03 Dec 2012

'Conceptual Vandalism Contemporary Art on Trains'
at Motorenhalle. Project Centre of Dresden

During the 1980s, the US-phenomenon to spray subway wagons spilled over to Europe. Because there were only a few cities with a large-scale subway-system, the sprayers concentrated on the local public transport system. The suburban trains and the regional railway system seemed to be the perfect counterparts to imitate the American model. Along the way, the sprayers adopted the writing ideology 'write your name on trains as often as you can'.
Since the year 2000, new trends have been discovered. A group of sprayers got bored with the simple 'name-dropping'. They developed new strategies to paint on trains. Until 2009 it was a small group of „train-artists' that separated itself from the classical writing on trains. Since then, through the impact of the internet, more and more writers have seemed to realize art-creation on trains as a serious new strategy. Conceptual Vandalism integrates a group of train-painters who were working conceptually on trains in the non writing context even before 2009.

Artworks of the exhibition
The original artworks are always destroyed in Germany in short time. Photography is the most common medium for the documentation of the works. Therefore, mainly documentary photos will be shown in the exhibition. It will be complemented by sketches, objects, videos and internet-contents.

Artists
Only artists who do not appear in the public space take part in the exhibition. They act solely in the underground. Train-painting is still illegal and criminally prosecuted.