UNLOCK BOOK FAIR 2026 - The World of Graffiti and Street Art Books Comes to Völklinger Hütte

from 13:00
Entry open to the UNLOCK BOOK FAIR

13:30
Tag Spotlight #6: Romantic Era Tourist Marks in Egypt
Urbanario Books (ES) & Hitzerot (DE) & Hania El Houry. 42 pages. Magazine launch

Munich-based art historian Hania El Houry researches historical photographic archives looking for pictures of the graffiti left by European travellers on ruins along the Nile during the era of the Grand Tour, when those monuments were first becoming a destination for Westerners. She traces the taggers through historical records, often uncovering famous figures and nobility behind the signatures, showing how name-writing was commonplace in that time and place.
Romantic Era Tourist Marks in Egypt is the sixth issue in the Tag Spotlight series, co-published by Hitzerot and Urbanario Books for Tag Conference Vienna (@thetagconference), held at the National Library of Austria in November 2025 and dedicated to romantic-era tagging and the figure of Joseph Kyselak.

13:37
Detective Show X
Robert Kaltenhäuser (DE) & Lene ter Haar (NL). Book launch

Detective Show X was an open-air exhibition in which visitors used clues to locate art in public spaces in two adjacent parks in Aachen, held in August 2025 with thirteen artists including Moses & Taps, Mathieu Tremblin and Klaus Dauven. Co-edited with Lene ter Haar, the book also covers the original 1978 immersive outdoor urban art event, organised by artist John Fekner in Jackson Heights, Queens, NYC, which gave the X its name. Kaltenhäuser is guest curator at the Urban Art Biennale.

13:52
PlayBomb Vol.4
PlayBomb Magazin (ES) & Diego Verdes. Magazine launch

Madrid-based PlayBomb brings the fourth issue of its project, built with over fifty writers from Madrid and cities including London, Berlin, Paris, Milan, Caracas, Bogotá, and New York. Featuring exclusive, in-depth articles on underground topics by the magazine's daredevil reporters.

13:59
Malicia
Ediciones Raritas (ES) & Malicia. 20 pages, A5, Risograph, edition of 100. Comic book launch

Autobiographical comic about trainwriting. The author revisits the years of painting trains and metros: a whole universe often dismissed as vandalism, but actually made of encounters, underground stories, run-ins with the police, and experiences that shaped an entire generation.

14:06
Alain Rault
Power Vision (FR) & Espack. A5, hardcover, 84 colour pages, edition of 100. Book launch

A vagrant in Rouen for decades, Alain Rault engraves the city's walls and doors with words. He uses nails, knife points, coins and stones picked up from the ground. His marks accumulate into dense compositions — random words, names of politicians, philosophers, comic-book characters and pop singers — in a calligraphic hand that is personal and at times exquisite. They have become part of the city's landscape.
Espack documents his practice in a 198-page hardcover, released in an edition of 100 for this fair.

14:13
Ausreißen
Doppelhand (DE) & Sebastian & Fabian. 416 pages. Book launch

Ausreißen — German for 'running away' — documents subcultures in rural East Germany and their desire to escape the constraints of normativity. A collaborative project comprising over 100 individuals and artists, spanning 416 pages.
Doppelhand is an independent publisher from Leipzig with a focus on publications about graffiti, train writing and subculture, documenting and preserving various perspectives on ephemeral urban phenomena.

14:20
ML7 — Metro Lissabon
ML7 Metro Lisboa (PT) & Pedro Esteves. 644 pages, hardcover, bilingual Portuguese & English. Book launch

ML7 is the first photobook ever dedicated to graffiti on Lisbon's metro system. It documents 30 years of underground expression, from 1994 to 2024, capturing the colours, risks, stories, and tension of one of the most iconic graffiti environments in Europe.
Five years of research and curation by Pedro Esteves, his first book. Over 60 contributors from writers, photographers, and artists, and around 30 first-hand testimonies in English and Portuguese.
In Pedro's words: "ML7 grew out of a desire to preserve the memory of something fragile, intense and often undocumented."

14:30–15:30
Book Signing: Rodopa
With authors GLOW & XPOME (BG).

A visual requiem for a building — the Rodopa Meat Factory. Completed in 1934, the complex was the largest slaughterhouse in Bulgaria. 240-page hardcover, exclusively released at Unlock. Four years of graffiti interventions in the abandoned complex.

14:45
Archiving the Underground: 30 Years of Art Crimes and the Digital Evolution of Graffiti
Talk with Jon Phillips

Jon Phillips is one of the figures behind Art Crimes (graffiti.org), the world's first and most enduring digital gallery for graffiti. Since its inception in 1994, Art Crimes has transitioned from a radical act of "aesthetic sabotage" to a vital historical archive of a global subculture. This presentation traces the site's past as a pioneer of the digital underground, its present role as a bridge between the streets and institutional recognition, and a future where the ephemeral nature of graffiti meets the permanence of the digital record.

