It seems like SPB is a wicked place with some issues going on over there. What happened is a dirty game played by rivals. They bribed the administration, got the funding and permission in order to sabotage the MOS. Its not easy to understand how things work over there, but you might know: power and money is the key and with the right connections, in russia you may achieve a lot. Saint-P artists are boycotting their event, and wrote a letter of protest to the administration. So eventhough we failed right now, we strike back – later. We will keep you posted and apologize if you had inconveniences, but politics are always out there.

	The chosen wall is on a backside of a of a housing-project – vertical. The wall is sohigh, it can be seen from all parts of the district.
The wall is 37m high and has 10m length and will be created in a huge topic with concept illustrating cooperation and communcation, created by artists from Russia and foreign invites.

Saint-Petersburg: trun(FFTAD), wais(FFTAD), twol, zomb, cobr, petro, ixel, space, koks, truba, brow, maksow, aurs, roof169, sy, dzenik
pour, iork, el paso

The spot and the programm: Saint-Petersburg, pr. Ispitateley 26, Komendantskij pr. metro station. All shows will be on the second day. The first day is mainly to organise the wall.

On the second day in the evening we have afterparty at the club called SINCITY. It`s situated right here, near the wall.
Now we continue with some more history…

During World War II, Leningrad was surrounded by the German Wehrmacht from 1941 to 1944, a total of 29 months. By Hitler’s order the Wehrmacht constantly shelled and bombed the city, systematically isolated, causing death of more than 1 million civilians in 3 years.

During World War II, Leningrad was surrounded by the German Wehrmacht from 1941 to 1944, a total of 29 months. By Hitler’s order the Wehrmacht constantly shelled and bombed the city,

systematically isolated, causing death of more than 1 million civilians in 3 years. This implied the genocide of 3 million Leningrad residents, who had no place in Hitler’s “New East European Order”. Thats history.

The world has changed since back then, and cities in the northern hemisphere luckily only get bombed by cans. Art instead of war! So once again the MOS continues its journey through the wild east and is back to SPB. The event will start thursday with preparation of the walls and working on the concept. Saturday is the main day with soundsystem and performances.

The situation was especially horrible winter 1941 – 1942 when bombing raids destroyed most of the food reserves and water supplies. It worsened in winter due to lack of heating fuel. In December 1941 alone some 53,000 people in Leningrad died of starvation, many corpses were scattered in the streets all over the city.
	During late 40s and 50s, the political and cultural elite suffered from more harsh repressions under dicktator Stalin, hundreds were executed, thousands were imprisoned in repressions.

Independent thinkers, writers, artists and other intellectuals were attacked, magazines were banned and tens of thousands Leningraders were exiled to Siberia. More crackdowns on the intellectual elite, known as the “Second Leningrad affair”,

were part of the economic policies of the Soviet state. Leningrad suffered from the imbalanced distribution of wealth, drained the city’s resources to subsidise higher standards of living in Moscow as well as underperforming parts.

Such redistribution of wealth caused struggle within the Soviet government and Communist Party, which lead to their fragmentation and played a role in the eventual collapse of the USSR.

Mexico has a strong and long tradition of mural-painting. The scene is very vivid and diverse, the city crazy!

Greater Mexico City includes 58 municipalities with a population of 19.2 million, making it the largest metropolitan area in the western hemisphere and the second largest in the world. As for many other Latin American countries, crime is among the most urgent concerns facing Mexico. Drug trafficking rings play a major role in the flow of cocaine, heroin, and marijuana transiting between Latin America and the United States which has led to corruption, with a deleterious effect on Mexico’s democracy. Drug trafficking and organized crime have also been a major source of violent crime.

