JON ZTK – THE ART OF VANDALISM

After trainwriting died out in New York around 1989 only a few cities in Europe like Dortmund or Amsterdam managed to achieve what was the ideal to many writers: a completely painted train system just like in the Mecca overseas. In THE ART OF VANDALISM one of Italy’s most notorious trainwriters JON from the ZTK crew invites us to experience how writers in his hometown Rome did the supposedly impossible.

Right from the beginning in 1992 the authority’s capacities to clean painted trains were not capable of what followed in the next years. Besides windows the trains ran unbuffed for years which from 1994 on also attracted tourists who left their mark in the Eternal City.

“This unique situation where graffiti travels relatively untouched for years represents in the collective memory of graffiti writers worldwide how subway graffiti should be.”

The 122-paged booklet includes mainly analogue photos of JON’s archives from the mid 90s to the early 2000s. With countless tags, throw-ups and quick pieces he and his mates took over the local system big time. The limited space on the trains shifted the way to achieve fame from quality to pure quantity and going over your own or other people’s works became a daily routine.

Local names like CHICO, GOR, MPG, MDF, RNS, TRV, NICO, BAS, KOMA, CLINT, GAST, PIM, PAC, MT2, K2R, NSA, PANE or ONE became omnipresent and visiting tourists hardly achieved having pieces run for a long time. Anyway you can find works by MATH (†), SET, MILK, OPAK, HONET, FUME (London), TEACH, FUZI, VANS, INKA, FUME (Düsseldorf) in the book’s content. Each photo is accompanied by a caption mentioning the names, year and spot. JON did also write a preface, an introduction and small anecdotes here and there on events like SENTO’s return in 2005.

If you did only hear rumors so far about the Rome train system of this era there is finally an authentic insight documenting this special time in Italy’s capital. Grab one of the signed copies we got from JON ZTK before they are sold out.

122 pages, 21 x 14,6 cm, softcover, signed
Language: Italian/English
Release date: 2025
Publisher: JON ZTK