15:15
Les Chroniques de Fink
Talk with Glob'Writer'z (FR) & Fink.

A project documenting metro systems around the world through the lens of graffiti, drawing not only from my own travels, but also from my friends’ adventures, encounters along the way, documents I have collected and legends that circulate within the scene. The talk explores the differences between scenes, environments, practices and their consequences depending on the cities and continents.

16:00 Uhr
Uyuni
Glob'Writer'z (FR) & Fink. Edition of 100 signed and numbered copies. Book launch

Fink is a graffiti writer and photographer exploring the relationship between graffiti, travel and industrial landscapes.
This photobook documents the train cemetery of Uyuni in Bolivia, located on the Altiplano at nearly 4,000 metres above sea level. Through photographs taken in 2014 and 2016, the project captures the abandoned locomotives and the traces left by travellers and graffiti writers in this unique deserted landscape.
The book also reflects the journey required to reach this remote location and the challenge of bringing paint to a region where the nearest graffiti shop is thousands of kilometres away. It comes in an edition of 100 signed and numbered copies including an exclusive stencil.

16:07
Zaunwaffel
Hans Ostapenko (DE). Zine launch

Zaunwaffel is a tool born from the physical toll of climbing fences (scratches, torn trousers, broken bones, ripped-off fingers). The 'Zaunkönig' (fence king) developed a solution in a backyard workshop in Dortmund-Nord. The result is available as a zine with technical drawings and a video clip with measurements, tips, and tools needed for noncommercial DIY reproduction. Hans Ostapenko presents the zine and premieres a related video at the launch.

16:14
Battering Ram of Imagination
Utopia Libri (CZ) & Valdimír Turner. 304 pages, colour. Book launch

Vladimír Turner's new book on Prague street art history and activism. A manual of urban disobedience, bringing together an eclectic selection of visual material, instructions, manifestos, interviews, stories, poetry and historical reflections on recent decades of creative non-conformity of the new urban avant-garde. Part of Turner's wider project Publicly Beneficial Works, which also includes the full-length documentary Urban Disobedience Toolkit, screened in the Cinema Room after this launch. Turner is among the featured artists at the Urban Art Biennale.

16:21
Section 63
Velocity Press (UK) & Colin Steven. 144 pages. Photography by Yushy. Book launch

Velocity Press is an independent UK publisher specialising in music, nightlife, and underground culture. Its catalogue explores rave, club culture, sound system movements, and countercultural histories through memoir, fiction, and social commentary. Based in London, they have published 65 titles since 2019. Section 63: Photographer Yushy documents the growing hunger for the DIY spirit of dance music, a renaissance of feeling reminiscent of the early 90s. Embedding himself with various crews across London, he gained their trust and friendship, stepping into their world and their fight to reclaim forgotten spaces to play music for the people just for a night.

16:28
UK Rave Flyers 1988–1989
Velocity Press (UK) & Colin Steven. 300 pages. Book launch

A deluxe collection of original flyers from the breakthrough years of UK acid house, capturing the DIY energy and bold visual style of a scene that grew from underground parties into a nationwide movement. Featuring high-quality reproductions and quotes from DJs, promoters and ravers.

16:35
Backjumps Magazin 1994–2000
Bald Books (DE) & Ruediger Glatz. 3 hardcover volumes in box, 840 pages. Edition of 982 copies. Buchvorstellung

One of the biggest recent hits. A milestone in European graffiti history, Backjumps Magazine 1994–2000 brings together the legendary Berlin magazine in a complete archival edition for the first time. All 16 original issues are reproduced in true 1:1 scale, preserving the raw visual language, attitude, and energy that defined graffiti culture in the 1990s.
The publication is carefully contextualised with text contributions by JayOne, Mode2, Ruediger Glatz and Hugo Vitrani, and an in-depth interview with Adrian Nabi and Poet conducted by Lukas Feireiss. Rare historical images further document a formative era of writing in Europe.

16:42
Moskauer Graffiti: Language and Subculture
Routledge (UK) & Susan Hansen. Author John Bushnell (US) in video recording. Book launch

Routledge reedition of an obscure 1980s classic on Moscow graffiti. Susan Hansen, as representative of Routledge’s graffiti collection, will present it. Igor Ponosov will join her in a short discussion, and present his new book on Moscow history, which continues the narration of the 80s title.

