OUR POSTER BOY RETURNS

Exactly 199 years ago Joseph Kyselak passed through Linz. That famous trip took him across many European provinces and was recounted in the book he published four years later. Our poster for this conference shows a detail from the landscape of Linz as portrayed in a lithograph dated around 1840.

In celebration of this 199th year anniversary we are honoured to bring back the Austrian tagging legend and poster boy from the Tag Conference’s 2017 founding instalment at the Freie Universität in Berlin.

JUMP TO MUNICH FOR THE UNLOCK BOOK FAIR

The Unlock Book Fair is a unique international meeting for graffiti book lovers. It was founded in 2016 as the Tag Conference’s team flagship event.

A new Unlock Book Fair will take place in Munich, under three hours away from Linz, on the weekend right after the conference. Staying in Linz for the Friday night allows for an easy jump to Munich next morning without missing a bit of the action at Unlock.

Don’t miss the chance to access the cutting edge of independent graffiti publishing from across the world at Unlock’s trademark feast of graffiti books and zines. The event features a groundbreaking program of events about graffiti including talks, screenings and book launches.

PROGRAM

The program for this new Tag Conference covers again a wide range of approaches to name-writing, from the Renaissance-era marks of Antonio Bosio to the latest developments in graffiti letterforms in China.

Speakers will look into forgotten chapters of European tagging lore from the 1980s, explore the carved names from Romantic-era tourists on exotic monuments, and share different takes on tag-inspired contemporary art practice.

A special focus is laid on Austria, from the pioneering tags of Kyselak to the local evolution of contemporary graffiti.

THURSDAY 16

Opening

10am
Ilaria Hoppe (AT) & Javier Abarca (ES)

Panel: Contemporary graffiti

10:15am
Stefan Wogrin (AT)
«The history of tagging and name-writing in Vienna»

11am
Tobias Barenthin (SE)
«Toy Co. and the magic loop, Stockholm styles before Bando»

11:45am
Pablo Summer (AT)
«Snapshots from the history of graffiti in Steyr, Linz and Upper Austria»

12:15am
Marta R. Bisceglia and Adriana Iezzi (IT)
«Chinese characters and calligraphy in contemporary Chinese graffiti»

Lunch break

1—2pm

Panel: Art from tagging

2pm
Rich Keville (AU)
«X as a semiotic device: tracing calligraphic painting interventions on trains and walls in Italy»

2:30pm
Benjamin Rubloff (US)
«Ciphers: traces in the city»

3:15pm
Tofa (AT)
«Concrete tagging»

Coffee break

4—4:30pm

Closing talks

4:30pm
Orestis Pangalos (GR)
«Applied tag imagery: the signifiers of graffiti iconography in marketing, advertisements, package labeling and other cases»

5:15pm
Javier Abarca (ES)
«Unearthing the lost legacy of Muelle and the ‘flecheros’ from 1980s Madrid»

FRIDAY 17

Panel: History

10am
Egidio Emiliano Bianco (IT)
«Antonio Bosio and the curious case of a 1500s ‘heaven spot’ in the Catacombs of Rome»

10:45am
Julian Windisch (DE)
«“I was here!—No, I made it!” Uncovering 500 years of school graffiti at the Maulbronn Monastery»

11:30am
Hania El Houry (DE)
«Traveller inscriptions along the Nile in the 19th and early 20th centuries»

12:15pm
Gabriele Goffriller (AT)
«“…a club of Kyselak fanatics who trade maps of where they’ve found his work”»

Lunch break

1—2pm

Closing talk

2pm
Edward Birzin (US)
«Caine–I, free for eternity»

City walk

4—7pm
Sabine Sinzinger (AT)
Public restroom tour of Linz

Bringing together different research spheres

For a long time, most scholars of historical graffiti found no interest in contemporary name-writing, or could not afford to lose credibility by looking at it. Similarly, enthusiasts of contemporary graffiti have typically skipped the old graffiti books on library shelves. They simply thought it had nothing to do with them.

The Tag Conference was launched in 2017 as the place for a serious study of tagging. It was founded by insiders of contemporary graffiti, but the call was open to scholars of history as well. At that point it was clear we are all talking about the same thing, and a space had to be created for that conversation. Focusing on the written names created the perfect overlap between both research spheres.

