Category Archives: Magazines

A Study of Hessia

Following hot on the heels of the premier issue is Writing Hessisch 2! This is the Hessian ethnocultural graffiti magazine from Germany. The publication focuses on the industrial Hesse region of Germany and is uniquely written in the local dialect. Once again the mag is limited to five-hundred copies and has a similar look to the first. While the design is familiar the content has a different layout that is ordered by aesthetics rather than categorised by name. There is also an English PDF translation provided with this issue which is really useful.

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Dutch Alchemy

Chemistry is a Dutch graffiti magazine that comes across as quite a sophisticated publication. While there are no texts in this seventh issue the content stretches beyond purely graffiti with sections on urban exploration, some fine art, and a ‘minimal complexity’ chapter that probably wouldn’t look out of place in an architectural journal.

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Artists from Berlin

Artistz

Without trying to sound like too much of a Germanophile Artistz is typical of the sort of graffiti publications from the country that are well produced, contain good quality photos of a nice size, have interesting content and generally just get the job done well. This particular German magazine focuses on transport in Berlin. It is thoughtfully laid out with photographic chapters that are split up by pages of interviews and text with English translations.

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Hessian nights

Writing Hessisch

Writing Hessisch is the first in a planned series of magazines that focuses on graffiti in the Hesse region of Germany. A quick look on wikipedia shows that Hesse has a distinct cultural identity and it obviously deserves to have its own distinct graffiti magazine as well. I like this idea of magazines that focus on a specific scene or idea as it allows a greater insight and helps give the magazine a clear character. As all the text in the magazine is written in German, and my German is very poor, I only managed a basic translation of the introduction but here goes: The magazine is released after thirty years of graffiti in Hesse. They don’t want to produce a glossy advert filled mag but aim for an honest representation of the ideas, history and stories behind the graffiti of Rhine-Main.

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Compulsive graffiti

I recently got a copy of the German magazine Zugzwang Zeitung. Looking the phrase ‘zugzwang’ up, the title translates as something like ‘the compulsion to move newspaper’. As the name suggests the main topic of the magazine is train graffiti from within Germany but also elsewhere in Europe, and some bits-and-bobs from Australia and the US. There are also a couple of interviews and a few walls chucked in for good measure.

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On the Kenilworth Road to Prague.

signall

Following on from the last post the next review is of another publication from Central Europe. This time it’s the second issue of Signall magazine from Prague in the Czech Republic. The first thing I liked about this magazine was the front cover which reminded me of the away entrance at Luton Town’s ground. Turn over and there’s a second cover too with a painting of some sort of post-apocalyptical city where the cats and dogs have taken over.

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