Former graffiti artist Karim Boukercha, a scriptwriter and the author of several books about the art, launches here an appeal to save a collection of visual records of the works of French graffiti artists arrested in 2002. Boukercha is lobbying for the photographic documents, seized as evidence against those arrested, be handed over to the French National Archives collection. The petition has already attracted 1,500 signatures in France, including graffiti artists Mode2, Rap, Azyle, Vices, Comer, Jay, Fuzi, along with artists from the worlds of cinema, the music scene and literature including Costa Gavras, Antonio Seguí, Virginie Despentes, Vincent Cassel, Oxmo Puccino, Fabrice Bousteau and Maurice Olender.
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Ten years ago, French railways police chief Jean-Christophe Merle launched a series of investigations targeting graffiti artists for alleged vandalism. The police investigation involved phone tapping and consultattion of phone relay transmitter data, the questioning of witnesses and suspects, and using information from informers. In June 2002, about 15 highly-active graffiti groups, representing almost 60 people, were neutralized.
Taken by surprise by the significant means employed in the investigation, most of those arrested admitted, under questioning, having committed the offences they were suspected of, and were subsequently charged. Due to delays of legal procedure and the over-stretched capacity of the justice system to hear the case, it was not until 2009 that a verdict was finally delivered by the court of Versailles. A verdict in a separate civil action for financial compensation brought by the French railways operator SNCF and the urban transport companies of Paris, Lyon, Marseille and Lille, was pronounced on June 21st. The court awarded significantly less than the total 1.8 million euros demanded of the 56 graffitists cited as defendants. The plaintiffs have the option of appealing the decision.
During house searches, the police seized a number of book-files belonging to the graffiti artists, and which were held as evidence. These contained sketches, drawings and photos of their works, providing a unique register of their activities, and constituting the only record of their art that is, by nature, ephemary.
These documents are today kept under wraps as evidence, and will probably never be returned to their owners (a formal request for their return has already been dismissed). Even worse, they may well be ultimately destroyed.
While no-one contests the legitimacy of the legal case - acts of graffiti are illegal - it is important that the memory of this movement does not become a forgotten chapter in the history of artistic activities. That is why these documents should become part of the collection of the French National Archives, preventing the loss or confiscation of the unique and indispensable traces of an artistic movement that has spanned 30 years, and which must not be wiped out of French cultural history.
Whatever the result of the ongoing judicial procedures, and however they view this artistic practice in its illegal form, the signatories of this appeal call for the safeguard and preservation of these documents. They are essential for the understanding of both the history of an artistic movement present in museums and that of French public transport.
(1) Karim Boukercha's latest book on graffiti art is Descente interdite, co-authored with Gautier Bischoff, published in French by Editions Alternatives, priced at 39 euros.
Initial signatories:
Azyle, tagger; Babou, graffitist; JD Beauvallet, journalist; Fabrice Bousteau, journalist; Geneviève Brisac, author; Bugz, graffitist; Olivier Cachin, journalist, author; Vincent Cassel, actor and producer; Comer, graffitist; Eric Corne, artist and exhibition curator; Jean Faucheur, artist; Costa-Gavras, film director; Deace, graffitist; Decap, graffitist; Virginie Despentes, author and film director; Fuzi, graffitist; Romain Gavras, film director; Jay, graffitist; Jef Aerosol, artist; Mode2, artist; Gregory Protche, journalist; Pseye, graffitist; Oxmo Puccino, rapper; Rap, graffitist; Reck, graffitist; Reso, graffitist; Sano, graffitist; Antonio Seguí, painter; Pierre Siankowski, journalist; Gilles-Marie Tiné, producer; Maurice Olender, historian and publishing editor (Seuil); OMT&TER, graffitists; Orelsan, rapper; Vices, graffitist, Rebecca Zlotowski, scriptwriter and film director.