Exhibition Tallinn Old School Graffiti

The exhibition Tallinn Old School Graffiti gives an overview of what was made and could be seen on Tallinn walls, trains and trams between 1995 and 2004. The photos guide you through night-time tram parks, streets of Old Town and suburban alleys. The photos evoke memories from times when graffiti in Tallinn was genuine, unspoilt and raw. Spray cans sold in stores had really low quality and the colour selection wasn’t wide back then. The first graffiti experiments were often painted with completely flowing nitro enamel paints.

The attitude towards graffiti was also different. Lot of works were sprayed during daytime in public places without any police interference.

Writers often raised funds to paint a piece together. That’s why every work had a greater meaning. It was pure luck if someone had a camera to capture the works.

The golden era of Tallinn graffiti was lively – there were artists who were known only for their tags – Wrw, Tb, Rsn, Style and then there were crews like Capo, Sek, Bass & Bandit, Zdmc and many others who painted proper colorful walls. Some of them are still active and do graffiti today.

The exhibition consists of 250 photos, mainly from the end of the 90’s til the beginning of the 00’s. The photos have been gathered from graffiti writers, their friends and photographers who captured the written walls of Tallinn just out of interest. Today, most of the graffiti works from that time exist only on photos and are rather poor in quality, but rich in content. These photos seem like cut outs from the old ‘lost’ era that only exists in the memories of those involved or on photos found from old hard drives, floppy disks or boxes put aside to the basement. Therefore we are very grateful to everyone who dug into their photo archives and supported this project in one way or another.

Special thanks: Jaanus Hallmets, Helen Kivisoo, Bianka Soe & Telliskivi Creative City, Ailu, Ote, Anton Koovit, Sim Kares, Metsakutsu, Chr, Lil’J, Cheis, Elast, Hape, Slin, Vene Vana Toomas, Qba, Mora, Riku, Secon, Lauri Täht, Snail, Cosh, Neki, Eltak, Fresh1, Tof, Wild, Faraj, Rene Suurkaev, Jon, Flawless, Feks, Toze, MC Bass, Dj Bandit, Koala, Artur Aug, Egoism, Len, Kuise, WB, Fast K.

Exhibition is curated by Ats Allaste.

The exhibition continues indoors at Telliskivi Creative City’s Gallery (at the shopping streets at Telliskivi 60a/1 and Telliskivi 60a/2).