Lee Tusman

Report on the Copenhagen graffiti scene

Copenhagen is a city of 1.5 million, a walkable, bikeable, public transit-riding city. Like Berlin, graffiti is prevalent, with tags, throw-ups and pieces. Caught a few taggers getting up and the enthusiasm was widespread. In America, writers generally avoid writing on housing in favor of public property (an exception would be found in Frisco where apartment buildings, for example in the Mission district, are considered socially acceptable to write on). Many people not active in graffiti are unaware of the socially-determined graffiti rules, almost like rules of engagement. In general, I found Berlin and Copenhagen to flagrantly violate the rules that American writers follow. People do follow the protocol that pieces can go on top of throw-ups, which can go on top of tags, but dissing other writers is way more common than in the US, and writers don’t seem to get caught up on whether they’re writing on public space or on private houses or apartments, maybe because they see those as public space as well. I’m reminded of a photo series in art collective Temporary Services’ book Public Phenomena where they show in several photos how Americans create signs saying “Free” to place next to things in their yard (chairs, couches, firewood) to show that it is acceptable to walk over into the unfenced yard to take those things. In Europe and the rest of the world, that message is unneeded, understood. I asked some Berlin writers and they didn’t see a distinction on where it was okay to write. But then they also thought it was bad form to write on the sidewalk, which is socially-acceptable and even a part of the practice on the west coast of the US. Another distinction can be found on the prevalence of tagging inside buildings. In the US, that is primarily only found in certain bathrooms, and usually of restaurants or cafes around hip communities in the big cities and some other places. In Europe, I found it was generally accepted that walls inside buildings are in play. This was true in Copenhagen, and especially around the social centers (semi or officially legalized squats) and Freetown Christiana, two places I will write about in future blog posts. Another thing I noticed: huge throw-ups or pieces on the big expensive trains in the metro, which you almost never see in the US. Some might say this is due to “Clean Trains” rules in the US, but I think (possibly falsely) that American graffiti rules generally dictate that you don’t write on big expensive new things. Europeans seem to ignore that rule in some ways; Kobenhavn writers are serious. I spotted AMAZE and TWIST tags in one spot downtown, but no other americans. In general, you can see things on every street, wall, apartment building, inside metro and train stations, and along the highways and roads. An active city indeed.