	The country has experienced increasingly high crime rates, especially in major urban centers. Other metropolitan areas have lower, yet still serious, levels of crime.
Low apprehension and conviction rates contribute to the high crime rate. The high incidence of crime has also poured across the border and influenced crime in the US, aggravating problems including drugs, illegal immigration, gangs.
	Mexico City’s inner core has about 8 million people – about the same number as New York City. However, Mexico City’s police force is only two-thirds the size of New York City’s and is organized into several ill-co-ordinated forces.
Policemen earn less than a quarter of their U.S. counterparts, so many officers turn to corruption to augment their pay. The organization of police forces in Mexico is complex; each police force has a different level of jurisdiction and authority, and those levels often overlap.
	Mexico City is served by an extensive metro system (207 km), the largest in Latin America. The system has 11 lines in 175 stations and a 12th line is planned to be constructed in the year 2008 along with a suburban rail system similar to the French RER system.
One of the busiest in the world, the metro transports approximately 4 million people every day, surpassed only by Moscow’s (7.5 million), Tokyo’s (5.9 million), and New York City’s (4.9 million).

	27-28 September 2008, Mexico City (Mexico)Mexico has a strong andlong tradition of Mural-Paintings which forced us to establish the Meeting over there. The city is totally bombed, Throw-Ups, Tags, Bombs everywhere.
The 2008 spot is the same a last year, a huge park with a lot of walls in andoutside. Get ready to some fresh Graffiti-Art from Latin-America.
	MEJORES BARDAS - PARQUE REFINERIA – DELEGACION MIGUEL HIDALGO – A 200 MTS. DEL METRO REFINERIA……..BIG AND GOOD WALLSBARDA DEL PANTEON DE DOLORES—DELEGACION MIGUEL HIDALGO

gg

ggg

The final Meeting in the States came through in a relaxed and creative vibe, and in memory of the West-Coast-Legend Dream.

Oakland – Here the movement started back in the 60ies as a reaction of increasing Police brutality and segregation and then spread among the entire country.

Originally the West-Coast-MOS was scheduled to happen in Los Angeles. But due to city-politics it was not possible to do it there. Read the mad story at the bottom.

Old-Schooler Krash of the TDK-Crew, who used to go out to paint with Dream, then luckily jumped in with a nice nice wall near the famous Oakland-Train-Tracks.

	The spot is located in the backyard of a storage place next to the Bart-line, the walls been painted years and years ago, with a huge production in memory of the legend Dream.
Through the years, sun and rain made the mural fade away, so the landlord decided to buff it and let it be repainted.

The walls were primed, artists were ready to rock, so early saturday morning the event started with definition of wallspaces. By the time more and more artists came in so in the evening it was quite buisy

	You got to know that Oakland, San Francisco and the Bay-area have a long history in Graffiti and Mural-painting as the area has always been a melting-pot for critical and creative minds.
Still up to these days a lot of legends are living around here, such as Mark Bodé, Vulcan, CrayOne and many more.

Raven MPC, Nate, Omen, Frame, Risky from LA, Charlie, Denz71 from Chicago, Dezi, KC, Stan153, Pose2 from NY & more to come Apex, Volcan, HydeOne, Daz & Poesia are just some names on the endless list of participants.

	The walls were nice nice. With a total of approx 1000squaremeters they gave space for a lot of artists. During the day its been really chill.
People came around to meet and hang out, to sketch and chat or just chill. Lotof artists from all around the Bay-area, the Mid-West down to Arizona came to participate.

TDK: Krash, Vogue, Done, Merx, Spie, Soul, Meut, Stash, Jase, Dyl, Tase, King157. BSK: Del, Style, Excel,Terms, Kufu, Amend, Refa, TMF: Dean, Rize, Quess, Bizaro, Cypher, Stash5, Butter AS: Sundance, Ader,D.Lux, Eskae, KTD: Razer, Pase, Mark Bode, TWS: CryOne, Picasso & who ever shows up from MOS. The wall is 11ft.x150ft.

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One has to question Gloria Molina’s sanity. That she would spend significant amounts of city money to paint over the Meeting of Styles murals in the Arroyo and at the end, cause problems for the 2008-edition.

