Free OZ! -USED

Colorful or black smileys and squiggles, tags like USP or DSF and again and again the character OZ: Hamburg’s most famous sprayer is omnipresent in the cityscape of the Hanseatic city. He left his mark on dreary tunnel walls, bunkers and the back of traffic signs. The 64-year-old OZ has been traveling night after night in Hamburg with singular persistence for more than 20 years. He denies the prerogative of advertising messages to shape public space without competition and claims a right to a city for everyone.

As a result, OZ was sentenced to a total of eight years in prison for “continued property damage”. For the same reason, he has inspired generations of graffiti and street art artists. And what began as the “uprising of signs” on the streets of the 1960s has long since reached urban galleries, advertising agencies and universities.

The articles in the book analyze the criminal proceedings against OZ as an example of the criminalization of street art, defend public space against its increasing privatization, and critically examine the capture of urban art by advertising and commerce. The book recognizes OZ’s work from an artistic perspective and explores the question of what moves people behind the legendary abbreviation.