EDITION
Tag Spotlight #1
‘HAER Survey of the 3rd Avenue EL Line, 1974’
Published by Urbanario & Hitzerot
32 pages
15 x 21 cm
Archivist: Mike Delmar
Editor: Javier Abarca
Released June 2023
Rogue archivist Mike Delmar (US) unearths rare images about the history of graffiti in New York City from recondite and unlikely sources. He usually publishes his findings on his Instagram account @tape.delay.
For this printed volume Delmar found a wealth of unknown photographs of public infrastructure taken for the US government between December 1973 and January 1974, a few of which capture tags from the very early days of NYC graffiti. Featured names include Sonny 107, Super Kool 223, Phase 2, Amrl / Bama, Tabu 1, Greek 501 and Bug 170.
From the photographs, Delmar produced the following film to complement the printed volume. It was premiered in June 2023 at the Museum for Hamburg History, Germany, as part of the Unlock Book Fair.
Tag Spotlight #2
‘Philadelphia Dark Pages’
Published by Urbanario & Hitzerot
40 pages
15 x 21 cm
Photography: François Chastanet
Editor: Javier Abarca
Released June 2023
François Chastanet (FR) is known for his pioneering books about local tagging traditions such as ‘pixaçao’ or ‘cholo’ writing. In Spring 2023 he conducted an extensive on-site study of the present state of the Philadelphia handstyles. This second volume of ‘Tag Spotlight’ features a fragment of Chastanet’s recent research.
Philadelphia is under hard development, and writers make heavy use of the tarps around building sites and backyards. Erasure across the city is swift though, with even the tarps being painted-over daily. This series of images lays its focus on this particular type of support to capture a snapshot of today’s renditions of the ‘simple print’, ‘stiff hand’, ‘tall hand’ and ‘wicket’ hands.
Chastanet produced an exclusive video to complement the printed volume. The video provides a perfect record of local handstyle masters displaying their skills with ballpoint pens on school notebooks, the Philly way. It was premiered at the Museum for Hamburg History, Germany, as part of the Unlock Book Fair Hamburg 2023.
Tag Spotlight #3
‘Benching Delta’
Published by Urbanario & Hitzerot
40 pages
15 x 21 cm
Photography: Sascha Blasche
Editor: Javier Abarca
Released June 2023
European graffiti pioneer Delta INC has worked for years on an extensive series of black and white paintings on a particular German model of freight train car used for coal transportation.
This volume features a selection of sightings by Berlin photographer and freight spotter Sascha Blasche. All pictures were taken from the same spot at the yard by the Behala Westhafen, the main city harbour, between 2018 and 2021.
Tag Spotlight #4
‘Werkauszug’
Works by Walter Josef ‘OZ’ Fischer
Published by Urbanario & Hitzerot
40 pages
15 x 21 cm
Edited by Lars Klingenberg & Emmett Edelstein
Series editor: Javier Abarca
Released June 2023
Outsider artist ‘OZ’ (†2014) was outstandingly productive for decades, and his impact is still felt across Hamburg.
This volume of ‘Tag Spotlight’ shows the diversity of his oeuvre, and includes some of his lesser-known lines of work.
TAG: name writing in public space. A reader of the 2017 conference about tagging at Freie Universität Berlin.
Second edition
Published by Menetekel & Possible Books
246 pages
21 x 30 cm
Paperback
Screen-printed dust jacket
English
Released December 2022, first edition released May 2022
Edited by Edward Birzin (US), Javier Abarca (ES) and Matthias Hübner (DE).
With contributions from François Chastanet (FR), Julia Tulke (US), Konstantina Drakopoulou & Argiro Papathanasiou (GR), Orestis Pangalos (GR), Vladimir Stekachyov (RU), Andreas Dorn (DE), Danny Flynn (UK), Edwige Fusaro (FR), Valeria Federici (IT), Vittorio Parisi (IT), Elena García Gayo and Carlota Santabárbara (ES), Theo Kindynis (UK), Will Shank (US), Edward Birzin (US), Rafael Schacter (UK), Gabriele Goffriller (AT), Polly Lohmann (DE), Pedro Soares (PT), Norbert Kirbach (DE), Jake Carter (AU), Kadir ‘Amigo’ Memis (DE), Jo Preußler (DE), Lukas Fuchsgruber (DE), Jean-Baptiste Barra & Timothée Engasser (FR) and Tomasz Sikorski (PL).
Lo Squaderno issue 54: ‘Tagging’
Published by Lo Squaderno
Digital edition
54 pages
Released December 2019
This volume collects some contributions to the 2019 Tag Conference in Cologne, together with other texts on tagging.
Edited by Andrea Mubi Brighenti, Orestis Pangalos and Javier Abarca.
With texts by Lachlan Macdowall (AU), Vittorio Parisi (IT), Lisa Garcia (ES), Julian Windisch (DE), Charles Nolan Vanlinden (US), Konstantinos Avramidis (GR), Peter Bengtsen (DK) and Dina Yunis (LB).