16:57
Lawless
Doppelhand (DE) & Sebastian & Fabian. 248 pages, edition of 500. Book launch

For several decades, a phantom has been wracking international graffiti yards. Lucky Lawless is considered one of the most active writers of his generation. Across Germany and Europe, his crews BLOW, W2D, and SY cause heart palpitations on public transport.

17:04
Spraytrains Vol. 9
Spraytrains (IT) & Chiara. Magazine launch

A North Italy commuters benching blog turned glossy magazine, Spraytrains comes back to Unlock to present the ninth volume in its long-running series.

17:11
Coast Kings
Coast Kings Press (UK) & Tom Dartnell. 384 pages, hardcover, landscape. Book launch

Coast Kings documents the initial years (1983–1994) of graffiti in Brighton, UK. While larger cities such as London,
Bristol and Birmingham were the first to have nationally recognised graffiti scenes in the 1980s, the coastal resort of Brighton took its time to develop. But by the early 1990s, Brighton was well and truly on the map thanks to the style explorations of Req and SheOne, the steel exploits of Nema, and the town's general openness to graffiti. A project initiated more than 20 years ago, Coast Kings will finally be published in May 2026. Containing more than 750 photos and interviews with many of the writers active during that period, the book provides a much needed, indepth slice of UK graffiti history. One of the protagonists is Brighton writer Nema, Europan legend and superstar protagonist of the book Ghost in the Machine (one of the highlights of the fair.) Nema is actually Christopher Stead, artist and author of Ghosts. He will be signing copies of Ghosts at Alias Press. He may want to join this launch.

17:18
Peinture libre
Skira (IT/CH) & OX (FR). 176 pages, 24 × 28 cm. Book launch

OX is a living legend from the founding years of European street art. He has been hijacking billboards for more than four decades. He started his career as part of the seminal collective Les Frères Ripoulin, best remembered for their freestyle work on the street billboards of Paris in the mid-eighties. Peinture libre is a monograph focused on his pasteup work, published by Skira, a major international art publisher. OX currently has a retrospective at the Musée des Beaux-Arts de Nancy, 90 minutes from Völklingen.

17:45
Graffiti and Photography
With Alex FaKso (UK), Sascha Blasche (DE), Rüdiger Glatz (DE). Panel

“We shot film when no one was watching, documented subcultures and streets before anyone thought to assign them value. The graffiti world, a world that lived and died on walls, trains and that was erased by rain and painted over by rivals, existed in photographs or it ceased to exist at all. We were the memory keepers of a scene that had no museum, no gallery, no institution. We shot in the gap. That gap is now the archive of a generation.” (Alex FaKso).

FILM SCREENINGS

17:00
Urban Disobedience Toolkit
With director Vladimír Turner (CZ). Screening

Artist and filmmaker Vladimír Turner follows a group of guerrilla artists in Prague who reclaim their city through unconventional and subversive installations in public space — against the rapid urban transformation and the privatisation of public space it produces.

KINO ACHTEINHALB

19:30–21:00
Screening: Optische Schreie
Kino Achteinhalb, Saarbrücken — wissensART Filmprogramm
with director Lovorka Peric-Hassler. Moderator: KP Flügel.

Documentary about Klaus Paier, a physics graduate who illegally painted walls at night in Aachen in the 70s and 80s, finding in his large-format images an outlet for the things that frightened him: war, the arms race, nuclear power, environmental pollution, but also homophobia and academic pressure. The artist himself called these appeals, warning signals, protests and quotations “Optische Schreie” (Visual Screams). Three of Paier’s murals are now officially heritage-protected.

21:00–21:30
Post-screening discussion
Kino Achteinhalb, Saarbrücken — wissensART Filmprogramm
Discussion  

from 11:00
Entry open to the UNLOCK BOOK FAIR

11:45
Marginal Matters
Klick Klack Verlag (DE) & Roman Häbler. Includes launch of The Last Issue. Talk

Munich-based publisher Klick Klack Publishing documents style writing with a focus on everything happening beyond the finished piece. Their work explores processes, contexts, and effects surrounding images and actions, situating graffiti within social, spatial, and urban frameworks, and thus translating the uniqueness of graffiti into unique printed matter.
At Unlock, Klick Klack will present The Last Issue, a collection of essays, scientific analyses, and image studies that explore writing culture and the essential details at its core. Echoing the Whole Earth Catalog and the tradition of printed matter as tools for knowledge and research, this deliberately crafted print publication moves through digital forensics, intersections of biology and technology, and questions surrounding the institutionalisation and documentation of graffiti from multiple perspectives.
The talk also covers Klick Klack's publishing practice since 2010, alongside selected projects and current discourses.

