Romanian Street Art welcomes Tobias Barenthin Lindblad, an author, editor, and culture consultant from Sweden’s Dokument Press, to Bucharest for two events exploring graffiti and street art. A former graffiti writer and founder of UP magazine, Tobias has authored numerous books, lectured globally on urban culture and public space, and served as an expert witness in graffiti-related trials. On March 15, 2025, his graffiti workshop will delve into the art form’s history, techniques, and democratic significance, offering participants hands-on experience in letter design and large-scale painting. The following day, he will lead a guided tour showcasing Bucharest’s street art, discussing its social impact and artistic diversity.
Graffiti & street art workshop / 15th of March 2025
Graffiti is a unique combination of aesthetics and communication. Through their styles and choice of locations, the graffiti writers tell who they are.
In this workshop, participants get to know both the micro and macro perspectives of what has been called the world’s biggest art movement.
Workshop leader Tobias Barenthin Lindblad will lecture on the origins of graffiti in New York, its European history, style, technique, and execution, as well as its social significance and why public space is so important in a democratic society.
The participant creates their letter design in just a few hours by understanding the structure of letters and how to make them dance. Painting your finished sketch in a large format, with your whole body, is a physical effort that few other art forms offer. In addition, graffiti acts as a bridge-builder: age, gender or origin does not matter; here, everyone cooperates!
Guided tour / 16th of March 2025
Street calligraphy in the form of graffiti and stencils, posters, and 3D-work in the form of street art flourished in cities around the world. Sometimes provocative, often loved and future landmarks, these works appear mostly without permission on public walls. Their appearance is tightly connected with democracy. No other subculture has managed to constantly challenge our perception of taste, quality and freedom of expression.
Who makes them and why? What do they tell us about our time?
Tobias Barenthin Lindblad has been a street art guide since 2006. In two exciting hours, he shows some of Bucharest’s works.
Tobias Barenthin Lindblad shows different examples of graffiti and street art and talks about motives, styles, background and motivation as well as the fundament of urban life: public space.
Book the workshop and / or tour below:
Registration form
About Tobias Barenthin Lindblad
Tobias Barenthin Lindblad is an author, editor and culture consultant at the Swedish publishing house Dokument Press, which specialises in books about street culture and freedom of speech.
After writing graffiti during his teens, he started the Swedish graffiti magazine UP in 1992. Since then, he has written more than a dozen books about graffiti, participated in debates, and lectured. He is also leading workshops about graffiti, urban culture, and the right to public space around the world.
He has lectured at the Swedish Parliament, Art and Design universities around Scandinavia, the Tag Conference in Amsterdam, Cologne, and Hamburg, the Menendez Pelayo University in Santander, Spain, and the Venice Biennale. Since 2006, he has guided street art tours in Stockholm.
He has appeared as an expert witness in several graffiti-related trials in both county and appeal courts in Sweden.
Tobias Barenthin Lindblad has an education in Ethnology, Media and Communication Studies and German language at Stockholm University.
Cover photography © Per Englund.
About Romanian Street Art
In 2024, Romanian Street Art unveiled four new art interventions in Bucharest, Cluj-Napoca and Iași. These artworks can be experienced in public spaces for free anytime, in Bucharest at Șoseaua Mihai Bravu 75/83, and the Lagom Hotel – Maior Alexandru Campeanu 8A, by Bulgarian artist Sunshiners (mural painting) and Cezar Lazăr (soundtrack), at Romexpo, the multidisciplinary intervention by Delia Cîrstea (mural painting) and Kozo (soundtrack), in Cluj-Napoca, on Fericirii street, painted by Ma.Tei, and in Iasi, at Kindergarten No. 25, by Pisica Pătrată and Harcea Pacea.
In addition to artistic works in public spaces across the country, the Romanian Street Art program includes creative workshops promoting graffiti, street art and non-formal cultural education, guided tours, a publication, and an online map.
Find out more about the programme here: https://un-hidden.ro/romanian-street-art/
The cultural multiannual programme Romanian Street Art is produced by Save or Cancel (Cristina Popa, Andrei Racovițan) through feeder.ro and co-financed by AFCN.
The programme does not necessarily represent the position of The Administration of the National Cultural Fund. AFCN is not responsible for the application’s content or the way the program results can be used. These are entirely the responsibility of the beneficiary of the funding.
Partners: Lente, Romexpo, Lagom Hotel
Media partners: Amsterdam Street Art, Biblioteca Metropolitană București, BSBSA (Bucharest Sofia Belgrade Street Art), Empower Artists, DigitizArte, Igloo, IQads, I Support Street Art, La pas prin Brasov, Litera 9, Modernism, Munteanu, PRwave, Street Art Belgrade, Revista Atelierul, Revista Golan, The Institute, Zeppelin,Un-hidden Romania, Ziarul Pozitiv.