street art in Stockholm - Gatukonst.se

THEY WERE HANGING AROUND THE TRAFFIC JUNCTION AT SLUSSEN: a gang
of slim cardboard fi gures in underwear, wearing ski masks.
The fi rst one I noticed was peeking uneasily round a corner. One morning they
were sneaking around the roundabout and a few days later one was glancing over
his shoulder while taking a piss under the railway bridge leading to Central Station.
Street art has a natural place in Stockholm’s swarm of signs and messages.
From walls and in pedestrian tunnels, on lampposts and electricity connection boxes,
on bridge supports and road signs, street art offers new and often unexpected
experiences.
When the cardboard fi gures at Slussen began disappearing one by one I began
popping a digital camera into my pocket every time I went out. This taught me to
see Stockholm with new eyes: as a city where much of its art exists in the gaps, on
the periphery, slightly hidden.
People sometimes talk about ‘the art gallery of the streets’. Sure, if that’s what
you want. An exhibition that is both free and open around the clock. No discernible
author. No buyers or sellers.
It has been called graffi ti, post-graffi ti, neo-graffi ti or urban art. For a few years
the term street art has been current as a generic expression. The movement does,
however, have its origins in 1970s graffi ti culture. In the early ‘80s, graffi tists in New
York began experimenting with expression and style, techniques and materials. In
the ‘80s and ‘90s, these ideas quickly spread to Paris, Barcelona and Berlin then
out across the world.
Not everyone makes a difference between graffi ti and street art. And yes, there
are similarities. Since they are practised in public places, both are illegal, and in
Sweden can result in a one-year prison sentence. Many street artists also began as
graffi tists and use alter egos or pseudonyms. Most work at night and are driven by
a desire to have their works seen often and in many places.
21 But street art motifs such as logotypes and fi gures are often more pictorial and