12:15
Street Calligraphy Artist Residency Presentation
With Tomek & Mosa & PAL Crew (FR). Talk

Pablo Tomek and Alexandre 'Mosa87' Bavard, from Parisian collective PAL, are highly influential artists who merge graffiti calligraphy with contemporary art practice in new and striking ways. They will create site-specific calligraphic interventions on surfaces throughout the streets of Völklingen, as well as in the post-industrial spaces of Völklinger Hütte. Curated by Unlock director Javier Abarca.

12:30
Book Signing Graffiti Blackbooks: Bates
Publikat Press (DE) & Bates. Book signing

BATES belongs to the first generation of European graffiti writers and started in 1984. Within a decade he became one of the most famous writers on the continent, best known for his legible, well-balanced and perfectly executed stylewriting pieces. The book collects four decades of sketches — raw, annotated, weathered. First volume in the new Graffiti Blackbooks series.
Part of the first generation of European graffiti writers, Bates has been writing since 1984. Within a decade his legible, wellbalanced and perfectly executed stylewriting had made him one of the most famous names on the continent. Published by Publikat Press, the title opens the publisher's new Graffiti Blackbooks series. 208 pages, softcover with flaps, English. Bates will be at the publisher stall on Saturday afternoon to sign copies.

12:30
Book Signing of Book Ghosts in the Machine
Alias Press (BE) & co-author Christopher Stead (UK). Book signing

Ghosts in the Machine documents graffiti and rave subculture in the wake of a post-Thatcher Britain, as a disenfranchised youth finds social cohesion and identity through the act of graffiti. Meanwhile, rave's rhetoric of social inclusion, set amid Thatcherism, resisted the binaries of boredom, race, class and gender, making it one of its generation's most significant youth movements.
Written through the eyes of two participant observers, Christopher Stead and Nema, who witnessed these two movements in their infancy blossom into global sociocultural phenomena, the book contains seven chapters of imperfect histories, lucid anecdotes, and subcultural polemics to accompany 300 archival photos, with a foreword by the artist and activist Jonny Banger. Published by Alias Press and designed by Studio Aurèle Sack, the book is a 360-page hardcover in English. Stead will be at the fair signing copies at the Alias Press stall.

12:45
121/183: A conversation with Boris 'Delta' Tellegen
Apaperbook (NL) & Boris 'Delta' Tellegen. Talk

In 2011, European graffiti pioneer Boris 'Delta' Tellegen began working systematically on the Falns 121 and 183 freight cars, two models from Deutsche Bahn he found regularly parked in a yard in The Netherlands. The models lack ample surfaces to paint on, and have therefore remained unpopular among graffiti writers.
Working within that constrained format, Delta developed a relentless series of paintings made with cheap white roller paint and black spray paint. By 2023 he had produced over 760 pieces, each wagon sketched in advance as a fresh idea. The series became one of the most iconic and long-running works in the history of trainwriting.
"The time it takes to paint a wagon varies from 25 minutes to an hour. […] For a while a random goal of painting a minimum of one hundred wagons a year was reached."
The resulting book, titled 121/183, gathers 761 images and was published in Amsterdam by Apaperbook. The photographs appear in non-chronological order, grouped into conceptual series. Short texts by the artist divide the photo sections with reflections on the practice itself: the tools, the spots, the preliminary sketching, and the impermanence that comes with painting on a freight wagon. The book closes with an essay by French author François Chastanet.
While the series has had a strong, continuous presence in the European train landscape, the paintings often faded within months. As Delta puts it, "the photograph was the most important proof of existence."

13:30
121/183 (Delta)
Apaperbook (NL) & Borsi 'Delta' Tellegen. Book signing

Boris 'Delta' Tellegen signs copies of 121/183, the 761-image volume documenting his decade-long series of paintings on Falns 121 and 183 freight cars, published by Apaperbook (Amsterdam). Talk earlier today at VH Stage (12:45).

13:30
Remio's workshop for kids
With Remio. Workshop

Kids' workshop connected to the recent release of REMIO's colouring book, with introductions by Barry McGee and Os
Gemeos.
REMIO is a Norwegian graffiti writer based in Paris. Since the late nineties, his tags and throw-ups have marked walls and trains worldwide. His 'R' is one of the most recognisable characters in street bombing. He presents his new colouring book at Unlock, with intros by Barry McGee and Os Gemeos, and runs a colouring workshop for kids at his stall on Saturday. Kids are welcome to come and draw throughout the fair.

13:45
The Bureaucracy of Mass Transit Graffiti: A View from Canada
With Jamie Jelinski (CA/UK). Talk

What happens after a graffiti incident on a mass transit system? Using examples drawn from his research on the Montreal Metro and Toronto Subway obtained via access to information requests, Jamie Jelinski examines how two of Canada’s largest transit companies investigate, photograph, and archive graffiti. In doing so, he shows how their employees, digital infrastructure, and administrative practice contribute to an institutional bureaucracy that ensures graffiti’s preservation long after it has been removed from the side of a train.