More reasons to focus on tags

Featuring contemporary tags as a central topic is also an explicit stance for the Tag Conference.

Tags are still the maligned part of today’s graffiti, the one even appreciative observers prefer to omit. But those same tags are the foundation of the whole culture of graffiti — as well as its most fascinating part, as we hope the conference is helping to show.

Useful information from Linz Tourismus

Travelling to Linz
Leisure in Linz
‘Visit Linz’ free app
‘Linz Card’, one ticket for the entire city

Image credits

Unknown artist
«Linz an der Donau. Der Pulverthurm bey Linz.»
C. 1840, lithograph, 17 × 23 cm
Courtesy of Ilaria Hoppe

Soot signature by Antonio Bosio in the Catacombs of Rome
Courtesy of Egidio Emiliano Bianco

Franz Laudacher
«Der Pulverthurm bey Linz»
1837, watercolor, 18 × 24 cm
Photograph by Reinhard Haider
Courtesy of Nordico Stadtmuseum Linz

WRITTEN REPORT ON THE CONFERENCE

By the KU Linz team

The historic city of Linz recently played host to the Tag Conference, a premier event in the field of graffiti studies. Held at the Institute for Contemporary Arts and Media under the direction of Ilaria Hoppe at the Catholic Private University of Linz, the conference brought together scholars and researchers from America, Australia, and Europe to explore the art and history of tagging.

The Tag Conference, now in its seventh year, has firmly established itself as a cornerstone event in graffiti studies, with previous editions held in major cities like New York and Hamburg. This year’s gathering, set against the picturesque backdrop of Linz, offered a unique platform for delving into the multifaceted world of graffiti.

Complementing the Tag Conference was the Unlock Book Fair, a must-attend event for graffiti book lovers. Held in Munich over the weekend following the conference, Unlock offered attendees a seamless transition to continue their exploration of graffiti culture. The fair featured a dynamic program of talks, screenings, and book launches, showcasing the cutting edge of independent graffiti publishing from around the world.

A recurring topic at this Tag Conference were the tags of Joseph Kyselak. Kyselak, an Austrian civil servant, became an unexpected tagging legend after inscribing his name across various European landmarks in the early 19th century. His exploits, immortalized in his 1828 publication, continue to inspire graffiti enthusiasts and scholars alike. The conference poster aptly featured a detail from an 1840 lithograph of Linz where a tag by Kyselak is reproduced on a wall, celebrating his historical contributions.

The conference program was as diverse as it was comprehensive. Sessions covered a wide array of topics, from the Renaissance-era marks of Antonio Bosio, presented by Egidio Emiliano Bianco, or 500 years of school graffiti found in the Maulbronn monastery, showcased by Julian Windisch, to contemporary graffiti letterforms in China, examined in the research of Marta R. Bisceglia and Adriana Iezzi. Discussions explored often overlooked chapters of European tagging history from the 1980s, as presented by Tobias Barenthin in his talk about Stockholm graffiti, examined carved names left by Romantic-era tourists on monuments in Egypt, introduced through Hania El Houry’s presentation, and analyzed the intersections of tag-inspired contemporary art, covered in a panel with artists Rich Keville, Benjamin Rubloff and Tofa.

A special emphasis was placed on Austria’s graffiti heritage, tracing its evolution from Kyselak’s pioneering tags, in the paper by Gabriele Goffriller, to modern-day expressions of writing, illustrated by the investigations by Pablo Summer as well as Stefan Wogrin, and furthermore trough the guided tour in Linz with Sabine Sinzinger. This focus underscored the conference’s commitment to bridging historical and contemporary graffiti practices, fostering a holistic understanding of this vibrant cultural phenomenon.

The Tag Conference 2024 also addressed the evolving perception of graffiti, underscored by the presentations of the members of the scientific committee Javier Abarca, Orestis Pangalos and Edward Birzin. While contemporary tags are often marginalized, the conference positioned them as fundamental elements of graffiti culture. By bringing together scholars from different eras and disciplines, the event sought to elevate the study of tagging and affirm its significance within the broader scope of graffiti research.

This year’s conference reaffirmed the Tag Conference’s mission to create a space where historical and contemporary graffiti can be studied and appreciated on equal terms. As the attendees departed from Linz, they left with a deeper understanding of graffiti’s rich history and its ongoing dialogue and evolution.