…reportedly acting like a sexual hysteric over a very innocent green wood-nymph character by Asylm, and then wanting to charge it all to FOLAR (Friends Of The Los Angeles River), well, it’s certifiably bizarre behavior.She is having city authorities conduct a campaign that would make Stalin proud, threatening property owners with huge fines if they don’t paint over murals she hasn’t approved such as the beautiful murals of the Buddah at Western and Marathon featured in the L.A. Weekly. My understanding is that her hatred of art has come to a head, with enough response from business owners infuriated with her actions, that the city has put a moratorium on citations until a policy can be worked out. But don’t just take my word for it. Watch the following video at and keep in mind that Chairman Gloria had the mural painted out.

Seeing that she is also on a tear about Taco Trucks around the city, Vyal thinks she must be ashamed of having Mexican blood, and is therefore trying to wipe out any trace of that culture; no graffiti, no tacos. Perhaps she should legally change her last name to something as bland as she wants to make the whole city.

	Our local organiser ManOne had a huge wall in Downtown LA with permission from the owner, with support from the Councilwoman, with sponsors,
but the City couldnt give approval because of the bullshit going on right now in the Dept of Building and Safety. If we had done the mural we had be fined $1,000 every day the mural is up until it is buffed.

Chicago – windy city at the great lake, city of Al Capone, Eliott Ness, gangs and culture.

Chicago Transit Authority (CTA), operator of mass transit, is the second largest transit system in the US. It offers bus and rapid transit routes throughout the city, covers city limits and forty surrounding suburbs.
	The CTA’s 1,190 train cars operate over eight routes and 222 miles of track and provide about 650.000 customer trips each day, serving 144 stations. The system is the second largest in the US. Only NY´s MTA is more extensive.

11-13 September 08, Chicago (USA)

Our local organisation had organised a weekend full of colours and skills. Intro-Party, two artshowsand the live-painting at the famous Wall Of Style, but then the Hurricane came to Texas.

The Art-shows in two different galleries featured a lot of the original Chicago-Graffiti-Artists such as Twister, Zore, Rafa and many more.
	Beside of these, you could check artworks of Revolt from NYC, Shiro from Japan, Hydeform the Bay-Area. DJs were rocking the turntables, a lot of people came by to enjoy art, chill and chat. “Bode Broads” was part of the shows as tribute to Barbera Bode with works by MARK BODE, KING157, PART, SKOL, RAWFA, ZORE64, STEFSKILLS, HYDE, DGONZ, GTEK and more.
The jam at daytime kind of dropped into water. Some days before the event a hurricane passed through Texas and brought a weekend full of rain to Chitown.

It pretty much rained throughtout the entire weekend, so as a result, some of the artists went to another spot below some train-tracks to get creative and get something done.

	Right in time, when the working-week started, the nice weather came back and by monday, it got sunny, hot and nice, so artists went back to the MOS-spot to finish their piece of art. Aero from san Diego flew in to Chitwon to participate and my monday showed up with a van to ride with Yama and Yours all the way to the West-coast.
These Aerosol-Hippies took that van and painted it real hot, so everybody on the road between the Mid and the West got to see the MOS-Van on tour across the US.

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The city comprises five boroughs, each of which is coterminous with a county: The Bronx, Brooklyn, Manhattan, Queens and Staten Island.

NYC still is a tuff place for Graffiti, pretty well illustrated by the mad propaganda NY-authorities run against Ket.

Eventhough Graffiti is a part of the NY soul, the restrictive attitude of the city towards Graffiti makes it hard to realise Meetings.

	After the BX-spot of past years had been sold, it wasn´t really sure whether the Meeting will happen or not.
After Cope had gotten the permit, the owner had withdrawn it two weeks ahead fo the event. A mad move of the owner, a great pity, heads from Europe booked flights, US-, NY-artists and crews made their schedule.
	Rumours are saying that the Vandal Squad had met the owner before – for a confidential talk.

After it all looked bad for the 008edition, luckily 5Points in decided to help and to give space. Different hood, but all good.

Everybody who has been to New York knows the factory which comes right after the first stop when you left the tunnel from manhattan on the 7train.
	Beside of NY-artists as Break, Meres, Part, Cern and others, Bad and more artists came from Puerto Rico, Florida, Germany, Italy, Spain and Mexico.
The Meeting came through in a nice and relaxed atmosphere covered by the sounds of the 7train passing by. As wallspace was tight you needed to be notified to paint. In any way: everybody respected the hood!

