"catching lines"

Presenting the works of over fifty graffiti artists from all over the world – from Japan and Australia to Brazil and Hawaii, this exhibition provides an insight into the multitude of writing styles. It once again brings the focus back to the technique and aesthetics of lettering as one of the essences of this form of street art.

The cause-and-effect relationship between the technique and the aesthetics of graffiti comes to the fore, primarily because we are talking about graffiti that is written on canvas, panels, or papers and exhibited in a gallery space and not in an established natural habitat – trains, trams, and subways. The dangers that follow this stigmatized form of art are left out because the exhibited works were created in private areas. Therefore, graffiti artists are provided with more intimate space for safe and dedicated “catching of the lines.”

However, apart from high-quality performances that give the audience a clear insight into the diversity and authenticity of expression in graffiti art, one of the basic ideas of the “Catching Lines” exhibition was to encourage the collaborative work of graffiti artists. Therefore, this exhibition not only thematizes the subliminal connections that graffiti establishes as universal signs of transcultural communication but implies the materialization of such connections by creating conditions for collaborative work.

Artifacts of graffiti artists’ work are not limited to art artifacts, i.e., graffiti panels. On the one hand, this exhibition presents an archive of photographs that embalmed the beginnings of graffiti art in the 80s in New York and its development in different parts of the world. The photographs predominantly show graffiti on trains, subways, and trams. They remind us that the lines caught by travelers and those caught by graffiti artists are just a double bond between all of us.

On the other hand, the exhibition provides an insight into the personal archives of objects that show the “reality” of a person dedicated to “catching the lines”. From used spray cans to traffic signs, the objects exhibited in the Manifesto Gallery bear witness to the experience of claiming public space, which belongs to everyone, which we share, which brings us together.