SURVIVORS VOL.I Berlin 90s Tag Aesthetics

In a graffiti city like Berlin tags are the most executed form of writing but at the same time they also get buffed the most. To stumble across older tags that somehow survived cleaning, weather conditions or being painted over by other writers is not an often occurring event. SURVIVORS – VOL.I is the start of a brand new book series solely focusing on these remaining tags from Germany’s capital.

In the mid 2000s art historian Sascha Blasche started documenting graffiti mainly in the Western part of his hometown. Tags from the 1990s somehow stood out from contemporary writings even back then. While newer tags started to fade after a few weeks, 90s names seem to stay longer in certain places like on electric boxes, brick walls, school backyards or under bridges. But not only the placing let them survive, they seemingly were done not with graffiti spray paint but way more resistant automotive enamel.

This might also be the reason why the style how letters were executed back then is unique and eye-catching. Even today it is possible to recognize a typical Berlin 90s tag aesthetic. On 216 pages the hardcover compiles almost 1200 tags that were documented in between 2005 and 2010. In alphabetical order the viewer is able to enjoy mostly spray paint handstyles by well known writers like LEVEL, AKUT, BAS2, AAM, ZEAL, RASTA or OXBOE. But the book’s focus are also names which up to now are not represented in publications on the Berlin scene like TAXIE, BRAIN, LEMONE, ZICKE (†), AUE, DEY, COMET, GUS, ZERO, SCENE, HEMA, DRUG, ASCY and many more.