Tales from Belgium
About
Tales from Belgium covers 6 years of documentation and deep research into the roots of graffiti writing on passenger trains in Belgium.
For many years now, thanks to its geographical location, Belgium has been one of the most popular destinations for graffiti artists painting passenger trains. In this remarkable 824-page book, Alias Press follows the evolution of graffiti styles on trains, according to a chronology based on the colour of the carriages. After a few years of foreigner writers from neighboring countries such as France, Holland or Germany painting the Dark green and Burgundy red rolling stock, the local scene started to take shape and has since developed a few of Europe’s most well-known and respected train writers.
Tales from Belgium shows 160 remarkable stories and 80 anecdotes told over a period of 32 years from both local and foreign writers as well from railway police, cleaners or train conductors. In addition to the stories, the publication also shows some of the most remarkable newspaper articles on the topic throughout history. Acting as a chronologic overview from the very first graffiti painted on a Belgian passenger train by a few Dutchmen in 1990 leading up to the end of the era of the iconic Burgundy red trains in 2021. Also showcased are 1500 of the best unseen photos from 550 writers from Belgium as well as all throughout Europe.
This is a very beautiful and essential book for any graffiti fan. You'll find paintings by hundreds of artists, including CS53, Milk, Horfée, Tilt, Medz, Atome, Drax, Mellie, Honet, Saeio, Roko, Taps, Rage 156, Moses and many more
The book was designed by Studio Aurèle Sack, in three separate editions. With a similar content, each edition has a different cover. Each copy comes in the Pantone® color of the trains of each individual era covered by the book - Dark green representing the 1990s, Burgundy red for the 2000s and Light grey for everything from 2010 up until the date of printing.
824 pages, Hardcover
2 different paper types
1500 color photographs
Texts: English
21 x 31 cm
ISBN: 978-90-81710-14-5
