They stand on the tracks to stop it and a chase through the tunnels ensues. The graffiti artists are surprised by a train coming from the other direction. The numbers are not exact because, besides having to remove the paint, other factors cost money, such as withdrawing targeted carriages from circulation, fixing up damage to facilities and the new coats of paint that have to be applied to the carriages once they have been cleaned. The phenomenon costs the rail operators millions of euros in damages. “Many of them are apparently totally normal: they have jobs, studies, a partner, a family,” says Luz Clemente, the chief inspector of the Central Operative Section of the Mobile Brigade of the national police. People of all kinds are involved they may be from marginalized, middle classes or wealthy backgrounds. They check out the guards’ shifts, cover or move security cameras, break sensors, and open up vents and gaps in walls that will allow them to sneak behind the scenes of the country’s Metro and rail systems. Many work a normal job during the day and spend hours during the evenings planning their missions. In most cases, the result of the graffiti is secondary. They favor anonymity, lead a double life and compete among themselves in an urban game that revolves around dodging security systems. It is a closed group that generally avoids media attention. The others prefer not to speak too much.Īccording to the National Police and the Catalan regional police force, the Mossos d’Esquadra, around a thousand Spaniards dedicate their free time to sneaking into rail and Metro facilities to spray paint train carriages. The other men are between 20 and 25 one of them is a student. He is recently divorced, he says, and no one is waiting for him at home. There is also a 40-year-old man in the group, who confesses to having “got hooked” again after more than 10 years without doing it. Graffiti artists come from all kinds of backgrounds: marginalized, middle class and wealthy He has traveled halfway around the world to spray trains and has only recently returned home after spending three months in and out of jail in New York for spraypainting a number of wagons in the city. The 37-year-old has two children and works as a painter during the day. He is one of the most respected graffiti artists in the country with 25 years of experience behind him. The person talking goes by the name of Jabato. “There are cameras everywhere, it’s deep inside and swarming with guards.” The old carriage is located inside a facility at the rail junction belonging to Barcelona Metropolitan Transport (TMB), the main public transport operator in Catalonia. “It’s a top model train,” says one as he unravels the rope and ties a number of knots in it. They are graffiti artists – or “writers” as they call themselves – and their goal tonight is to risk their lives painting an old Metro carriage that was built in 1926 and taken out of circulation 30 years ago. The smoke from their cigarettes mixes with the fog from the cold air as they talk about gaps to slip through, radial saws and the police above the hum of the distant highway traffic. They are wearing sweat pants, dark clothes and trekking boots. In a parking lot near the Torras I Bages Metro station, five men between the ages of 20 and 40 take a crowbar and a 20-meter-long rope from the boot of their BMW. It is Friday night in the suburbs of Barcelona.
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