JEDDAH, 15 May 2007 — The main graffiti groups in Jeddah joined yesterday Jeddah Mayor Adel Fakieh at the Al-Nawrus Roundabout on the Corniche to participate in a massive campaign to clean the city’s walls and monuments from graffiti.
Fakieh initiated the campaign by cleaning a D-3 logo along with its makers at the Al-Nawrus Roundabout. The mayor expressed his gratitude and happiness to the graffiti artists, who had volunteered to clean up their own paintings from across the city.
Fakieh spoke to the groups publicly saying that their courage to come and help is appreciated, and that the municipality would help them carry on with their art in an organized fashion.
“We will be dedicating 29 walls for graffiti artists so that they can freely practice their art, without abusing their talent to deform the city’s landmarks,” the mayor said, adding that he expected the groups to be serious and dedicated in cooperating to keep the city clean.
“The city is suffering enough from bad roads, lack of drainage and other problems. Therefore we need to be united in order to fix our own city,” he said.
“I promise that we will do everything to make the life of every Jeddah resident easy and entertaining. We also want to take your needs into serious consideration,” Fakieh told the groups, adding the cleaning process has been “painful” for many of the participants.
The mayor promised to create more playgrounds and sports parks on city-owned empty plots of land.
Ali Al-Timraz, 19, head of the “AH” group, which has their initials on almost every landmark in the city, said that he was proud to come and help clean the mess his group has created.
He added that the group felt they had to stop now, especially after getting into trouble with local authorities. “We had to stop, so that we don’t reach a point where we can’t ever paint,” he said.
Al-Timraz said the graffiti groups have their own underground rules and systems, and that they compete with each other on who can paint their initials in the most visible but dangerous of places.
Fahd Abdul Samad, the 18-year-old head of D-3 graffiti group, said the municipality embarrassed them by being nice and supportive, and this made them come and help clean the city.
Abadi Ziad, 18, head of the X-5 group, smilingly said, “You can find our initials in every corner of the city.” He added that being one of the oldest graffiti groups, they felt a responsibility to participate in the campaign.
He said that his group has branches in Madinah, Yanbu, Dammam and Taif, and also abroad.
“We collaborate in paintings to spread our name both locally and internationally,” he said.
