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A’DAM GRAFFITY – L. Koomans and P. Lemin

Graffiti in Amsterdam has an unique status compared to most European cities where namewriting in public became a New York influenced movement in the 1980s. In the Dutch capital writing has a history dating back to the sixties when political conflicts also left traces on the cities walls as slogans and messages. Based on that groundwork the 1970s punk scene discovered public space not only as place to advertise concerts and favorite bands, but also to develop individual nicknames and logos and the term of “getting up” might best fit to describe what was happening years before NYC graffiti reached the Netherlands.

“Check out how graffiti pioneers End, Mano and Friends took over a city, for the first time in Europe, with beautiful and brutal spray painted names.” AGAIN, Amsterdam

When photographer Patrick Lemin visited Amsterdam in 1981 for a punk concert in the evening hours, he arrived earlier that day and started to take photos of the hundreds of different names, slogans and stencils he discovered all over the town. For almost 40 years these historic shots have been locked away in his archives until the NOKKIO Institutes of zines helped digging them out and presented “A’DAM GRAFFITY” at the Unlock Book Fair 2018 in Amsterdam. The fairs motto “Punk and graffiti” was the perfect event to finally publish these rare documents as a limited edition zine. The 20 copies where sold out within a few hours.

“Amsterdam Graffity 1981 by L. Koomans and P. Lemin is a rough diamond and an absolute must-have zine for anyone who wants to taste the atmosphere of name writing in the early 80’s.” Dutch Graffiti Library

As big fans of the underground publisher, we are very pleased to cooperate with NOKKIO and reissue “A’DAM GRAFFITY”! The second edition includes stuff by MANO, -eNd-, CAESAR, KODIAK STONE, THE MANIAC, THE REX, DR.JUNK, DR.EISTEIN, FRIENDS3, DR.RAT, SHOE, SKA, DEVIL, MR.UFO, DR.ZERO, RASCAL, MR.MONGOL, MARS and many others. Patrick Lemins shots do not only show logos and signatures of early taggers, but also political paroles and even two stencil artists caught in the act. On 68 pages you can witness that The Dam had a huge scene of people creating art in the streets years before the hip hop wave hit the continent.

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