Whether vandalism or art – the graffito has become a sign of urban life just like fuel powered vehicles, multi-lane roads, language mixes and endless blocks of buildings. Whether on a sprayed subway car in New York, a bridge underneath the Danube Canal in Vienna, an old factory building in Chemnitz, downtown, in the suburbs, a historical monument or in the entrance of a house, they’re everywhere. As many are very old and stylistically (with their really annoying, ever-circular shape language) outdated, you can basically proceed from the fact that the great age of the graffiti is over. The hatching urge slacking off?

Sgraffito is a very old technique (first found in ancient Egypt). Today on the streets you can see the trend towards stenciling, political themes, smart humor, more sense of aesthetics and a departure from merely signing. However, I can’t say why these, generally speaking (still to a large extent) non-commercial images even attract attention at all. Perhaps it is the hope of secret messages, of signs that not everyone’s able to see and interpret? Or is it only from the scene for the scene? And we outsiders aren’t really being addressed at all? But if that were so, the street art movement would have to avoid public places, not be political and most of all, neither directly nor visually address outsiders—thus eliminating this thesis.

Text & Photos by Eugen Braeunig