Sorry For Damage Done

Description

Title: Sorry For Damage Done
Authors: Vincent Wittenberg, Wladimir Manshanden.
Including the essay The destruction of Non Art by Christian Omodeo.
Paperback
Published: 2017
Language: English
Pages: 352
Typeface: Akzidenz Grotesk (berthold)
Paper: Magno Volume 115 Grsm
Malmero Blanc 300 Grsm
Printed in monochrom and full-colour offset
Dimensions: 23 x 17 x 2.3 cm/ 9 x 6.7 x 0.9 inch

Unique before and after images of cleaned street art and graffiti in Eindhoven

The starting point for this project was the discovery of a missive database of photographs made by cleaning companies in Eindhoven, a city in the Netherlands known for its industrial heitage, including the Philips factories. Between 2007 and 2013, these companies were commissioned to remove unauthorised images from municipal property in the city’s public space. As evidence of their work, they photographed each site twice – before and after cleaning – which resulted in a huge archive of 50,000 images.

When the authors, Vincent Wittenberg and Wladimir Manshanden, stumbled upon this bizarre collection, they immediately appreciated its historic value. The database is a meticulous seven-year inventory of the graffiti and sticker culture in Eindhoven and exposes the city’s struggle with the ambivalence of combatting vandalism versus embracing subcultures. It also documents urban space as a territory where a wide range of people leave their mark.

Sorry for damage done represents three percent of the entire database: more than fifteen hundred chronologically ordered photographs of graffiti and their ‘cleaned up’ counterparts.