Street art is legal in Vienna - look for the pigeon.
Vienna Austria is a tolerant city. In the 90’s when street art began flourishing, the Mayor began the process of legalizing places for it to be created legally. He set aside four city walls for the use of legal street art. It was acknowledged then, and now, that street art is an outlet for many people to express their diversity of artistic expression.
Fast forward to 2004 when another committee was formed to pick up where the “WienerWand” (Vienna Wall) project had left off. Just as people have a love hate relationship with the Vienna pigeons in the area, some enjoy seeing and feeding them but they cause damage to the surrounding buildings. Street art provokes similar feelings; many people enjoy seeing it but it does damage to the buildings. The WienerWand project set up a website and added more walls throughout the city for the purpose of creating and displaying street art legally. Anyone can use their website to find the walls around the city. You know you are at the right wall when you see the 2 pigeons, one on the upper left side and one on the upper right side, then anything in between is a legal art zone. The city, citizens and street artist came together and worked out a solution for all. As of now there are at least 13 legal walls for anyone to paint their street art, with the Danube river wall being included.
I really enjoy when a city is innovative and proactive when it comes to art. Beth
