New documentary: "The Rise Of Graffiti Writing - From New York to Europe"

The series on graffiti writing produced by ARTE, from New York to Bristol and Europe, is now available online.

The first episodes are dedicated to New York City, see here:

In German:
https://www.arte.tv/de/videos/RC-015348/the-rise-of-graffiti-writing/

In French
https://www.arte.tv/fr/videos/RC-015348/the-rise-of-graffiti-writing/


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 This 5-minute trailer takes us back to the birth of the graffiti / street culture in the late 1970s / early 1980s, in the words of the writers themselves:

"The Rise Of Graffiti Writing - 

From New York to Europe"

Published on 27 Oct 2017

Aufgelackt und angesteckt – Graffiti-Virus infiziert Europa.
Die neue Dokuserie - Ab 13.11. auf ARTE.TV/CREATIVE
In 10 Episoden zeichnet die Dokuserie "The Rise of Graffiti Writing" den Aufstieg der Rapschrift nach: vom New York der 70er über Amsterdam und Paris bis nach München, von wo aus der Graffitivirus ab den 80ern ganz Europa infizierte. Mit dabei: Pioniere wie FUTURA2000, LEE, BANDO und MODE2.

www.arte.tv/de/creative

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En français :

Une série documentaire en 10 épisodes pour retracer l'histoire du graffiti : des débuts dans le New-York des années 70 jusqu'à la percée du virus en Europe au milieu des années 80. Une plongée dans la ville qui a vu le mouvement naître en son sein, dans le Bronx, puis un voyage vers l'Europe, où le mouvement se répend comme une trainée de poudre dès 1983 à Amsterdam, Paris et Londres. Puis sur tout le continent. Les quatre premiers épisodes dédiés à New-York sont disponibles à partir du 13.11.

Translation in English:

The new documentary series - available from 13.11. on ARTE.TV/CREATIVE

In ten episodes, the documentary series "The Rise of Graffiti Writing" traces the rise of the rapeseed: from the New York of the 70s to Amsterdam and Paris to Munich, where the graffiti virus infected Europe from the 80s onwards. On board: pioneers like FUTURA2000, LEE, BANDO and MODE2.

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This trailer is a presentation for the documentary series of ten episodes.

Starting with Fab 5 Freddy, in NYC, and Charlie Ahern, who directed the film Wild Style in 1983, it brings a very rare insights from Bristol with the (too short words) of 3D of Massive Attack, one of the first groundbreaking muralists from England.

This film only contains a 20-second clip with him, but there is more to come...

Also interviewed and featured in the trailer are: Skeme, Lee Quinones, Futura 2000, Delta, Mode 2, Bando, Shoe and Pride.

To give you an insight, I found this picture online, not featured in the film, but you get the idea:

Fab Five Freddy, Joe Strummer of The Clash, Raymond Jordan and Futura 2000 in Asbury Park, NJ. June 1982. © Bob Gruen / www.bobgruen.com

The whole series will be on ARTE Creative's website, from November the 13th. Visible in France and Germany then.

Of course, it is a German production, and after emphasising the role of New York, the film claims, and the trailer states it clearly, that Germany has been the most vibrant scene for graffiti so far. It is a point of view...

I personally think the Britain's contribution is always underrated and that will have to be corrected soon!

For now enjoy the journey.

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More on this website: http://ilovegraffiti.de/blog/2017/10/27/the-rise-of-graffiti-writing-from-new-york-to-europe-trailer/

The graffiti movement known today has existed for more than 5 decades, and it’s still going strong. Throughout history, graffiti was used by political activists to make statements, by street gangs to mark territory or by funny guys writing jokes in bathrooms. It wasn’t till the late 1960s that graffiti’s current identity and started to form. In Philadelphia during the mid to late ’60s people began to write their nicknames all over the city, gaining attention from the community and local press. A few years later the concept made its way to New York City. In the Washington Heights section of Manhattan graffiti writing caught on and in 1971 The New York Times published an article about TAKI 183, a kid from Washington Heights. TAKI wrote his name all over the city, it was a nickname for his given name Demetrius and 183 was the number of the street where he lived. More about TAKI and his generation of writers you can find out watching the new movie WALL WRITERS!

hrough the 70’s graffiti writing caught on like wildfire in New York, kids all over the city started to write their names everywhere with markers and spray paint. The subway trains quickly became a rolling platform for the movement and carried their names all over the city. Techniques and methods on how to paint your name were developed and led to bigger and bolder paintings until they filled up entire subway cars. When the 80’s arrived, is where our story starts.

All the standards had been set and the most active generation was about to reap the benefits of the artistic foundations established by prior generations and a city in the middle of a financial crisis. New York City was broke and therefore the transit system was poorly maintained. By the early 80’s the city and especially the subway trains were covered in graffiti. At the same time graffiti artists from New York started to transfer work from the subways to canvas. The New York downtown scene played a very important role in the spread of graffiti to Europe in the early 80´s. The downtown scene was a culture clash of art galleries, the punkscene, the disco movement, filmmakers, street art and graffiti. Everyone met at that time in the downtown scene. FUTURA2000 met the punkband THE CLASH and started to work with them on backdrop paintings. The subway graffiti king LEE met the filmmaker CHARLIE AHEARN through FAB5FREDDY who had the very first vision to create a historical document.

In 1981, YAKI KORNBLIT, a Dutch gallerist from Amsterdam, came to New York to look for the most talented graffiti artists. He wanted to present graffiti art in Europe. He thought that it would be like when the Pop Art movement was successful promoted in Europe twenty years earlier. Yaki found a network of artists and started bringing them back to Amsterdam where he did shows with them at his Kornblit Gallery. Among them were artists such as DONDI, CRASH, RAMMELZEE, ZEPHYR, QUIK, FUTURA2000, LADY PINK, SEEN and BLADE. The exhibitions of their artworks in Yaki’s gallery and later in the Museum Boymans van Beuningen were an unbelievable success. The critics and collectors of art talked positively about graffiti art and the artworks sold.

This cultural export from New York had a deep impact with the youth of Amsterdam, they were, and perhaps still are, very insubordinate and around that time Amsterdam already had writing on the streets from the punk movement. With the import of graffiti and the artists from New York, the talented kids from Amsterdam found a new influence. 

This and the screenings of the movie WILD STYLE on German and British TV in 1982 and 1983 were the beginning of the modern graffiti movement in Europe. 

Graffiti quickly made its way to other western European cities such as Paris and London and further on to Germany and everywhere else.

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THE RISE OF GRAFFITI WRITING – FROM NEW YORK TO EUROPE tells the story of the New York origins and the rise of modern graffiti in Europe from 1981 and beyond. 

LEE, FUTURA2000, CHARLIE AHEARN, FAB5FREDDY, SKEME, the TATS CRU, YAKI KORNBLIT and a very limited group of European graffiti pioneers like SHOE (Amsterdam), BANDO (Paris), MODE2 (London), 3D (Bristol), DELTA (Amsterdam), STONE (Munich), LOOMIT (Munich), HESH (Hamburg), CANTWO (Mainz), MICKEY (Amsterdam) and a few more protagonists will be featured in the movie.

The first season of the web-series (1973-1988) will be online in 10 Episodes to watch on ARTE.TV/CREATIVE, ILOVEGRAFFITI.DE and the world wide web from november 13th, 2017, on.