Books in the MCL: Boulevard – On Trespassing and Culture (No. 2 – INSTITUTION)

Parallel to the art world’s growing interest in graffiti, street art, and urban art, scientific research on these fields has also increased steadily in recent years. While standard works can be found in specialized libraries, more in-depth texts and primary sources are often lacking for extensive research. These include rare exhibition catalogs, small editions of gray literature such as illustrated books and scene magazines, but also texts whose relevance has changed in the rapid development of the aforementioned subject areas.

The editors of “Boulevard” have addressed this issue for the first time in 2019 (No. 1 – CLASSICS). The magazine, which comes in the classic format of a daily newspaper, is divided into three chapters each: TALK, REPRINT and CASES. While the last section shows selected photo series, the second part consists of scientific texts that have already been published elsewhere, translated into English and often supplemented by a commentary by the authors. The TALK part functions as a cultural journal that refers to current events, publications, exhibitions and projects, but also includes interviews.

In the current issue (No. 2 – INSTITUTION) Katia Hermann and Pietro Rivasi discuss the challenges and possibilities of exhibitions on graffiti.

In addition to Ben Brohanszki and the Graffitimuseum, Jasper van Es and Good Guy Boris, who curated the groundbreaking #VIRALVANDALS exhibition in Eindhoven in 2017, also have their say. Newly published in the REPRINT section are texts by Lene ter Haar, Harald Hinz, Orestis Pangalos, Patrick Hagopian as well as Bernd Dollinger and Bettina Hünersdorf. CASES features photo series by Dunja Janković, Bill Daniel, Emanuel Roth and images by the Hamburg-based train writer RAGE.

Photos: Steffen Köhler     Text: Sascha Blasche

Find the book in the MCL.