In the Graffiti Book Club, we will go from the wall to the book, from the subway car door to the glossy page of a photography fanzine, and we will wonder why and how to edit tags and graffiti? From this art born in the streets, for the streets, in constant tension with its own disappearance, absolutely linked to the ephemeral, to action, what remains of it between two book covers? The question of the memory of this practice, initially very marginal, still illegal, repressed but having entered all institutional spheres, from art galleries to books, has been raised almost from the beginning of this culture. What are the stakes today? How can the book, with its attention to material, typography, expand this single memorial horizon to become a true and new creative field? We talk about this on the occasion of the Graffiti Book Club opening at La Villette in Paris in a few days and the exhibition Brest sous les bombes, which was previously visible in Brest.
Bibliography – Stanislas Fuzi Baritaux, Les princes du dernier wagon (TAG)
From a subway wall to the glossy page of a fanzine, there is sometimes only one step, or rather a bomb. The Book Club dedicates a program to the editing of graffiti, this art born in the streets, designed to disappear, and yet now widely published.
To understand this evolution, let’s go back to the origins. Fuzi, a major figure in Parisian graffiti in the 90s, recalls that the current movement was born from a break in New York in the 60s. The “writers” invented a new form of urban communication. The tag becomes a signature, presence, affirmation, a game of codes. This culture exploded worldwide with Subway Art (1984), the cult book by Martha Cooper and Henry Chalfant. “It was the Bible. The truth was in that book.”
France entered the scene in 1983-1984, mainly in Paris and the suburbs. The first specialized magazines – Paris Tonkar, Intox – triggered a national wave. Aurélien Harmignies notes: “The distribution through newsstands caused graffiti to explode in France.” But very quickly, the question of the memory of an art that, by its very nature, fades away is raised. Exchanged photos by mail, confidential zines, personal archives, documentation remained artisanal for a long time. Today, graffiti is being edited a lot. Fanzines, archive publications, art books, essays, novels: a creative effervescence that Fuzi condenses in the Graffiti Book Club, the first salon dedicated to graffiti books. “The book becomes a true creative field, not just a memory tool.”
The graffiti continues to reinvent itself, and publishing has become one of its liveliest terrains today. Capturing ephemeral art, transmitting an oral culture, inventing new graphic objects: the book does not replace the wall, it extends its energy. As Fuzi concludes: “Beauty can reside in a train seat near you. The book serves to reveal it.”
The question from Jérémy @j_mercier001 from the Album bookstore in Bordeaux: “I am a bookseller in a comic book specialized store and books dedicated to graffiti are only present on our shelves in two cases, either through our research and implementation, or when they are proposed in our representatives’ catalogs. I wanted to know your artist’s point of view on the implementation of such books in a bookstore, specialized or not, and maybe on creating bridges between graffiti and comic books?”
Small cultural calendar: – 18th edition of the Rue Des Livres festival in Rennes on March 14 and 15, themed around friendship. Encounters, readings, and over 150 authors, illustrators, and artists at the festival!
– The exhibition Brest sous les bombes at the Art Passerelle Center in Brest. A history of graffiti 1984-2004 illustrates the use of spray paint in public spaces in Brest and tells the city’s first twenty years of urban art history.
– GRAFFITI BOOK CLUB, graffiti publishing meetings at La Villette on March 7 and 8. This first unique weekend, entirely dedicated to independent graffiti publishing, is an invitation to discover publications, meet authors and artists, attend public talks, and enjoy exclusive book releases and signing sessions. Books, zines, journals, editorial objects, screen prints, and photographs will be presented and sold by a selection of French and European publishers, reflecting the current dynamism of independent graffiti publishing.
Archives: – Wild Style, a fiction film by Charlie Ahearn, 1982 – Martha Cooper in the documentary Martha: A Picture Story (documentary)
Musical references: – Adrien Pallot, Vingt-deux – Clouddead, Grey – Mafia K’1 Fry, Pour ceux