Check this mad story!

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The Subway is notable for being among the few rapid transit systems in the world to run 24 hours a day, 365 days a year.

	Among the ten busiest systems in the world in terms of annual passenger traffic, it is the only one to hold such a distinction, setting it apart from cities such as London, Paris, Tokyo, and Moscow.
In all those years of the NYC-MOS it has never been easy to get it going. As the city has been tagged and bombed hard for decades „zero tolerance” and „broken windows” has been created. Graffiti was intensively

	targeted, and the system was cleaned line by line and car by car from 1984 until 1990. Republican Mayor Rudy Giuliani also adopted the strategy
more widely in New York City, from his election in 1993, under the rubrics of ‘zero tolerance’ and ‘quality of life’.

ontreal’s metro is renowned for its architecture and public art. Under the direction of Drapeau, a competition among Canadian architects was held to decide the design of each station, ensuring that every station was built in a different style by a different architect.

29-31 August 2008, MEETING OF STYLES MONTREAL (Canada)

A Three days of graffiti, avant-garde and celebration, presented by Yves Laroche Galerie d’art.

Our local organisation has done a lot to present you a very special event with lots of attractions beside the live-painting. And they succeeded. www.mosmtl.com

Live-Graffiti, parties, Art-Shows. The canadian MOS gave a detailed impression of whats going on over there.

	No wonder, the event started early. The locals arranged some really big walls in the heart of the Quartier des spectacles with animation on site and giveaways.
A club party with THE FRENCH CONNECTION – mashups, funk, hiphop, soul, 80’s closed the first day. Thank you to all the artists and everyone who made this possible.

TRAINS OF THOUGHT @ Galerie d’art Yves Laroche, 4 St-Paul E. Old Montreal, QC H2Y 1G1, 6pm-9pm

	Trains Of Thought wasa new show that featured the most talented and fresh artists in the graffiti art field. The artists featured in this show have the most extensive history and talent in the graffiti community.
They applied their skills to Giclee Trains that were exhibited in the show, and the subjects they chose were their original thoughts.

More than 60 Artists from New York City, Montreal, and all over the world were featured in this exhibit to school you!

	Painting a train has traditionally been something special to a graffiti writer, and is a phenomenon that is something to bare witness of.
The thoughts that are being laid onto these pieces of art were exceptional and some just sophisticatedly simple. There were Installations, sculptures, paintings, photographs, sketches and studies, limited edition prints and products that will be available at this show.

There was a book signing by the curators of “Piecebook, the secret drawings of graffiti writers”, written by Sacha Jenkins and David ‘Chino’ Villorente. Curated by StreetsAreSayingThings.com and www.yveslaroche.com. In memory of Vittorio Fiorucci.

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Several stations, such as Berri-UQAM are important examples of modernist architecture. Along with the Stockholm Metro, Montreal pioneered the installation of public art in the metro.
	More than fifty stations are decorated with over one hundred works of public art, such as sculpture, stained glass, and murals by noted Quebec artists, including
members of the famous art movement, the Automatistes. As a North American city, Montreal shares many of the cultural features characteristic of the other metropolis on the continent.
	Being at the confluence of the French and the English traditions, Montreal has developed a unique and distinguished cultural face in the world. Another distinctive characteristic of Montreal culture life is to be found in the animation of its downtown.

The italian MOS is established in Padova, near Venice since 2004. Through the time climate was good, in 008 the Meeting moves to Venice as there is serious Anti-Graf-campaign going on.

Venice is a city in northern Italy, the capital of region Veneto, and has a population of 271,251. Together with Padua, the city is included in the Padua-Venice Metropolitan Area its a population of 1.600.000.

Venice has been known as the “Queen of the Adriatic”, “City of Water”, “City of Bridges”, and “The City of Light”.

The city stretches across 118 small islands. The population estimate of 272,000 inhabitants includes the population of the whole Comune of Venezia.

