Other editions: Berlin 2017, Amsterdam 2018, Modena 2020

Tag: Name Writing in Public Space.
A conference about tagging,
in history and today.
Cologne,
2 & 3 September 2019.

The Tag Conference is an international meeting where both academics and non-academics talk about contemporary tagging and its historical antecedents. After successful instalments in Berlin (2017) and Amsterdam (2018), Tag takes place in 2019 as part of the program of CityLeaks Urban Art Festival Cologne.

All lectures are free and open to the public.

The call for papers for the Tag Conference 2019 has received applications from fourteen countries in Europe, North and South America. A total of twelve papers have been selected to present together with our six guest speakers. See the complete list of speakers below.

Research approaches include calligraphy, art history, dance, archaeology, spoken word, anthropology, sociology, urban studies, photography, cinematography, internet studies, philosophy and graffiti studies.

Link: call for papers for the Tag Conference 2019 (PDF 1,5 MB).

On the weekend immediately preceding the conference, and also in Cologne, the same team behind Tag welcomes you to the Unlock Book Fair, the annual meeting of the international graffiti and street art publishing scene.

MONDAY 2

9:30
Welcome

10h
Introduction

Theoretical enquiries

10:30
Egidio Emiliano Bianco (IT)
Lee 163d vs Lee Quiñones, or graffiti writing vs ‘graffiti painting’

11h
Rubí Celia Ramírez (MX)
Oral history in the streets: a proposal for the construction of knowledge from urban writers in México City

11:30
Andrea Mubi Brighenti (IT)
A philosophy of tag writing

12h
LUNCH BREAK

Fringes

13h
Adam Void (US)
The fourth wave is here: a graffiti diaspora into rural America

13:30
Julian Windisch (DE)
Province poetry: tags, toys and trash

14h
Vittorio Parisi (IT)
On the coexistence of tags and weeds in urban interstices: towards an aesthetic of infestation

14:30
COFFEE BREAK

Artist profiles

15h
Katja Glaser (DE)
4rtist: : ) type alt +1, a case study

15:30
Norbert Kirbach (DE)
Zhang Dali, China’s first graffiti writer

16h
Orestis Pangalos (GR)
Mofi’s poetic interventions, abstract automatic writing in public spaces 2005–2008

Closing talk

16:30
Carl Cattermole (UK)
I i i i i love u u u u u

TUESDAY 3

Styles

10h
Tobias Barenthin (SE)
Tracing influences and style in graffiti, the case of Luleå

10:30
Charles Van Linden (US)
Atlanta style: mapping the local in the digital age

History

11h
Anica Nießner (DE)
On the tracks of tagging in 17th Century paintings of Dutch church interiors

11:30
Vincent Baumgartner (CH)
Buildings tell tales: carved graffiti in Budapest

12h LUNCH BREAK

Cultures

13h
María Fernanda López Jaramillo (EC)
Chapeteo: episodes of ‘guayaco’ urban graphics we would rather forget

13:30
Javier Abarca (ES)
Moniker writing in Europe

14h
Undisclosed screening

14:30 COFFEE BREAK

Internet

15h
Per Englund & Tobias Barentin (SE)
The wandering photographer: tag collecting and city mapping in the smartphone era

15:30
Malcolm Jacobson (SE)
What’s your Insta? Instagram as extension of tags and graffiti identities

16h
Mathieu Tremblin (FR)
Tagging as a tool for indexing our daily paths in IRL and URL public spaces

Closing performance

16:30
Kadir ‘Amigo’ Memis (TR/DE)
BOUZUQΣΣ, hommage to graffiti

Screening

Inside the gancheros meeting (raw footage, 63’, 2014)
Nofrontery Films and Adrian Macías (MX)
A rare look into the obscure “ganchos” tagging culture of Monterrey, screened in a loop during the whole conference