TASSO

Tasso’s talent for graffiti revealed itself at a young age. When he was little he used to paint whilst lying under his grandparent’s kitchen table, until one day he decided to write his signature and date on the underside of that table. He then repeated this ritual annually watching his style change year upon year. Later at school he saw a television show about graffiti, he remembers this vividly; “It must have been on a Sunday afternoon and it was “Style Wars” with German subtitles. I had no idea what they were talking about, but I liked it a lot, it was fabulous, colourful and absolutely my thing.”

Years later in 1985 Beat Street was shown in East German movie theatres and like every other teenager at that time Tasso tried to become a Break Dancer. But his fascination with graffiti was much stronger and he knew he wanted to spray his first painting. He recalls “I didn’t know how very important it was to create your signature over and over again, trying to vary in style; all I was doing was –‘ HipHop don’t stop’ – Throw up”. To make matters worse all cans disappeared from DDR (Deutsche Demokratische Republik, otherwise known as the German Democratic Republic) stores in 1986, leaving no opportunity for graffiti artists to express anti-DDR slogans on walls or buildings. But then came political change, and Tasso painted his first piece in 1991 at the age of 25. However, Tasso wasn’t alone, and kids from towns all across East Germany were discovering spray cans.

In the following three years Tasso finished no more than three pieces and so he came to regard 1994 as his personal starting year. “From the beginning I did not want to commit myself to a certain style, but wanted the freedom of trying myself, finding my versatility and creating new ways. In our small town of Meerane I found a guy who had similar intentions and who I knew from my breaking days, BART, and we founded the StyleWandBombers.” At its largest the StyleWandBombers was made up of six people but the crew eventually went their separate ways in 1998. In that same year TASSO founded DSA, together with ANIZ from Dessau. Over time this crew grew to include DARM, COP 24, JMF, KIOSK, SÄLB, Klar, MONET, KAN, MALUN, KASTORE, KAFEH, DESUR, and AKUT. In addition to this there was also the DSA –GIRLS: WENCH …

In November Tasso retired from the DSA-Crew and joined AKUT, CASE and RUSK to form the MaClaim-Crew, as named by Tasso in January 2001. And their aim?.. to inundate Germany and the rest of the world with their photorealistic stuff. Indeed, their wall productions were almost revolutionary and clearly stood out from the bubble backgrounds and comic characters used at that time. They immediately attracted a lot of attention and have gone on to become one of the most respected crews in the world.

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Walls

Maclaim Walls

Canvasses

Commissions