	The Venetian Republic was a major maritime power and a staging area for the Fourth Crusade, as well as a very important center of commerce and art in the Renaissance and up to the end of the 17th century. Venice is world-famous for its canals. It is built on an archipelago of 118 islands formed
by about 150 canals in a shallow lagoon. The islands on which the city is built are connected by about 400 bridges. In the old center, the canals serve the function of roads, and every form of transport is on water or on foot.

In the 19th century a causeway to the mainland brought a railway station to Venice, and an automobile causeway and parking lot was added in the 20th century. Beyond these land entrances at the northern edge of the city, transportation within the city remains, as it was in centuries past, entirely on water or on foot.

MEETING OF STYLES, 08 – 10 August, Venice (Italy)

The metropolitan area has a worldwide reputation for its fashion design and industry.

Venice and its metropolitan area has a strong, active and creative Graf-scene. In recent time authorities started an Anti-Graf-campaign, so no doubt the MOS had to come here.
	The spot was an abandoned bus-terminal with lots of space around and walls to the main street, located very central.
No wonder cops had tostop along and check the permit, cause they couldnt believe their eyes. A lot of writers from all over Italy came to participate as well as from Germany, United Kingdom and New Zealand and gave a new outlook to the entire area. MAP

	Its been a hot weekend with lots of sun and burns in skins and walls. Around 60 artists gathered in a relaxed and positive vibe.

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	Akit (UK), Aroe (UK), Alfa, Axe, Bane, Blef, Bond, Boogie, Boost, Capo, Canesio, Cepo, Cook, Cyrus, Clear (UK), Curdo, Dado, Dask, Emot (GR), Fresh (AT), Hate, Hemo, Hena, Jeos, Joys, Kaya, Kato, Knore, Loathin’, Luke , Made
Menta, Mind, Morki, Names, Ners1, Nolac, Nuktwo (GR), Oste, Peeta, Rams, Riot, Rode, Rusty, Sabe, Scoe , Secse, Shen, Sika, Sly, Smalto, Sokz (AT), Sparki, Spazio, Style1, Super B, Teils, Tobac, Trise (AT), Tubo, Viper, Webster, Woky

Venice is served by the newly rebuilt Marco Polo International Airport, or Aeroporto di Venezia Marco Polo, named in honor of its famous citizen. The airport is on the mainland and was rebuilt away from the coast, however the water taxis or Aliliaguna waterbus’ to Venice are only a seven minute walk from the terminals. Some airlines market Treviso Airport in Treviso as a Venice gateway.

Venice is Europe’s largest urban car free area, unique in Europe in remaining a sizable functioning city in the 21st century entirely without motorcars or trucks. Most Venetians now travel by motorised waterbuses (vaporetti) which ply regular routes along the major canals and between the city’s islands. The city also has many private boats.

Belfast is the capital of Northern Ireland. It is the largest urban area in Northern Ireland and the province of Ulster and the second-largest city on the island of Ireland.

In the 2001 census, the population within the city limits was 276.459 while 579.554 people lived in the wider Belfast Metropolitan Area. This made it the fifteenth-largest city in the United Kingdom, but the eleventh-largest conurbation.

Because of the Ireland-conflict, Belfast has been a hot hot place where a lot of crazy things happened. Also the city has a history and culture of wall-painting which makes it kind of special. As most of the murals are military style, some walls are slowly changing with peacefull motives.

Lovepusher, Rize, Tase (London), Spider and Skank (Birmingham), Bas (Bulgaria), Rogue, lyken (Scotland), Deneb (Budapest), Dex, Crack (Cork), Ciar, Dris, Filth, Cuba (Belfast), Sums, Maser, Jor, Jack, Mavis, Omin, Cist, Alis, Rask (Republic Ireland)

Int. Meeting of Styles, 01-03 August, Clonduff Community Centre, Belfast – Ireland

	The community gave permit to the locals to host the event at the center and helped with scafoldings and BBQ.
Artists from all over the UK, Scotland and Ireland flew, drove and walked in so there was a good percentage of british and irish guys mixing it up together and both religions and cultures were well represented
	as well as a nice addition of guys from other parts of Europe. A lot of kids from the hood came along to watch the creation of peacefull murals in a vibe of colaboration and exchange.

