GERMANY: Graffiti Artist & Event Organizer - MANUEL GERULLIS aka YOURS - Founder of Meeting of Styles

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Above: – Below: Frankfurt, Germany (2025) – Florianopolis, Brasil (2021)

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Above: Tropen Tango, Lorch, Germany (2021) – Below: Schlachthof, Wiesbaden, Germany (2025)

We spoke with the creative artist, event organizer, and passionate networker in an interesting interview, where he tells us the fascinating story of Meeting of Styles, as well about his development as a graffiti writer and about several old and new projects like the Kulturcampus and the European Hip Hop Museum. If you understand German, you can listen to the audio interview as a podcast; if not, then read the written version below in English. Peppered with photos of great graffiti pieces by MANUEL GERULLIS aka YOURS.

Listen to <a href="https://hearthis.at/radio-x-interviews/manuel-gerullis/" target="_blank" rel="noopener">MANUEL GERULLIS – YOURS – Meeting of Styles – Wallstreet Meeting – DBL, UCA & CNB – Kontext, Schlachthof, Kulturcampus & European Hip Hop Museum – Wiesbaden – [ GERMANY ]</a> by<a href="https://hearthis.at/radio-x-interviews/" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Radio X Interviews</a> on <a href="https://hearthis.at/" target="_blank" rel="noopener">hearthis.at</a>

The legendary first event in 1997 was still called the Wall Street Meeting. And then in 2002, you renamed the whole thing and hosted the first Meeting of Styles. How did that start, and how did it all come about? It wasn’t just a small jam with a few friends; you really wanted to bring the whole scene together.

Yes, it basically started when the huge industrial area down by the slaughterhouse, near the main train station, suddenly became derelict. And in the early 90s, there was always a movement in Wiesbaden for an alternative cultural center. They moved into the main hall and set up shop there. At the same time, the graffiti scene had already discovered the slaughterhouse. It was a place where people could spray paint in peace and quiet, with no one being bothered. These were dilapidated halls that were being painted, and nobody cared. It was in the mid-90s that the first public discussions about redeveloping the area began, i.e., tearing down the halls and building a parking lot there.

I had the idea of organizing a graffiti festival sometime in the mid-90s. I organized my first thing in 1990, a hip-hop jam at the youth center. And yes, that’s how one thing led to another: the plans for the redesign and my idea of doing a graffiti festival. I presented it to a plenary session at the Schlachthof, and they loved the idea. Then we did the first small test in 1996. In 1997 we held the first festival. I approached and invited everyone I knew back then. They all thought it was great. Let’s get together. We brought Play-Doh from New York, we brought Mode 2, and we already had a few good guys there. And then it took on a dynamic of its own. 1997 was the first one, which was pretty cool. 1998 was the next one, and in 1999 it got bigger and bigger, and more and more people came along. And in 2000, the biggest festival was held, with around 400 graffiti artists and 14,000 visitors, plus all the rap acts like Sammy Deluxe, Main Concept, and Nordmassiv. Everyone was there and put on a huge show.

There were a few incidents at the festival too. The slaughterhouse is located right next to the train yard. Of course, people sprayed graffiti down into the yard and tagged the trains. Then the police came and such. It was quite a bit of action, and there were a few unpleasant incidents, which ultimately led to us only being allowed to do graffiti in 2001. So no concerts, no breakdancing, no music, just spraying. And then things really took off. We actually joined with the aim of preserving the area for youth culture. We had discussions about it and put on exhibitions. And then in 2001 we founded the IG Schlachthof for Youth, with the demand that youth culture needs space for expression and that the slaughterhouse must be preserved. We then developed a cultural park concept and presented it to the political committees. We also held demonstrations for this. And then around 2005 the basic decision was made that the cultural park should be built.

Above: **ALIEN**, RODE & **YOURS** – CNB Crew – Meeting of Styles, Pristina, Kosovo (2021) – Below:

Now, 20 years later, we have graffiti gallery walls that were specifically set up for graffiti. It’s a big park with various cultural and sporting activities. A network was founded between 1997 and 2001. People came up to me and said, „Hey, that’s cool, we need something like that in our hometown too. Graffiti is criminalized there, and we want to show that it’s an art form. Let’s do a Wall Street Meeting in Poland. Or in Sweden.“ For me, however, it was the case that the Wall Street Meeting is legendary and associated with the slaughterhouse, and you can’t just do it anywhere else. That’s how I came up with the idea for Meeting of Styles. In 2002, we held eight events in Europe in our first year. New York was added in 2003, Mexico in 2004, and from then on it took off and grew immensely, with over 400 events on every continent in 20 years.

I also found information on the website that says there are more than 30,000 works of art. At some point, that adds up, so it’s quite a statement. But there are probably even more.

