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DECEMBER 10, 1998
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ENDSTATION
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ISSUE # 13
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Copenhagen S-trains pt. 2
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Copyright endstation
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At the very point of you reading this magazine, young people in the s-train capital city Copenhagen, Denmark are doing something you may be able to see soon. Filling up a panel, making highlights on a bubble background or sneaking out from a yard thru a hole in the fence. Every day and night graffiti writers put up pieces on trains to be seen.
Endstation and many other graffiti related sites around the net have chosen to concentrate on trains. Trains are the most wanted target when it comes to graffiti. Why is that so? Why graffiti on trains?
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The early graffiti "documentaries" Wild Style and Style Warz came to Europe in the 70'ies. Major graffiti artists of New York gave us the argument for why they painted trains; "To be seen". They surely got seen, by that time painted subway cars in New York rolled for months or even for years. Cars were bombed from top to bottom and from end to end. The documenaties brought graffiti to Europe. Today, 20 years later we have the same situation in various cities in Europe. In earlier issues of Endstation Magazine we have shown you Rome; As Explicit Grafx wrote the Roma subway really is burning. Amsterdam had it, and now Warzaw trains look just like New York used to.
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In cities like these, putting up graffiti on a train panel is a way to be seen. But when I ask a writer of today the same question (why trains?) I can not always accept the answer. Many cities are active and successful in the fight against graffiti, especially on trains. Graffiti on trains are sometimes removed before people get to see it.
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A never ending source of facts
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Stockholm, which is supposed to represent the European Community as the Capital City of Culture in '98, decided only to sponsor the adult and respected art and culture. Therefore they said; "Graffiti must be removed and we must ban all activities related to graffiti." When graffiti is discovered on a subway car, passengers are "asked" to get off the train so that train can be taken out of traffic. It is now more important to have clean trains than transport passengers.
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As more cities raise against graffiti, cities that does not have the same strict attitude towards graffiti get even more exposed. Writers are ready to travel far for their dose of adrenaline. And as trains in the "easy" cities get attention from foreign visitors, inhabitant writers have a reason to paint their trains even harder. To be seen.
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Talking to the Danish writers in Copenhagen they have a suspicious view on foreign writers, who often come from cities where graffiti have turned a lot harder to do. It is turning to that foreign writers use "easy" cities to do graffiti and never paint the trains in their own home cities.
So why graffiti on trains? Well, what I mean is that: If graffiti can not be seen on a train, writers get other reasons for doing it. So why remove graffiti from trains faster than it takes for passengers to step off, when "to be seen" is not the main reason for doing graffiti?
endstation(m)
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