ABOUT
Meeting of Styles UK is a family friendly, free block party for the graffiti and hip hop community – a celebration of spraycan art and hip hop culture which has been hosted in the UK by EndoftheLine nine times since 2008.
The original “International Meeting of Styles” is an global network of events for aerosol artists and aficionados that began in Wiesbaden, Germany, in 2002. Brought together and inspired by a passion for graffiti, Meeting Of Style aims to create a forum for the international art community to communicate, assemble, and exchange ideas, work and skills.
In the spirit of co-operation and promotion, Meeting Of Styles has developed a worldwide calendar of events that has featured in over twenty-one different countries, with local organisations producing their own independent but affiliated exciting annual productions.
In the United Kingdom we have hosted the event for 5 years at the site of the Nomadic Community Gardens, with the event expanding to include walls around Allen Gardens & Brick Lane in the heart of East London, Shoreditch.
The gardens closed beginning of 2020 and Covid destroyed our hopes of the 10th year in 2020.
Now the MOSUK team explore a new plan for 2021.
(TBC - Re Covid)
The UK event is managed by London based crew EndoftheLine.
If you’d like to get involved, apply on the contact page and don’t hesitate to get in touch!
The “International Meeting of Styles” (MOS) is an international network of graffiti artists and aficionados that began in Wiesbaden, Germany in 1997.
Brought together and inspired by their passion for graffiti, MOS aims to create a forum for the international art community to communicate, assemble and exchange ideas, works and skills, but also to support intercultural exchange. In the spirit of cooperation and promotion, MOS has launched hundreds events in many countries across Europe, Russia, Asia and the Americas.
These events have sponsored thousands of Graffiti-Artists from all over the world and throughout the years have attracted hundreds of thousands spectators, providing a focal point for urban street culture and graffiti art. The “Meeting Of Styles” as its name says, is a meeting of styles, created to support the netting of the international art-community. It is not meant to be a forum only for classical and traditonal Graffiti-Artists and -Writers, but a podium to present all different types of urban art! This is why we are open for all types and styles.
The Mind Behind: Int. Meeting Of Styles – In The Spirit Of Cooperation And Exchange
Magazine Article from the International www.MeetingofStyles.com
Once upon a time there was an abandoned area consisting of thousands of square meters of wall space. It was a time when hundreds of artists from all over the world gathered annually to leave signs of their skills. After the dark past of deportations at the end of the 3rd Reich and the slaughter of cattle for decades, this area became colourful, famous and established a worldwide reputation as one of Europe's largest Graffiti-Galleries – the Schlachthof in Wiesbaden, Germany. This is the story of inspiration and ambition, of a vision of a better world. It is about collective interests, public urban development and raises a basic question: Who owns the city?
Since it was established, the legendary “Int. Wall Street Meeting” has welcomed more than 25.000 visitors from all over Germany, Europe and the rest of the world to attend and to enjoy art in the process of creation. Because of its authentical style and its message the Meeting is mentioned as the best Graffiti-Event ever happened. Its worldwide reputation and the enormous feedback inspired us in 2002 to spread its message all over the world which led to the founding of the “Int. Meeting Of Styles”.
Logo of the legendary “Wall Street Meeting” created by Can2
New MOS Logo
It was 1984 when little Cazo Yours got infected by the first Hip-Hop-Wave in Germany and he started to write. As one of the few early Writers of his city, Cazo was the first to get into train-writing mid 80ies and became part of the first “graffiti-wave” to flood the rhine-main-train system 1990.
After a short high of steel-rocking in 92 he had to take time off from illegal colorising public property as he got accused and convicted of damaging property. His intention of painting was good, not evil, to make the city look nicer and to add colour to it, to fight the grey by the power of the spray-can. The system didn't like the way and demonstrated that it is hard to force change from outside, against the systems structures, its institutions. Struggling with the system and its values, Cazo realised that change can only be achieved from inside, transforming the system by working with its own tools. The first step after the court-case to follow was the foundation of “Final Vision”, a group of artists and convicted vandalists realising art-shows and happenings.
It was the early 90's when the former Schlachthof quit its business and the entire area was left unused. A huge complex, centrally located, near the main train station without any vision for a future use, left for decay. Very soon the local and regional Graffiti-Scene discovered the spot where painting during day-time was possible and later on was tolerated and accepted.
At this time Wiesbaden didn’t offer any place for free, independent, and self-administrative culture, when a group of committed people discovered the deserted main building, occupied it and established a self-administrative centre of culture, realizing parties and concerts of various urban cultures.
During this period the Schlachthof was already known beyond the city limits as a Graffiti-Hall-Of-Fame where painting was almost legal. Crews from all over the country met to do large productions, writers from all over the metropolitan area could be met on a daily basis.
At the beginning only tolerated, by the mid 90ies the Graffiti-scene of the Rhine-Main-Area and beyond was established and made the Schlachthof one of Europe's largest Hall-Of-Fames.
To Be Continued!