.
In South Korea, Park Jung-soo was fined two million South Korean won by the Seoul Central District Court for spray-painting a rat on posters of the G-20 Summit a few days before the event in November 2011. Park alleged that the initial in "G-20" sounds like the Korean word for "rat", but Korean government prosecutors alleged that Park was making a derogatory statement about the president of South Korea, Lee Myung-bak, the host of the summit. This case led to public outcry and debate on the lack of government tolerance and in support of freedom of expression. The court ruled that the painting, "an ominous creature like a rat" amounts to "an organized criminal activity" and upheld the fine while denying the prosecution's request for imprisonment for Park.
In Europe, community cleaning squads have responded to graffiti, in some cases with reckless abandon, as when in 1992 in France a local Scout group, attempting to remove modern graffiti, damaged two prehistoric paintings of bison in the Cave of Mayrière supérieure near the French village of Bruniquel in Tarn-et-Garonne, earning them the 1992 Ig Nobel Prize in archeology.
In September 2006, the European Parliament directed the European Commission to create urban environment policies to prevent and eliminate dirt, litter, graffiti, animal excrement, and excessive noise from domestic and vehicular music systems in European cities, along with other concerns over urban life.
In Budapest, Hungary, both a city-backed movement called I Love Budapest and a special police division tackle the problem, including the provision of approved areas.
The Anti-social Behaviour Act 2003 became Britain's latest anti-graffiti legislation. In August 2004, the Keep Britain Tidy campaign issued a press release calling for zero tolerance of graffiti and supporting proposals such as issuing "on the spot" fines to graffiti offenders and banning the sale of aerosol paint to anyone under the age of 16. The press release also condemned the use of graffiti images in advertising and in music videos, arguing that real-world experience of graffiti stood far removed from its often-portrayed "cool" or "edgy'" image.
To back the campaign, 123 Members of Parliament (MPs) (including then Prime Minister Tony Blair), signed a charter which stated: "Graffiti is not art, it's crime. On behalf of my constituents, I will do all I can to rid our community of this problem."
In the UK, city councils have the power to take action against the owner of any property that has been defaced under the Anti-social Behaviour Act 2003 (as amended by the Clean Neighbourhoods and Environment Act 2005) or, in certain cases, the Highways Act. This is often used against owners of property that are complacent in allowing protective boards to be defaced so long as the property is not damaged.
In July 2008, a conspiracy charge was used to convict graffitists for the first time. After a three-month police surveillance operation, nine members of the DPM crew were convicted of conspiracy to commit criminal damage costing at least £1 million. Five of them received prison sentences, ranging from eighteen months to two years. The unprecedented scale of the investigation and the severity of the sentences rekindled public debate over whether graffiti should be considered art or crime.
Some councils, like those of Stroud and Loerrach, provide approved areas in the town where graffitists can showcase their talents, including underpasses, car parks, and walls that might otherwise prove a target for the "spray and run".
Graffiti Tunnel, University of Sydney at Camperdown (2009)
In an effort to reduce vandalism, many cities in Australia have designated walls or areas exclusively for use by graffitists. One early example is the "Graffiti Tunnel" located at the Camperdown Campus of the University of Sydney, which is available for use by any student at the university to tag, advertise, poster, and paint. Advocates of this idea suggest that this discourages petty vandalism yet encourages artists to take their time and produce great art, without worry of being caught or arrested for vandalism or trespassing.[108][109] Others disagree with this approach, arguing that the presence of legal graffiti walls does not demonstrably reduce illegal graffiti elsewhere. Some local government areas throughout Australia have introduced "anti-graffiti squads", who clean graffiti in the area, and such crews as BCW (Buffers Can't Win) have taken steps to keep one step ahead of local graffiti cleaners.
Many state governments have banned the sale or possession of spray paint to those under the age of 18 (age of majority). However, a number of local governments in Victoria have taken steps to recognize the cultural heritage value of some examples of graffiti, such as prominent political graffiti. Tough new graffiti laws have been introduced in Australia with fines of up to A$26,000 and two years in prison.