14:15
Future Language of the Ikonoklast
Velocity Press (UK) & Remi Rough. 271 pages, hardcover. Talk and book launch

In 1989, six visionary graffiti artists were invited to join a groundbreaking new collective spearheaded by Juice 126. The group sought to break free from the traditional constraints of graffiti, forging a bold path as a 'post-graffiti supergroup'. Thus, the Ikonoklast Movement was born. The book covers 35 years of the collective's work. Since a big part of their works were painted in the pre-social media era most of the book's content is shown for the very first time in this extensive hardcover.
In 1989, six London graffiti artists were invited to join a new collective spearheaded by Juice 126. Guided by his manifesto, the group sought to break free from the traditional constraints of graffiti. This was well before the current wave of street art, and the collective became one of the earliest groups of writers to push deliberately beyond the rules of graffiti culture.
Collective member Remi Rough will be at the fair presenting the new book about this era. In his own words: "a 272 page tome of artworks and photographs from a pre-digital era sharing the history of the Ikonoklast Movement." Most of this material is published for the first time.
Published by Velocity Press, who will be at the fair with their catalogue exploring rave and other subcultures. Remi Rough is a featured artist at this year's Urban Art Biennale.

14:45
From the Streets to the Page: My Life as a Graffiti Publisher
With Alan Ket (US). Talk

What drives someone to dedicate thirty years to documenting graffiti culture? Alan Ket began publishing articles in the 1990s, released his first book in the 2000s, and never stopped. In this talk, he shares the story behind more than fifteen titles and why he chose publishing as a path that honors the culture he loves.
What drives someone to dedicate thirty years to documenting graffiti culture? Alan Ket started out as a graffiti writer in Brooklyn, New York in the 1980s. He met the photographer Henry Chalfant in high school, who became a role model, encouraging him to document his own art and the art movement.
Ket founded Stress magazine in 1996 and has since published over fifteen specialised books. He is an artist, graffiti historian and cofounder of the Museum of Graffiti. In this talk, he shares the story and why he chose publishing as a path that honours the culture he loves.

15:30
Graffiti and Comic Books
With Mathieu Tremblin (FR), moderator; RIOT1394 (AT), Loiq (FR), Null Null Verlag (CL/DE). Panel

In recent years, graffiti writers have turned to comic books as a medium for telling stories about the culture — a full circle from a culture originally inspired by comic book letters. Loiq is the scene-favourite author known for his comics about graffiti, full of insider humour. RIOT1394 makes underground comix drawn from his own character universe, and presents his new title El Puño. Moderator Mathieu Tremblin presents Du Graffiti en Bande Dessinée, an archive of comic book panels featuring graffiti spanning 40 years of international comics.
Moderator Mathieu Tremblin presents Du Graffiti en Bande Dessinée, an archive of comic book panels featuring graffiti, spanning 40 years of international comics. A highlight is the French Glénat edition of Akira, where real '90s Parisian tags appear in the Neo-Tokyo backgrounds. Tremblin and Obisk93 compiled them into a poster available at the fair. Some of these comic book panels are collected in a volume of the #amicaleduhibouspectateur zine series, edited by Obisk93 and published by Éditions Carton-pâte. The zine will be available at Unlock.
Also launching at the fair: Malicia, an autobiographical trainwriting comic by Malicia (ES) published by Ediciones Raritas (ES).

URBAN ART BIENNALE OPENING — 16:30–21:00 Uhr

16:30
Live Music Introduction with Elektro Hafiz

Contemporary Turkish folk music opening the Urban Art Biennale ceremony.

16:40
Official Presentation

Institutional presentation inaugurating the Urban Art Biennale.

17:00
Terminology in Urban Art
Panel with Jens Besser (DE), moderator; Prof. Ilaria Hoppe, Robert Kaltenhäuser (DE), Nico Ciarlone.

Discussion on the definitions, categories and language used to describe practices within urban art and graffiti.

17:00
Urban Art Biennale Tour with curator Frank Krämer

Guided tour of the Biennale exhibition including site-specific works and interventions by over 50 international artists.

