Tagtool

In April we were invited by Laser Entertainment to do a Tagtool event in Milano (Italy). Alberto Kellner, owner of the company, has been using laser technology in conjunction with other media since he started out 22 years ago.

The purpose of the event, named Milan Digital Graffiti, was for local graffiti- and street artists to demonstrate their styles on a large scale. Alberto’s writes about his motivation:

… graffiti has long been considered a major national problem. In public there is rarely a consciousness about what can or should be a form of artistic expression and what is pure vandalism. But the artistic point of view and the immanent aspects of social communication, makes it certainly to an interesting and strong expression of modern urban culture.

For six nights we were tagtooling on a vacant office building at the Via Tortona in the center of Milan. The setup used two stacked 15K projectors on a big tower, two Tagtool stations under a canopy and small wodden tribunes for the audience, all within the courtyard of the building.

To ensure the quality of the sessions, Alberto’s crew had trained on the Tagtool in advance and invited friends out of the local graffiti scene to join. On location there was a small Tagtool station to warm up before going large. The sessions were opened by the experienced local Tagtool artists Luca Barcellona and Marco Klefisch. With fantastic styles they inspired newbies and demonstrated what is possible to get out of the instrument.

Tthe event was organised as part of the festival Salone del Mobile, also known as Milan Design Week. This annually happening in Milano is one of the largest decoration trade fair in the world. With installations, debates, temporary design shops and of course partying, it attracts thousand of people from Italy and abroad. The Via Tontona, as the center of the festival, was the perfect spot to feature the event to a broad audience.

So, with a big bang, Tagtool has arrived in Italy; props for the good work of the Laser Entertainment crew!