Subterráneos

In each capital of Europe there is a small group of individuals who dedicate their free time to a very specific, playful and ritual goal: paint their names on the underground wagons.

What was initially born as a way for graffiti to circulate through all the neighborhoods of New York City has lost its original meaning since it was imported to Europe. At the moment the wagons do not circulate painted in almost any city of the world. The terrorist threat and the image of insecurity that is projected every time the wagons are painted has contributed to security measures in hangars and yards that are much more sophisticated than in the 80s.

So, why do they do it? Why risk life and freedom to do something that nobody can see?

This project explores and documents the phenomenon by which graffiti writers spend their nights studying how to sneak into the rail yards, get around cameras, sensors, fences, guards, police and reach the wagons turning their lives in a kind of video game.

As a game, Subterráneos has two players, two points of view, facing one another as adversaries.

On the one hand, the action of infiltrating the underground to paint, to which Enrique Escandell is witness with his camera, and on the other, the photographs taken by the police belonging to various trials and investigations against graffiti writers. Two forms of representation that complement each other to give a complete view of the phenomenon.

Choose your player.