18:00
Street Art, Between Illegality and Monument Protection
wissensART Film Programme with Nathalie David (FR/DE), Valentin Rothmaler (DE), Lovorka Peric-Hassler (DE), Monika Krücken (DE). Moderator: KP Flügel

Discussion preceding the Naegeli screening. The two films in the wissensART programme deal with artists whose illegal work was later officially recognised: Klaus Paier’s murals in Aachen, now heritage-protected, and Harald Naegeli, simultaneously prosecuted and awarded Zurich’s Grand Art Prize. A conversation among four voices close to these rare reversals. Nathalie David, director of the Naegeli documentary. Monika Krücken, City Conservator of Aachen, who oversaw the monument protection of Paier’s illegal murals. Valentin Rothmaler, Professor of Art and Architecture at Hochschule Wismar, who invited Naegeli to teach at the Wismar International Summer Academy. Joined by filmmaker Lovorka Peric-Hassler.

18:45
Harald Naegeli : Der Sprayer von Zürich
wissensART Filmprogramm. Presented by director Nathalie David in discussion with KP Flügel.

The Sprayer of Zurich has been challenging the line between art and property damage since 1977. In 2020, back in his home city at the age of 81 and living with terminal cancer, Naegeli sprayed more than fifty Dance of Death figures across Zurich during the Covid lockdown. That same year the city awarded him its 50,000-franc Kunstpreis for his life’s work, while the canton filed criminal charges against him for the same sprays. The film is his testament.

20:30
BOUZUQΣΣ
With Kadir ‘Amigo’ Memiş. Live contemporary Turkish folk music by Elektro Hafiz. Dance performance

When Kadir ‘Amigo’ Memiş dances, he summons his creativity from memories of his childhood as a shepherd in Anatolia. He joined his parents in Berlin in 1984 and found his way into hip-hop culture and breakdance. Founder of the internationally acclaimed Flying Steps, Memiş has devoted himself to Style Writing — an art form between graffiti, calligraphy and personal handwriting.
key figure in the Berlin underground for decades, Memiş has devoted himself to an art form between dance, graffiti, calligraphy and personal handwriting. In 2003, he was part of Backjumps: The Live Issue in Berlin, one of the first exhibitions in Europe to explore the interfaces of street art, aerosol culture and hip-hop.
BOUZUQΣΣ closes the Urban Art Biennale Opening on Saturday evening, with live contemporary Turkish folk music by Elektro Hafiz — who will also open the Biennale stage. Amigo is an old accomplice of Unlock: he closed the inaugural Tag Conference in Berlin in 2017 and performed again at the Cologne book fair in 2019.

from 11:00
Entry open to the UNLOCK BOOK FAIR

11:00
Urban Art Biennale Tour with Frank Krämer

Guided tour of the URBAN ART BIENNALE including site-specific works and interventions by over 50 international artists.

11:45
Duality
With author & publisher Olaf Jansen (NL). Book launch

Duality tells the story of Ukrainian graffiti writers taking on the task of camouflaging vehicles used to protect their country against the Russian aggressor. It documents the lifestyle and works of the writers involved, covering the period before the large-scale invasion until the present day. 88 pages, Japanese binding. Non-commercial fundraiser edition.

11:52
Réveil Forced
Carpe Noctem (FR) & Pierre Tiberghien. 48 pages, A5. Zine launch

Punk and graffiti zine combining street bombing photography, trip reports from New York and Montreal, interviews with a DIY punk zine maker from Rennes and with Cap d’Origine about transmission and conservation of graffiti. Personal texts, pictures of punk gigs all over France. Comix by Juju Comix and Nono32. Fourth issue in the Réveil Forcé (Forced Awakening) series, documenting the intersection of punk and graffiti cultures through a deliberately DIY format.
Réveil Forcé (Forced Awakening) is a zine series combining punk and graffiti culture. Each issue gathers the intersection of those two worlds: interviews with punk bands, zine publishers and graffiti writers, pictures of street bombing, punk gigs, lifestyle. Four issues published so far, all made in Lille in a really DIY way.
The issues also carry trip reports from New York, Montreal, London and Dunkirk, and comics by @jujucomix and Nono32. Carpe Noctem also publishes zines from graffiti friends from France, about their drawings or tags and pieces, and runs a distro with punk tapes, vinyls and zines from across France.

11:59
P.Nuts: Highlights of a Low Life
GE.RÄ.T. Verlag (DE) & Steffen Mischke. 208 pages, hardcover, edition of 200. Book launch

A curated selection of German writer P.NUTS’ favourite paintings — created over a decade painting his name. P.NUTS is a member of the Ghettoblasters crew. Signed and numbered copies.

12:06
Dick Pics
Per Englund (SE), 52 pages, A5. Book launch

Per Englund has been writing graffiti and photographing tags and street culture since the mid-1990s. He has published several titles with Swedish publisher Dokument Press, including Kul att det körs, GBG State of Mind, and STHLM Phone Home — books that document tags, throw-ups and the everyday textures of Swedish urban life.