Watch out for the irish MOS2009! We got something very special coming up.

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The city is served by two airports.
	The Bloody Friday is the name given to the bombings in and around Belfast, Northern Ireland on July 21, 1972, which killed nine people including two soldiers, and injured 130 civilians.

The bombings were part of a concerted bombing campaign against economic, military and political targets in Northern Ireland. The group carried out a total of 1,300 bombings in 1972.

Lleida is a city in the west of Catalonia, Spain. It had 124,709 inhabitants as of 2005, including the attached municipalities of Raïmat and Sucs.

It is the central city of the province of the same name. Lleida is the capital city of the comarca county Segrià and the province that takes its name.

Its economy is mostly based on commerce and services, being one of the most important population and economic inland centres in Catalonia. The city is located one hour by car west of Barcelona.

MEETING OF STYLES, Lleida (Spain)It took a litle while for the MOS to come back to Spain. But eventhough it took longer, it came stronger!
	Crudel, the Urban Soldiers and a lot of helpers provided the basis to create a huge and special event. It was all set: wall, paint, sun, lifters and a pool to refresh near-by.

During day it was kind of slow-motion cause of the heat, while in the evening it speeded up and got more and more buisy.

See finest spanish Graffiti-Art. The expo is open 24hours, 7 days. But watch your trash and dont litter!

The Line-up so far:

CMYK (BARCELONA), STREET GODS (MADRID), NGFX (VIC-GIRONA), EDS (EXTREMADUR), CRKS (BARCELONA), MLC (BARCELONA), FIGH43DOM (MURCIA), WILDCANS (Valencia), DBR (PAMPLONA), URBANSOLDIERZ (Lleida)

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The swiss event is established since 2003 in Winterthur, a city 20km outside Zurich.

It has a population of 100.000 and is the sixth largest and one of the fastest growing city in Switzerland.

In the local dialect and by its inhabitants, it is usually abbreviated to Winti. Today Winterthur is a service and high tech industry centre, but many people make use of its proximity to Zurich, which is only 15 minutes by train.

Winterthur is connected to Germany and Italy by direct trains and enjoys excellent links to Zurich Airport. It is also a regional transportation hub.

The Station of Winterthur is one of the highest frequent Stations of Switzerland. As most cities are running Anti-Graffiti- campaigns it is not easy to find a good venue.

After the event moved to Zurich in 2007, it came back to where it started back in 2003.

	The venue is located next to the youth-center of the city, in an industrial area near s-train-station Grüze.
The main wall has about 600quaremeters and will be painted with a certain topic in a huge concept. Near ther venue is a second wall that has about 200qm.

Größere Kartenansicht

	Actually it all started weeks before preparing idea, concept, line-up. Sonic, One Truth and the local MOS-Orga have done a lot to continue our swiss edition.
The goal was to follow this years Motto “Big Dreamers” so the idea was born to create a big universe with big bubblees as a symbol for individual dreams, in and by different styles.

Its been a lot of work for Sonic and the boys and surely wasnt easy to bring more than 25 artists togehter, following the concept, keeping the line.

	But eventhough and despite of rain throughout the weekend, it turned out to be a burner. Check the gallery!On the walls: Tcf-Crew (Bristol/GB), Zmogk (Russia), F-Lines-Crew (Italy), Schwarzmaler (CH), Sonic, Syke,Kesh and IGB-Crew (CH), Wany (Italy), Clockwork (Ch), Trise + Sokz (Austria), Kesh, Nigs, Iceroc, Spoom (CH), Serio (France), One Truth-Crew.
On the decks thru the weekend… DJ Lil Gee, Dj C-Kret (OTM), m&m DJ Crew, DJ Chillo (Zone 13), DJ Useless (IS), Dj Refstah

After-party was rocked by… Zone 13, IS, Mito(OTM), Italoslang/Zerius, Eloquent, Eniceo and RMU-Crew (Germany)

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Event was near corner of Scheideggstrasse and Kronaustrasse.