Melbourne is a prominent graffiti city of Australia with many of its lanes being tourist attractions, such as Hosier Lane in particular, a popular destination for photographers, wedding photography, and backdrops for corporate print advertising. The Lonely Planet travel guide cites Melbourne's street as a major attraction. All forms of graffiti, including sticker art, poster, stencil art, and wheatpasting, can be found in many places throughout the city. Prominent street art precincts include; Fitzroy, Collingwood, Northcote, Brunswick, St. Kilda, and the CBD, where stencil and sticker art is prominent. As one moves farther away from the city, mostly along suburban train lines, graffiti tags become more prominent. Many international artists such as Banksy have left their work in Melbourne and in early 2008 a perspex screen was installed to prevent a Banksy stencil art piece from being destroyed, it has survived since 2003 through the respect of local street artists avoiding posting over it, although it has recently had paint tipped over it.
In February 2008 Helen Clark, the New Zealand prime minister at that time, announced a government crackdown on tagging and other forms of graffiti vandalism, describing it as a destructive crime representing an invasion of public and private property. New legislation subsequently adopted included a ban on the sale of paint spray cans to persons under 18 and increases in maximum fines for the offence from NZ$200 to NZ$2,000 or extended community service. The issue of tagging become a widely debated one following an incident in Auckland during January 2008 in which a middle-aged property owner stabbed one of two teenage taggers to death and was subsequently convicted of manslaughter.
Graffiti databases have increased in the past decade because they allow vandalism incidents to be fully documented against an offender and help the police and prosecution charge and prosecute offenders for multiple counts of vandalism. They also provide law enforcement the ability to rapidly search for an offender's moniker or tag in a simple, effective, and comprehensive way. These systems can also help track costs of damage to a city to help allocate an anti-graffiti budget. The theory is that when an offender is caught putting up graffiti, they are not just charged with one count of vandalism; they can be held accountable for all the other damage for which they are responsible. This has two main benefits for law enforcement. One, it sends a signal to the offenders that their vandalism is being tracked. Two, a city can seek restitution from offenders for all the damage that they have committed, not merely a single incident. These systems give law enforcement personnel real-time, street-level intelligence that allows them not only to focus on the worst graffiti offenders and their damage, but also to monitor potential gang violence that is associated with the graffiti.
Many restrictions of civil gang injunctions are designed to help address and protect the physical environment and limit graffiti. Provisions of gang injunctions include things such as restricting the possession of marker pens, spray paint cans, or other sharp objects capable of defacing private or public property; spray painting, or marking with marker pens, scratching, applying stickers, or otherwise applying graffiti on any public or private property, including, but not limited to the street, alley, residences, block walls, and fences, vehicles or any other real or personal property. Some injunctions contain wording that restricts damaging or vandalizing both public and private property, including but not limited to any vehicle, light fixture, door, fence, wall, gate, window, building, street sign, utility box, telephone box, tree, or power pole.
To help address many of these issues, many local jurisdictions have set up graffiti abatement hotlines, where citizens can call in and report vandalism and have it removed. San Diego's hotline receives more than 5,000 calls per year, in addition to reporting the graffiti, callers can learn more about prevention. One of the complaints about these hotlines is the response time; there is often a lag time between a property owner calling about the graffiti and its removal. The length of delay should be a consideration for any jurisdiction planning on operating a hotline. Local jurisdictions must convince the callers that their complaint of vandalism will be a priority and cleaned off right away. If the jurisdiction does not have the resources to respond to complaints in a timely manner, the value of the hotline diminishes. Crews must be able to respond to individual service calls made to the graffiti hotline as well as focus on cleanup near schools, parks, and major intersections and transit routes to have the biggest impact. Some cities offer a reward for information leading to the arrest and prosecution of suspects for tagging or graffiti related vandalism. The amount of the reward is based on the information provided, and the action taken.
