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[17. juli 2003]
Interview
Meeting of Styles, Christiania 2003
Meeting of Styles
Interview med Manuel Gerullis
Christiania lagde stakit til graffiti-træffet
Meeting of Styles d. 5. juli 2003. Ikke at vi aner en pind
om graffiti, men vi var heldige at få en aftale med Manuel
Gerullis, en af initiativtagerne til arrangementet, der kunne
fortælle om hvordan det kører. Interview: Torben
Zenth. Foto: Astrid Zenth og Torben Zenth.
Meeting of Styles
5. juli 2003
Christiania
Manuel Gerullis
Can you tell about how Meeting of Styles came to be?
Well, I come from Wiesbaden, the city of the international wall-street
meeting, an international graffiti/hip hop event, that we had from
1997 to 2001. It was held on the Schlachthof ground, a huge area
where they slaughtered cattle back in the 80's. Before that there
where deportation of minorities during WWII.
After the slaughtering stopped, the spot wasn’t used anymore,
a bunch of committed people created an alternative cultural center
in the main building, and at the same time the graffiti-scene of
the Rhein-area discovered this place as a spot where they could
paint almost legally. It was in the beginning of the 90's. Later
on it was established as a graffiti hall-of-fame. The authorities
had nothing against it. In 96 there was plans to tear down this
area. at that time the Schlachthof was the only huge graffiti halls-of-fame
in Europe, there was 2.000 m2 walls painted, so we took action against
those plans. Areas like this are needed in Europe, places for legal
graffiti-art. So we said ok, let's make an international event to
show to the officials that there’s a need for such places to
be maintained. So we had the wall-street meeting in 97. There where
artists from all around Europe, we had about 1.500 visitors during
two days. In 2000 there was around 10.000 visitor from all over
the world coming to Wiesbaden. Also artists from all over the world
coming at there own expense, just to be part of it. The walls got
painted several times during the weekend.
The authorities began to tear down the buildings in 2001, and we
thought we had to keep the spirit alive, so we founded the meeting
of styles.
The wall-street meeting is the father of the meeting of styles.
The wall-street meeting was connected to the Schlachthof location,
and it was past, so we chose a new name for keeping the spirit alive.
I got together with friends from all over Europe and asked: do you
have possibilities, do you have spots, we want to keep the spirit
alive.
2002 was the first year of the meeting of styles — this is
the second year — it has grown. Now more cities are part of
the project. Still, the spirit is to show officials and the public
that graffiti is a serious art-form, that can light up the cities.
In all cities you have walls looking really bad, and it's a fact
that the surroundings, the colors influence people in their mood
and their vibrations. When you are surrounded with gray, you start
to think gray. If you are surrounded by vivid walls and vivid colors
you are more vivid in your mind.
Beside that we want to action against increasing criminalizing
of graffiti-art, because now a days, all over Europe, you have zero-tolerance
campaigns and broken windows theory, and on one side that might
be right, but you cannot generally judge graffiti as vandalism,
because it's not this art-form itself, it's the mind behind the
person who’s practicing it. So if you go out to do damage,
you can use a spray-can or use a baseball bat, whatever. Damage
is damage. But you have to make a difference between vandalism and
art.
Meeting of Styles, Christiania 2003
How many meeting of styles are going on this year?
First in Münster, Germany, then in Zagreb, Paris, then
it's Copenhagen now. The next one is in Finland, then to Liverpool,
Poland, Belarus, Netherlands, Belgium, Spain, Portugal and Switzerland.
We are planning to do something in the USA. We are still looking
for funding, we don't have the sponsorships yet.
How do you organize this kind of event?
The meeting of styles is a lot about communication and working
together. Basically it's about cultural cooperation. So you have
local people who now the scene, the city, the politics and who have
connections. This is the local part. I take care of putting all
these things together under one line, molding them all together.
And presenting them to the public. I'm not deeply into the organization
here, because I don't know the people in charge of Christiania or
the city of Copenhagen. It's cooperation. People working together.
They say "We want to be part of the meeting of Styles" and they
see whatever they can do. At least you need a good spot, good vibration
and good local crew.
 