12:13
Ultras and Graffiti in Athens
Death Vallée (FR) & Thomas M'charek (FR). Series of 6 zines, 84 pages each. Zinevorstellung

Non-official publications about the Ultras/Graffiti phenomenon in Greece. Six fanzines documenting graffiti by football ultras of three clubs in Athens and three in Thessaloniki (Aris, PAOK, Iraklis). Reprinted for the fair. Death Vallée also presents two exclusive books: Athens Parkour (300 pages) and a publication about painting trains and streets in South India (200 pages).

12:30
Rodopa
GLOW & XPOME (BG). 240 pages, hardcover. Book launch

The book presents a visual ‘requiem for a building’ — the Rodopa Meat Factory. Completed in 1934, the complex was the largest slaughterhouse in Bulgaria at the time and remained operational until the early 1990s. In 2022, GLOW and XPOME began exploring the abandoned complex. Over four years, they left works across the entire structure, from the main hall to the clock tower. Book signing on Friday at the publisher stall.
Rodopa is a visual requiem for a building — the Rodopa Meat Factory. Completed in 1934, the complex was the largest slaughterhouse in Bulgaria at the time and remained operational until the early 1990s. Today, the structure stands as a rare architectural artefact from the pre-socialist period, built in a distinctive modernist style.
The 240-page hardcover opens with an introductory essay by architectural historian Aneta Vasileva, accompanied by archival photographs from the Bulgarian State Archive. In 2022, GLOW and XPOME began exploring the abandoned complex. Over the following four years, the artists left a series of works throughout the site, applying their recognisable styles across stone walls, tiled interiors, and brick surfaces. Their interventions span the entire structure — from the main hall to the rooftop, reaching as far as the building's clock tower.
XPOME is among the featured artists at the Urban Art Biennale.

13:00
Full Auto
terminalº (CA) & Jamie Jelinski (CA/UK). 220 pages, hardcover. Book launch

Opened in 1986, Vancouver’s SkyTrain was a futuristic experiment in mass transit: clean, quiet, elevated, and fully automated. Full Auto: Vancouver SkyTrain Graffiti, 2001–2007 documents how this system became a sustained and coveted target for graffiti writers during the first decade of the new millennium. Featuring more than 120 rare and previously unpublished photographs. Textual contributions from key figures of the era. Jamie Jelinski also gives a talk on Saturday (The Bureaucracy of Mass Transit Graffiti).
Featuring more than 120 rare and previously unpublished photographs, the book traces the evolution of transit painting in Vancouver, foregrounding both local innovators and the significant influence of visiting writers from Germany, Australia, Italy, and Denmark.

13:15
Into the Dawn
Jens Besser (DE), 104 pages, bilingual German & English. Book launch

Accompanying catalogue to the public art project of the same name. In cooperation with the Neue Sächsische Galerie, Jens Besser invited nine international artists to realise official interventions in public space during European Capital of Culture Chemnitz 2025.
The accompanying catalogue to the public art project of the same name. In cooperation with the Neue Sächsische Galerie, Jens Besser invited nine international artists and artist groups to realise official interventions in public space during European Capital of Culture Chemnitz 2025. The invited artists supplemented the project with additional unofficial works. The catalogue includes texts by Robert Kaltenhäuser, Mathias Lindner and Besser himself. Besser is among the featured artists at the Urban Art Biennale.

13:22
Padiglione in Movimento
Jens Besser (DE). 112 pages. Book launch

The first complete publication documenting the unauthorised train art project that unfolded in parallel with the Venice Art Biennale across three editions: 2017, 2022, and 2024. International artists intervened on regional trains, transforming them into moving canvases dedicated to a symbolic and clandestine space: the Pavilion of the Vandals.
The first complete publication documenting the unauthorised train art project that unfolded in parallel with the Venice Art Biennale across three editions: 2017, 2022, and 2024. International artists intervened on regional trains, transforming them into moving canvases dedicated to a symbolic and clandestine space: the Pavilion of the Vandals, a pavilion for artists who work in secrecy, whose creations exist outside institutional boundaries and legality. Besser is among the featured artists at the Urban Art Biennale.

13:29
Tutti Liberi Libere Tutte : New Staffel
With author & publisher Andrea Ceresa (IT). Zine launch

Monographic fanzine of writers with an original style. Twelve issues in 2024 about Italian writers; the new season expands to international writers.

13:36
Grafemi 2
With author & publisher Andrea Ceresa (IT). Zine launch

For his GRAFEMI zine Andrea Ceresa gathered five European taggers who never stop evolving their signature and seem to try out new things with every tag. Second volume in the series. Hand-numbered limited edition in Monocromo notebooks by Pigna.

