With water, soap and potato flour you are now trying to save Highway in Rågsved outside Stockholm. Since the incident on Tuesday morning, the commitment has been great to try to get away with the blue color.
The work erected in the summer of 1989 by the graffiti crew Still Heavens Only Force is regarded as one of the oldest murals of its kind. Not only in Sweden but in the world at large.
- In public places throughout Sweden, there are maybe two dozen of these types of paintings left over from the 1980s, so they are very, very few. Even at European level, such old public graffiti paintings are extremely unusual, said graffiti expert and author Tobias Barenthin Lindblad to the Culture News on Tuesday.
"We stayed all summer"André Almqvist is one of the four guys in Still Heavens Only Force who in the summer of 1989 received an offer from the house's then property owner to create a graffiti painting on the wall next to the leisure farm Rågsvedsgården. They submitted a few sketches and got OK from the host.
- We did not get paid but it was a legal wall simply and they maintained color. They wanted to make this area a little more accessible. Basically, we just wanted to do something that was cool and cool, he says.
- We started it after school ended and then we finished it before school started in August - so we stayed all summer. So it's pretty accurate 30 years ago, it's absolutely incredible. And that exactly this happens almost exactly on the day.
André Almqvist was on vacation when he was reached by the news of what had happened. He himself has not been able to go to Rågsved, but says that he was very affected by the reactions on social media and all the people gathered in Rågsved to save Highway.
- Obviously it feels very strange and very strange. Now I no longer live there myself, but every time I passed Rågsved I was very happy that it was still there. And a little surprised too. It is still thirty years old and it is quite a long time for a painting to sit on a wall, he says.
- But it has become a childhood memory for people and not least for everyone who has run at Rågsvedsgården over the years.
After the unfortunate repainting on Tuesday morning, a group of people now stands and work in the hope of removing the blue color.
- I do not know how well it will go, there can certainly be some leftover. But it may well have its charm. Now there's one to the story about it like, like, "why does it look like that on the right?", He says.
"Connecting people"The stigma surrounding graffiti and street culture is still great. Although some have been relaxed, for example not least with the decision to remove the zero tolerance in Stockholm a few years ago. But André Almqvist, after all, hopefully looks at the continuation of the Highway - and art form in general.
- It is interesting to see how a painting connects so many people together. Sweden is not what it has been, it is the harsh reality, and yesterday it felt like it was further proof that something was on its way to the forest. But at the same time you see the commitment, and read about all the people who go there and wash. There is hope - it's just about making sure we take care of everything, he says.
- I think this will benefit the graffiti more.