Yes, 30,000, but I don’t know if that’s still accurate. Probably much more. When I consider the largest gatherings, Buenos Aires in 2011 with 50 spots spread across the city, Guadalajara in 2016 with 300 sprayers on huge walls, that adds up to quite a lot.

So, starting in 2002, the Meeting of Styles still takes place here every year, always at the Brückenkopf near Mainz-Kastel and the surrounding area in Wiesbaden. I’ve always had a lot of respect for Wiesbaden and Mainz, for how they handle urban art. You come there and feel like the whole city is one big graffiti street art event for a weekend. It was amazing!

That’s nice. I’m glad that the impression is there and is emerging or still exists. Of course, it was a tough road. When we started, from 1997 to 2002, Wiesbaden still had a different city government and there was already massive headwind. The Wall Street Meeting had barely ended and then there were press releases from certain parties: „No tax money for graffiti vandals“ and things like that. But we stayed true to ourselves and we were always supported by the Office for Social Work. This has been consistent from the very beginning for over 25 years now. The support was not only financial, so that we could put the festival on, but also ideological and political. In 2017, we received the Culture Prize of the state capital Wiesbaden. That was also an award. And then at some point there was a change in politics. And then we simply checked with the town hall to see if the mayor could welcome our artists. Meeting of Styles is, so it’s said, one of the state capital’s few cultural exports, and from Wiesbaden, it has conquered the entire world. It’s on a par with cities like New York, Los Angeles, Lima, and Bangkok, as well as with global metropolises, and enjoys a very high reputation within the scene. Of course, we don’t just have friends in politics and administration. But I would say, for the most part, the Meeting of Styles is simply truly well-established.

We were lucky, of course, with the Brückenkopf in Kastel, which is also a legendary spot. I personally painted my first picture there. Back in 1985, we saw the first tags for the BOMBER and the DOUBLE D. And then we went there with a marker and wrote next to it: „Hey, let’s meet up. Here and there at this time.“ That was the analogue age, no internet, nada. And the Brückenkopf is actually the meeting place of the early graffiti scene, where we from Wiesbaden and Mainz made our first national contacts. That was around 1985. And so it’s great, of course, that this place is available for the festival, now that the Schlachthof no longer has enough space to hold such a large-scale festival.

You’ve already mentioned a few names. I think back then, Bomber or Double D, there weren’t any events on such a scale. Everything was just starting to develop, to find its place. BOMBER did the Spring Jam back then, which was one of the first events. The next level was you and the Wall Street Meeting, and that really connected the cities. DOUBLE D still plays at your venue, and the DÜBEL BRÜDER have been guests since the beginning. It all came together, and suddenly you realized how many people there actually were. And they all lived just around the corner, and new crews were formed. So that was a kind of starting signal for the whole region.

So it really was a huge contact center. And what’s special about it is that the Rhine-Main region around Wiesbaden is pretty much geographically in the middle of Germany and also of Europe. And the guys from Eastern Europe in particular were happy to be able to travel after the fall of the Iron Curtain. And for everyone, whether from Spain to Poland or Russia, Wiesbaden was simply the place to make contacts and get to know people. And for me personally, it was always wonderful to see how people from different countries and different cultural backgrounds come together and are creative together and are connected by a shared love of culture. And that always kind of nourished me to push it further. And Meeting of Styles today, we founded a network, also on the website, where you can log in and exchange ideas with people, and an incredible number of friendships and acquaintances have developed.

So, just a quick word about your homepage. Meeting of Styles has a really great website, and I’m a huge fan of maps, especially what you created. There are posts about when a new event is happening or about past events, and there are photos, but there’s also the worldwide map where you can see each event marked. You can click around and get all the information, including about all the artists. It’s fantastic!

Yes, that was a major development, a big step we took a few years ago. It certainly wasn’t entirely uncontroversial, because we turned Meeting of Styles into an association. Before, if people wanted to apply for a Meeting, we would send out an email from the guys in Peru or the guys in Mexico or wherever. People applied via email, and in Wiesbaden I received around 300 applications every year, some with 15 or 20 MB photos and five, six or seven emails in a row. And the organizer from Copenhagen came up with the idea that the whole thing could be managed online somehow. We came up with a website, and he programmed it. Now you basically have to take out a subscription for a year and become a member of the association, and then you can choose whether you want a marker on the world map. The idea behind it, of course, is to enable networking via this network. That means you log in, go to the map, and then you can send an email to a graffiti artist from Saudi Arabia or South Africa. It’s like, „Hey, I’m coming to your area for vacation soon and I’d like to paint a wall. How about it?“ And we want to expand on that even further, simply to enable further networking and at a higher level.

I think it’s really great to observe the development, because at the beginning, it was very focused and centralized on you. But you’re only human, and you can’t process hundreds of thousands of emails. And now you’ve set it up so that people can easily communicate and organize with each other. And suddenly, things are emerging by itself. It’s like a self-starter; it’s growing on its own.