13:43
Buncity Band 1
Buncity (UK) & Oliver London (UK). 128 pages, A5. Book launch

Bevvy missions, mischief, lurking activities, graffiti, bombing, trains and all 35mm photography, illustrations and graphic design.

13:50
On Stylewriting
Bald Books (DE) & Rüdiger Glanz (DE). 88 pages, softcover pocketbook, edition of 450. Book launch

This pocketbook began as a single conversation — between a writer with thirty-five years inside the culture and an AI — and emerged, without a script, as something rare: a text that articulates what stylewriting truly is. Not a history. Not a photo book. A manifesto, a philosophy, a creed. The second half pays tribute to the Study of Style format from BACKJUMPS Magazine: eight writers including T-KID, KET, PART 1, WANE, KOMET, CYRUS, NOMADSKI, and RUEDIONE, each given the same word, each producing an entirely different language.
The result of an in-depth conversation between a graffiti writer with 35+ years in the culture and a Large Language Model. What emerged — without a script — was a conversation that deepened from description to manifesto to creed.

14:00
Charm
Vladimir Stekachev (RU). Screening

The film was made specifically for the exhibition “The Sad Charm of Things” in 2025 by artist Volodimer. A narrative depicting a single day in the life of an urban art artist, integrating exhibition exhibits into it, similar to product placement in film, except that these are not advertisements, but art objects from the exhibition. The film features the book L1 BDD, also exhibited at the fair.
A film depicting a single day in the life of an artist. The short features L1 BDD, a book by Stekachev about a legendary spot in the Moscow metro, also exhibited at the fair.

14:20
Here and Not Elsewhere
David Demougeot (FR). FR/EN, subtitles in EN. Screening

Documentary about the Bien Urbain festival in Besançon, an annual programme of artistic interventions in public space running since 2011.

14:30
SAZ L-S Artist Residency Presentation
Mathieu Tremblin (FR). Presentation

Speculative Autonomous Zone Life-Size (SAZ L-S) is an artistic project that unfolds through a role-playing game and a series of site-specific interventions at the Völklinger Hütte. Its aim is to initiate a conversation with the future regarding the livability of the city of Völklingen and the future of the UNESCO World Heritage site. Introduction to the role-playing session that follows (14:45–19:30, outdoors, pre-registration required).

14:45
Noise Barriers: Highway Poetics
THWRB3AT (FR) & Nicolas Commune (FR). 60 pages, A4, edition of 100. Talk

Far from legitimate architectural forms and commissioned highway art, acoustic screens and noise barriers reveal almost pure utilitarian configurations, straight out the engineering design offices. Modern fortifications, concrete megaliths. Visual residues of the technique. Traces the highway infrastructure leaves in matter, across the landscapes it cuts through and reshapes. A photographic documentation of highway noise barriers and acoustic screens in Western Europe. Publication in press, 2026.
THWRB3AT's publications explore the special relationship graffiti has developed with large-scale technical systems, using photography, drawing, geospatial data and in-situ painting. They question the aesthetics of railway and highway infrastructures, the ways in which these systems reshape our built environment and impact our perception and sensibility.
At Unlock, THWRB3AT presents a new photo zine on highway noise barriers and acoustic screens in Western Europe. Far from legitimate architectural forms and commissioned highway art, acoustic screens and noise barriers reveal almost pure utilitarian configurations, straight out of the engineering design offices. They are visual residues of the technique, traces the highway infrastructure leaves in matter, across the landscapes it cuts through and reshapes.

14:45
SAZ L-S Role-Playing Session
Mathieu Tremblin (FR), Sophie Prinssen, Léo Sallez. Workshop 
Limited to 20 participants; advance registration required

A role-playing game and series of site-specific interventions at the Völklinger Hütte, initiating a conversation with the future regarding the livability of the city and the future of the UNESCO World Heritage site — in light of its industrial past and the promise of a future hosting ‘green steel’ production. Presentation on VH Stage at 14:30. Game played in English or French depending on participants.

15:05

Urban Creativity: A Decade in Lisbon
Pedro Soares Neves (PT). Talk

Reflecting on over a decade of Urban Creativity Conference in Lisbon University. Drawing from the experience of organising 12 annual editions, exploring the evolution of the project and the strategic vision for the future of the international research network. Urban Creativity has published nine books and manages nine academic journals featuring nearly 800 open-access articles.

15:25
Walls that Talk: Visual Silencing in Berlin
Andi Schmitz (DE). Talk

This presentation explores the erasure of political graffiti in Berlin, focusing on how certain messages are removed from public view. Through photographs and wall studies, we will look at how dissent is managed in the city, whose voices are allowed to remain visible, and how graffiti reveals the politics of urban space.