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Police to investigate Swedish art student's metro graffiti

TT/The Local
TT/The Local - [email protected]
Police to investigate Swedish art student's metro graffiti

The Stockholm county transit authority SL has filed a complaint with the police against a student who filmed the vandalizing of a subway carriage, amid revelations that the incident wasn’t the first time the student recorded vandalism for an art project.

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For a final art project, the student from Sweden's University College of Arts, Craft and Design (Konstfack) recorded the vandalizing of a Stockholm metro carriage with graffiti.

The student could not have faked the recording, claims SL, the Stockholm county transit authority.

According to the Dagens Nyheter (DN) newspaper, SL believes there is no way that the graffiti was carried out legally.

The film clearly shows someone spray painting a metro carriage and breaking a window. The number on the car is also visible, as is the fact that it is stopped at a station, meaning it was in traffic during the recording, say SL, which also reject any claim that the film was doctored.

“We don’t know when or where but you can see that it happened from the images,” said SL spokesperson Gisela Poellinger to DN.

SL will now abandon its own investigation and allow police to continue the work.

According to Expressen, the incident which sparked outrage from SL and from Sweden’s culture minister isn't the first time the student recorded acts of vandalism as part of an art project.

In a separate film, a person clad in black can be seen spray painting the walls and floor of a subway station.

An essay written in the student’s final year includes 24 still pictures from the video.

According to the course description, the essay should be scientific, but according to Expressen two full pages of the paper are filled with the text “bla-bla-bla”.

The essay also includes the student’s views toward critics of graffiti:

“If it costs society so damn much, screw cleaning it up, people are doing pretty well after all if they have time to bitch about the fact that one place's colour has switched places, poor apartment!”

The student received a passing grade for the essay.

Expressen’s attempt to get a comment from a Konstfack representative were unsuccessful.

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