Boris DELTA Tellegen - 121/183

256 pages
Text(s) by François Chastanet
Designed by Sandra Kassenaar and Bart de Baets with Youhee Cha
30 x 23 cm
Language: English
Paperback, with poster dust jacket
Publisher: Apaperbook
2024

761 photos of red-brown steel freight wagons with a painting on the side*

In the early 2010s, the European graffiti artist DELTA embarked on a project painting freight trains, initiating an expansive series focused exclusively on DB (Deutsche Bahn) Falns 121 and 183 cargo wagons. Employing mostly white paint and black spray paint, he managed to complete over 760 of these cars by 2023.

"121/183 is the catalog of a project that came about just like that. It was not planned in advance; it started as a one-time act of painting for old times' sake. That one time became two times, and then, why not one more time. The first painting of this project was made and photographed in 2011, the last one in 2023. After returning a couple of times to the same spot and the same type of surface, the idea dawned that it could become a little project. A small collection of paintings with the same restrictions. Solely white liquid paint and black spray paint were allowed to apply; only brown steel freight wagons to be painted. Also the photo of the painting had to be of the entire wagon. This little project became a larger project, and in the end it went on for more than ten years."