Sweden is indeed a long country. When you are located in the very South of Sweden you have 2000 kilometers to travel to the very North of the country. That is the same way as to Italy. Stockholm is often exposed as the one and only graffiti scene in Sweden. The truth is that while graffiti in Stockholm after twenty years still go strong, other cities in Sweden grow stronger.
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In this issue of Endstation Magazine we zoom in to the active and fast growing graffiti scenes in the South of Sweden. Malmö - Swedens third city together with Lund and Helsingborg all connects by the purple commuter trains called 'Pågatåg', from which Endstation are going to reprot in this Magazine.
There are quite few writers that paint the Pågatåg, but the past year they have become more active than ever, and more kids has got involved. Heor is a graffiti writer from Helsingborg who tells us that the Påga-train scene is fresher than ever.
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"The Påga-train scene is really fresh! I guess there is nothing particular with the trains except they come in a nice purple color and there are only 40 trains in all, so it is not too hard to get up."
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"Trains get cleaned after a few hours"
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Trains get cleaned after a few hours in traffic in the morning. Trains painted at unexpected spots and times may run longer.
-I've had backjumps on active trains for days, says Heor.
With the growth of graffiti police and authorities has become very active in the work to stop vandalism. Massive campaigns, partly sponsored by local companies and community, has lead to a raised anger from the citizens. Lund - a student influenced city - 20 minutes from Malmö - has big problems with 'tags'. There are many new young writers coming up with huge a amount of tags all the time, so called 'bombing'.
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The biggest and most important city in this region is Malmö. It has 300 000 citizens and by ferry it is only 40 minutes away from Copanhagen - Denmark. We met Marvel who is a graffiti writer from Malmö who concentrate on graffiti on Pågatåg. He tells the real inspiration for graffiti writers in Malmö came from Stockholm a couple of years ago.
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-Graffiti magazines and videos showed us graffiti writers doing mad things on trains. First we saw them as totally crazy and as they became our rolemodels everybody tried to act the same way. After a while, as we made fiends with some of them, we understrood they are just as personal as anybody else.
The Stockholm 'Blå pendeltåg' have always been the most popular target for Swedish graffiti writers. But as the guarding has become more specific for chasing vandals in the train yards and lay-ups the artwork on the trains often turns into straight vandalism; Tags and one color fill-ins are often used instead of time comsuming colorful work. Even though everybody seem to want to have a Stockholm train in their Black-book, Graffiti writers from other parts of Sweden often think the Blå pendeltåg are overestimated.
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"I like the Stockholm trains, but i think they are way overestimated. It looks like they are painted for the sake of doing it and not for the final result of the work. Down here we have lots of time to do colorful pieces. Every panel is a beauty for the eye!"
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With the coming bridge Copenhagen and Denmark is getting closer to Malmö and Sweden. Many writers travel to Copenhagen to buy paint and to do graffiti. The Danish people are more peaceful towards graffiti in general, and beer is much cheeper. Heor says he made his first wholecar (painted a whole train car) in Copenhagen.
-I like to go to Copenhagen to meet my friends and drink beer. The atmosphere gives a great inspiration for painting more trains. Marvel says:
-What is hard in Copenhagen is easy in Stockholm!
In graffiti magazines Stockholm has always represented the mayor part of train graffiti made in Sweden. Today when graffiti on trains are painted in various cities in Sweden, magazines and internet pages has begun to show other cities trains as well. But cities without trains, like Lund still do not get seen in the Swedish scene.
-Walls are meant to be seen in reality, not on photos, says Marvel.
"It is more interresting to see pieces that you know are made in a short time. The question is how cool piece you can do in 10 minutes! That shows how good you really are!"
Malmö is in the focus of a project called the 'Öresund-project'. Together with nearby cities, Sweden is getting a close connection to Copenhagen and Europe via a new bridge under construction soon connecting Malmö to Copenhagen.
-Malmö will grow alot and have a great future, says Marvel.
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-The Pågatåg-network will also be expanded to other parts in the South of Sweden. Plans for an over- and underground subway in Malmö are aslo made. The subway will connect Malmö with its suburbs. Even if I may not be as active by the time the new Påga- and subway stations are opened I can tell I will be there to have my own grand opening!
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