This is an excerpt from:
Fawcus, R. (2022). The Buzludzha Memorial House and the precarious fate of communist monuments in post-communist space (pp. 276–278) [Doctoral dissertation, University of Central Lancashire]. Lancashire Online Knowledge.
A special note might be made of the appearance of graffiti around the Buzludzha Memorial House. The tone of this graffiti, and the nationality of its authors, has changed greatly over the years – but some forms and instances of graffiti have been present on site since the researcher’s earliest visit in 2012, with the walls of the monument being used by some visitors as a kind of guest book. Some of the more notable examples to appear included the following.
Notable New Graffiti at Buzludzha: April 2012–September 2017
Norman Mailer once described graffiti as “the most germane expression of the possible end of civilization” (Mailer & Naar, 1974). In his analysis of postmodern graffiti, Jean Baudrillard (1975) suggested that urban graffiti often took the form of counter interventions running against the symbolic hegemony of a state; and subsequently, graffiti analysis has been performed with illuminating results at contested political sites such as the Berlin Wall (see Stein, 1989; Neef, 2007). However, Panagopoulos (2021) notes how “the graffiti art at [Buzludzha] seemed to be severely lacking the punch or ethic of the subway graffiti in 70s New York or the Berliner-Mauer-graffiti of the 80s.” Whereas Buzludzha, as a canvas, “could readily invite counter art in criticism of the old regime,” instead he found a “shallow mishmash of little acts of defiance, the kind of vague discontent that just cannot be taken seriously […] vandalism lacking the ethic of a pure political motive.”
Although it is beyond the scope of this thesis to perform a thorough analysis on the graffiti appearing at Buzludzha, the samples above give an idea of how the tone of Buzludzha graffiti has changed over the years – from early conceptualisations of the site and its relationship to Bulgaria, to show instead a gradual increase in territorial statements, by Bulgarians and non-Bulgarians, ‘tagging’ the building to show that they had been there. This change can perhaps be seen as reflective of Buzludzha’s status, changing over the years from a uniquely Bulgarian place, into an internationally recognised destination; and one perceived as offering challenge, or adventure, so that those reaching the symbolic summit would sign their name on it.
References
Baudrillard, J. (1975) KOOL KILLER, or the insurrection of signs. In Symbolic Exchange and Death, trans. Iain Hamilton Grant. London and New Delhi. p 80.
Mailer, N. & Naar, J. (1974) The Faith of Graffiti. New York: Praeger Publishers.
Neef, S. (2007, June) Killing Kool: The Graffiti Museum. In Art History, 30(3). pp. 418–431. onlinelibrary.wiley.com
Panagopoulos, E. (2021, September) Madonna, mother and whore: Notes on vandalism at Bulgaria’s most photographed monument. Explorabilia.
Stein, M. B. (1989, April) The politics of humor: The Berlin Wall in jokes and graffiti. In Western Folklore, 48(2). pp. 85–108. Western States Folklore Society.