The TAG Conference: JOSEPH KYSELAK 200 YEAR JUBILEE
Entry deadline: 2 June 2025
The Call for Papers is now open for The Tag Conference Vienna 2025, hosted by the Literature Museum at the Austrian National Library and Bezirksmuseum Mariahilf. The event includes lectures and readings, as well as exhibitions and guided tours into lesser-known Vienna.
Now in its ninth year, the travelling Tag Conference continues to spearhead and deepen the study of tagging, a pivotal yet often overlooked form of public art. This Vienna instalment is produced in partnership with Kyselakproject and Spraycity.at.
The conference will be held in English, with the exception of the Friday evening programme, which will be conducted in German.
In commemoration of the 200th anniversary of Joseph Kyselak’s iconic journey across the Alps, this instalment of the conference lays a special focus on the rich legacy of public name-writing in Romantic times.
Kyselak, a Vienna-born civil servant, was a pioneer in the exploration of natural landscapes. The many marks he left along his travels made him a legend in Austria and established him as the foremost trailblazer of modern-day graffiti.
Yet Kyselak was far from the only tagger of his time. From the Romantic period onwards, inscribing one’s name on ancient ruins was commonplace among pioneering leisure travellers, as evidenced by the layers of autographs that survive to this day — including those of Byron and Rimbaud.
This wave of public name-writing marked the first widespread graffiti craze in modern Western history, and can be seen as a direct precursor to today’s tagging.