When police obtain search warrants in connection with a vandalism investigation, they are often seeking judicial approval to look for items such as cans of spray paint and nozzles from other kinds of aerosol sprays; etching tools, or other sharp or pointed objects, which could be used to etch or scratch glass and other hard surfaces; permanent marking pens, markers, or paint sticks; evidence of membership or affiliation with any gang or tagging crew; paraphernalia including any reference to "(tagger's name)"; any drawings, writing, objects, or graffiti depicting taggers' names, initials, logos, monikers, slogans, or any mention of tagging crew membership; and any newspaper clippings relating to graffiti crime.
I really miss this shop, even though it's not that gourmet, but just the vision is enough for me to spend time with :X
Violence or other bullying behaviour wouldn't be tolerated on a first date. Don't tolerate it within a relationship.
Models Jaz and George
Photographer: Sophie Merlo
I love this picture. Nobody will never know who was this mysterious rider...
This picture was found in my grandfather stuff, in an enveloppe dated from 1936.
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Date: July 18, 2020
Location: Lyndwood Square Pond - Elkridge, Maryland (Howard County)
Description: Fighting or mating but couldn't be sure. This went on for 5 minutes.
2016 VW Passat Release Date
2016 VW Passat Release Date , 1600 x 1067, 507 KB, barakef.com/11675/2016-volkswagen-passat-hybrid-hd-images...
روایت است که میگویند : درخت نخل عین عمه انسان است و احترامش واجب .
سلامی میکنیم به تمام عمه های دنیا
DATE PALM TREE IN SOUTH IRAN
Vintage Hawaiian Party Dress- eBay
pointy patent shoes- Goodwill
cardigan and clutch- Target
We went out to Bing's in Walnut Creek for a retirement/40 years of service party for one of the hub's co-workers. We had so much fun...Bing's is an old Hollywood dream, with big velvet booths and lots of memorabilia, basically heaven for an old movie lover like me!
we went to the lake to read together. we had just arrived at the shore, when he went back for something that was left in the car. while waiting, I was nervous and took a picture of my feet. it's almost four years later to the day.
we went on to marry one another here at the lake, right where we fell in love.
I can't believe how much I treasure this now.
Having a fancy dinnerwith my husband at the Capital Grille in McLean, Virginia. Beautiful atmosphere and AMAZING food. :)
Quinton texts back, saying that the girls are all meeting up at Farrell's and that Reina and Lenora should just let themselves in.
Dress- ModCloth
Shoes-ModCloth
Earrings- Street vendor
Purse- China town
Had a lovely date with the boyfriend. :) MMmmmm spaghetti!
A date cake I made myself.
I've been shooting black and white film almost exclusively for the past few months. This will be the last B&W roll in a while at least. Next up - colour film!
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Shot on January 11, 2015
Canon A-1
Canon FD 50mm f/1.8
Kodak T-MAX 400
Compard R09 One Shot (Rodinal) 1+50, 20 °C, 12 min
Special "save the date" stickers handmade for the eco-friendly wedding and the DIY couple. Each limited edition package comes with 50 super sticky hand lettered stickers. Get crafty! Be married! Have fun!
Every day he is taunted, no, harrassed by various classmates and nothing is being done about it. I demanded a meeting and informed them he will not be returning until things are resolved. The assistent principal tried to pull all this, "Well, this isn't a threat but after too many unexcused absences he's declared truent ..." I said, "It is a threat but your problem is I know my rights and his. I can call him out every single day for any reason I choose, I can get a letter from his pediatrician or his psychologist that he's suffering mental anguish at your school, and he is, and I can fill out a notice of intent to home school." He said he was glad the meeting was on Monday and we can get everything taken care of. I said, "To be completely honest with you I don't see how I'm going to be satisfied unless he's out of that classroom." I'm planning to bring a filled out notice of intent to homeschool with me. I just wish I didn't have to go by myself!!!!
This year Charlie has regressed to 1st grade behavior. He's been put on medication and he never needed any before and I think it's just because no one is in charge in that classroom. The buck stops here.
Date - 30/07/13
Location - Dundonald International Ice Bowl, Belfast
Sport - Ice Hockey
Teams - Jyväskylä Fire vs Tampere Police Dept
Winners - Jyväskylä Fire
Division 2
Photographer - Stephen Lyons