Graffiti Trip Tagged a Success

The DIS European Culture & History students, in the Popular Culture of the 20th Century course, took a trip to a graffiti garden this week.

Students examine urban street art on the outskirts of Copenhagen

December 3, 2009

Just behind Denmark’s oldest power station on Sydhavn, the southern canal in Copenhagen, lies a wasteland of cement walls, rusting piles of spray paint cans, and used paint rollers.

The students in the ECH Popular Culture of the 20th Century course followed Professor Andrea Homann to find a hidden graffiti garden in this obscure part of the city.  An amalgamation of graffiti tags and elaborate murals, these several hundred yards of ever-changing and expansive art were the launching point for a discussion on how the particular cultural and political climate in Denmark allows areas like this, and Christiana, to flourish, somewhere between the permitted and the illegal.

Despite the cold weather, students spent time exploring the corners of the graffiti wonderland, and the visit provided a powerful visual representation of their recent lecture on graffiti in Denmark, Europe, and the US.