Weird, in Brazil is the other way! Graffiti in Brazil is art, for vandalism we call pixação.

In Germany, graffiti is the overarching category and the vandalism are called "tags"

That’s also how it’s referred to here in the Midwestern US

It's the same in France actually

My litmus test is "was it asked to be put there". I live in Denver and after we won the NBA finals a local artist put this up this[1] mural and it was coordinated with the business + building owner + local govt. I would call that a "mural" versus "graffiti". Now if you go out to our "warehouse district" you will often see "graffiti", that is stuff the owners never asked for, some kids just showed up and tagged the building in the middle of the night.

[1]: https://media1.westword.com/den/imager/u/magnum/17103041/ima...

They're both graffiti. Graffiti can be beautiful or art to some people or not be. But if the person did not build the building with that mural/art on it to start, or did it at a later date as part of the same project, it is graffiti in the modern sense of the word (in English).

People thinking it is art, or thinking it is beautiful does not remove the aspect of it being graffiti. Even a large advertisement would be graffiti.

I would hate to live in a building that had a huge mural go up after I moved in personally, but that also doesn't make it graffiti or not.

Is graffiti always text? I know it's common but I didn't realise it was a rule.

What about something like this https://maps.app.goo.gl/oCbe2DZW1vqyXJ2h9?g_st=ic

This thread is showing how words have different meanings in different places. In my slice of the world, graffiti is not limited to text. A tag is though.