the roskilde music festival graffiti project by lars pederson

roskilde graffiti project, by lars pederson, roskilde, denmarkimage © tom dean / foureyesgood

lars pederson, graffiti artist and organizer for one of europe’s largest music festivals at roskilde took a very present problem amongst the generation’syouth and turned it into a platform for international art. the ‘graffiti project,’ only recently begun in 2009, redirects negative tagging tendencies and harnesses their hidden artistic potentials to support street-art culture and the overall festival experience. stemming from festival-goers painting and tagging tents and various other festival equipment, pederson channeled this rebellious activity by fully supporting it. a new zone was created that features the work of professional and amateur artists from all around the world as they lay down coat over coat of their artistic expression, side by side. the ideais to express yourself through your style and to learn from and collaborate with other artists from different parts of the world to create new fusions andexplore new boundaries.

with its great success, the ‘graffiti workshop’ soon developed to give newcomers a crash course in spray painting techniques. working closely with sponsors such as the innovative german spray paint manufacturer molotow, they are able to provide free cans to visitors and more importantly a program to recycle empty cans to reduce, and virtually eliminate, all waste. about five kilometers of plain wooden boards, used by the festival to mark off its various areas and perimeters, are now blank canvases for the guests themselves, adding a whole new visual aspect to the festival experience. veterans of the style are not paid to take part – the idea is not to make money – the idea is only to bring international perspectives together to see what can result in their collision, to support graffiti as an art, and to reduce the unwanted tagging in an ingenious way. the effort effectively transformed a negative element at the music festival into a healthy, productive global medium for street art, through sustainable thinking and collaboration. in the end the art – like the festival – is ephemeral, lasting only four days out of the year making it a truly unique experience every time.

the graffiti project as explained by lars pedersonvideo © foureyesgood

visitors trying their hand on the walls with the graffiti workshopimage © foureyesgood

image © foureyesgood

molotow supplies over 5000 cans each year and supports a recycling system to eliminate wasteimage © foureyesgood

australian artist sofles at the 2012 roskilde festivalvideo © foureyesgood

image © foureyesgood

work by australian artist smukimage © foureyesgood

united states graffiti artistimage © foureyesgood

south american graffiti artistimage © foureyesgood

german graffiti artistsimage © foureyesgood

united kingdom artistsimage © foureyesgood

brazilian graffiti artistsimage © foureyesgood

dutch graffiti artistsimage © foureyesgood

TAD crew graffiti from st petersburg, russiaimage © foureyesgood

baskets for empty and full cansimage © foureyesgood

some of the artists that showed up to the 2011 roskilde festival include:

lovepusher (uk), bonzai (uk), kak (uk), tizer (uk), dep (uk), motor (uk/dk), seize (uk), smug (aus), soten (dk), damn (dk), mester (dk), sick (dk), sport (dk), juse (usa/dk), sye (usa), does (br), saile (cn), fisek (cn), wais (ru), truba (ru), trun (ru), sket (nd)