 
Meeting of Styles, Christiania 2003
Is Meeting of Styles some kind of brand,
or why is it attractive to have this event called Meeting of
Styles?
The attractive thing about it is that it's part of an international
project. You have several graffiti-meetings all over Europe under
one headline. It gives the culture and the scene a bigger platform,
it gives them a clear image for people to recognize. As part of
an international project, you automatically get international attention.
Now people all over Europe know how it is in Copenhagen. The authorities
is behind closing Christiania, you have zero tolerance campaign.
People know about it.
 
Meeting of Styles, Christiania 2003
You see a lot of graffiti. How is the graffiti-scene developing?
Well... there’s a lot of development, you have new impressions,
new styles, new techniques. Right now in Germany, photo-realism
is very high. It's a some kind of hyper-fashion. Before that you
had the 3-D stylers. You had letters with no clear outline, just
fadings and shinings. Generally, I would say graffiti in the past
year have grown a lot. You have a lot of young people, who have
discovered the spray-can as a media for themselves. Who tune into
the basic intention of graffiti, which is represent yourself, show
that you have potential.
Some criticize graffiti for being a very stiff form of expression.
It's always the same — these letters and stuff... What will
you say to that?
The general content of graffiti is focused on letters. You know,
names. You have names, you bring your name up, you want to be known.
For people who are not into the culture it might look like it's
all the same. But if you are a little more into it, you'll see that
everything is like a handwriting. Calligraphy. Everybody have their
own style. You can never do a piece the same two times. It's like
a game. You have the basic parts, letters, and then you have so
many different interpretations. To me it's very vivid, and very
different.
 
 
Meeting of Styles, Christiania 2003
Do you see anything special about the Copenhagen graffiti-scene?
Generally it's like every city have it's own original style.
Through all the traveling and all the magazines people are getting
influenced from many different things. The Copenhagen scene, from
what I know, is really top quality. Everybody knows the main habs,
and they are known all over Europe, and they have big fame for it.
What I like about Danish graffiti, is it's really straight and it's
honest. It's real graffiti, the styles are strong and clear. It's
like a punch in the face. When I look at graffiti it has to hit
my eye. Boom, wow! Here it is!
 
Meeting of Styles, Christiania 2003
Is there a future for graffiti in the art world/art business?
The future has already begun. If you look into advertisement,
marketing, fashion you'll see graffiti is everywhere. You just open
a magazine, for sure you'll see illustrations, letters, graphics
inspired by graffiti. Graffiti already have this access and is established
in certain scenes and levels. You have a situation where the system
will not tolerate graffiti at it's roots, for what it really is
— street-art, that's part of the city. All they want is to
instrumentalize it, have it in magazines, museums, on canvases -
at home! But graffiti, it's roots, is something that's happening
in the streets. That have to be part of the streets. To me graffiti
is an expression or desire to be part of urban and social developing
processes. Graffiti, to me, is like a sign: I want to be part of
my surroundings, I want to help creating my surroundings. I don't
want my city to be created by politicians around a table. It's like
an interactive thing. It's like a revolution from the bottom that
says: I wanna be part of what’s going on in my city, I want
to help create it. I don't want my city to be created by people
I have no relation to.
Meeting of Styles, Christiania 2003
When you see what's going on here, is there something that makes
you go Wow!
Yeah, Christiania is a very unique place. You don't get to see
something like this anywhere else in Europe. That's making it very
special. It's a very central spot, so you have a lot of people who
are not into the scene who’s coming to see what’s going
on. It's a really public thing, and yeah, the vibe of Christiania
is very open-minded. People coming from many countries working together,
this is the way it should be.
So you like it here?
Yeah. I love it!
Meeting of Styles, Christiania 2003
Meeting of Styles, Christiania 2003
 Meeting
of Styles, Christiania 2003
Meeting of Styles, Christiania 2003
Meeting of Styles, Christiania 2003
Meeting of Styles, Christiania 2003
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