Research

Forschung

> Exhibition „Buchstabenbilder“, 2016, Oxymoron Galerie, Vienna. © Stefan Wogrin / SPRAYCITY

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SPRAYCITY® – SINCE 2001

SPRAYCITY is a documentation archive of the graffiti writing movement in Austria. As one of the first and oldest Austrian websites on the subject, SPRAYCITY documents all facets of graffiti writing in Austria, as well as its marginal phenomena.

The SPRAYCITY archive was founded in Carinthia in 2001 by the art historian Stefan Wogrin in order to react to the transience that goes hand in hand with writing. The works of the Writing movement are short-lived and not destined to last forever. The SPRAYCITY archive has set itself the task of recording, archiving and cataloging the resulting works in photographs and making them accessible to the public for a longer period of time. While some works have already disappeared from the public, photographs of them remain. The archive has been located in Vienna since 2009.

SPRAYCITY ist ein Dokumentationsarchiv der Graffiti-Writing-Bewegung in Österreich. Als eine der ersten und ältesten österreichischen Webseiten zum Thema dokumentiert SPRAYCITY alle Facetten von Graffiti-Writing in Österreich, sowie dessen Randerscheinungen.

Das SPRAYCITY Archiv wurde 2001 durch den Kunsthistoriker Stefan Wogrin in Kärnten gegründet, um auf die Vergänglichkeit mit der das Writing einher geht zu reagieren. Die Werke der Writing-Bewegung sind kurzlebig und nicht für die Ewigkeit bestimmt. Das SPRAYCITY Archiv hat es sich zur Aufgabe gemacht, die entstandenen Werke auf Fotografien festzuhalten, zu archivieren und katalogisiert der Öffentlichkeit für einen längeren Zeitraum zugänglich zu machen. Während manche Werke in der Öffentlichkeit bereits verschwunden sind, bleiben fotografische Abbildungen davon weiterhin erhalten. Seit 2009 befindet sich der Standort des Archivs in Wien.

Photo Archive

Our archive currently includes around 300,000 image documents from all over Austria, Europe and the USA. The SPRAYCITY.AT website forms an interface through which a selection of around 90,000 photos can be accessed online. The online archive is continuously supplemented with photo updates. Additional photos can be extracted from the archive if required.

Archive

Press Archive

In order to document the reception of graffiti writing in the Austrian media, SPRAYCITY creates an ongoing press review of all common daily newspapers, print, TV and other publications on the subject. Our press archive contains around 3,000 articles from 1983 to 2022.

In addition, SPRAYCITY answers press inquiries on the subject of graffiti writing in Austria. More information can be found here: 

Press

Systematic

A separate system was introduced for the archive at the beginning of 2020. Each photo contains metadata in the form of keywords, which can also be called up in combination using the search function.

Systematic

Exhibitions

Parts of the archive and photos are thematically prepared and were repeatedly shown in exhibitions. 

Exhibitions

Research Projects

Below you will find an overview of current research projects 

Research Projects

Knowledge

In addition to the documentation archive, knowledge transfer is an important concern for SPRAYCITY. The recipient should have the best possible access to specialist literature that is difficult to obtain, and should be able to learn and develop their theoretical and practical skills in professional workshops.

Workshops

Information about our workshops can be found here: (German)

Workshops
Literature

Selected literature, specialist books and scene magazines are available via our online shop.

Online shop

References

Literature about Graffiti Writing in Austria (excerpt)

Maike Hettinger, Stefan Wogrin:
Graffiti Wien #1 (1984–1999). Wien 2023

Friedrich Geyrhofer:
Fahrende Fantasien, in: Wiener, Nr. 7. 1984, S.7

Henry Chalfant, James Prigoff:
Spraycan Art. London 1987.

Christian Göbel:
Graffiti in Wien, phil. Dipl. (unpubl.). Wien 1995

Norbert Siegl:
Graffiti Enzyklopädie. Von Kyselak bis HipHop-Jam. Wien 2001

Gabriele Matzinger:
Can art : ist art. Wien 2007

Anneliese Ringhofer, Stefan Wogrin:
Die Kunst der Straße – Graffiti in Wien, in Wiener, Nr. 428. 2018, S.46-53 (Read article online here)

Project Indigo:
PROJECT INDIGO – DOCUMENT, DISSEMINATE & ANALYSE A GRAFFITI-SCAPE, in The International Archives of the Photogrammetry, Remote Sensing and Spatial Information Sciences, 2022-02-25 (Read article online here)

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Contact

Stefan Wogrin, BA

Art historian
ORCiD: 0000-0002-1634-7768
Member of Verband österreichischer Kunsthistorikerinnen und Kunsthistoriker (VöKK)
Member of the board, Levin Statzer Foundation

stefan.wogrin@spraycity.at