Absolutely. I was recently invited to a Meeting of Styles in Taiwan. Yes, and it was wonderful. 120 graffiti artists from all over Asia came together. This new website system makes so much possible. And it takes the pressure off me, too. I no longer have to create every post. I no longer have to forward emails. People apply for a Meeting, are logged into a gallery’s backend, and the organizers can then put together their line-up and publish it, and then it appears on the website. So if you want to find out which artists are at the meeting in Wiesbaden, you go to the gallery and can look at each artist’s profile, see their work, have a link to their Instagram profile, and know what to expect. I think it’s a really nice development.

Now we also need to talk about yourself as an artist. You started with graffiti much earlier than the Meeting of Styles or the Wall Street Meeting, so around 1984. That was at the beginning of the wave with the legendary movie Wild Style.

Yes, that’s how it was. The film was a huge hit and inspired lots of people. It was the start for lots of people. Well, for me it actually started a bit before that, yes, it was around 1984 when my friend Michael suddenly came up and said he had seen something crazy yesterday in the „Year in Review“. It was really crazy with crazy dance moves and so on. And yes, then we watched it and were totally impressed. Lil Spot and Fable with pop locking and so on. And then we started to dance like that. First we tried to find video footage and then we did a few classic breakdance moves on the street with the cassette recorder and so on. And at the same time we also started tagging. With the fineliner, with the marker to begin with, and also with chalk. And then we got more and more input and information about how it actually works.

Then we saw Wild Style and of course, boom, we were gone. A 13-year-old teenager seeing Wild Style for the first time, looking for adventures, like a kid. It was awesome. And then we started tagging. We were lucky back then that there was the Roll-On in Bibrich, which wasn’t far away and is a classy roller rink. They played a lot of hip hop on Fridays and Saturdays and it really became the meeting place for the hip hop scene in the Rhine-Main area. And I think it was also in 1984 that they had a huge breakdance battle. Then it all started in 1984 with Bravo and Mr. Robot, Icy Gulb and everything else. They had a huge breakdance battle with over 20 crews from Wiesbaden, Mainz, Frankfurt and that was really the first meeting place for the scene. That’s where I met the guys from Mainz, Kentut, Zepster, Denir, those guys. And well, that’s how it all started. Running around outside, tagging, and so on. In 1986, I painted my first piece at the bridgehead. And then I started painting trains and was pretty busy until 1992. That’s when I was convicted of intentional damage to property.

Above: **CAZO**, Rhein-Main, Germany (1991) – Below: **PENZ**, **PANISM**, **PENIS**, Rhein-Main, Germany (1990)

I had also painted „Penis“ or „Kazo“, „Jazzy167“, „Sane“, I continously had different names. And well, then I was condemned and said: „What, you don’t want my pictures? You’ll get a lot more pictures now!“ And then I started organizing my first projects, small workshops or small exhibitions. Well, that then led me over the years from 1992, 1993, so up until 1996, to the idea of the Wall Street Meeting, and then it went on like that. I did lots of workshops and lots of projects, I even painted underpasses and all sorts of things. Then came the Wall Street Meeting, and around the turn of the millennium I was also very socio-culturally active. I founded the IG Schlachthof youth group, and I’m also a founding member of the Kreativfabrik in Wiesbaden. And Wiesbaden is a relatively small city, and then you quickly make a name for yourself and become well-known.

Then around 2009 I got the tip: „Hey, up by the Realmarkt, there’s this building that’s empty. Would you like to liven it up with some youth culture?“ And then in 2010, a few people and I founded Kontext, the Center for Urban Culture, and for the next ten years we were pretty committed to organizing lectures, graffiti, political events, film screenings, exhibitions, parties and concerts there. For a while we were even the third best techno club in the Rhine-Main area and we also put on some pretty big hip hop concerts. Afrika Bambaataa was there, for example, KRS-One, Smith & Wesson, Buckshot, Snack the Ripper, Rugged Man, Dead Press and many more. At the time, we were actually pushing the place pretty well.

Some years ago there was even an exhibition by MARTHA COOPER in the Kontext.

Yes, in 2017 we also invited MARTHA COOPER to a Meeting of Styles. I had met Martha a few years earlier at a meeting in a favela in Rio. And she already knew about the Wall Street Meeting and the Meeting of Styles and so on. And then I simply asked. How are things going, are you up for it? And Martha is a really jovial person. Yes, of course, she said. And then she came, and I was happy about that. So we’ve done a lot over the years. From the beginning, just running around outside, spraying graffiti, back then as a teenager, I never would have imagined where that would lead me. It was just a game. You just run around outside as a child, looking for a bit of adventure and the thrill of the forbidden. And later on, that actually led me to socio-cultural activism. And we achieved a lot there in Wiesbaden. And now today—I’m probably getting ahead of myself a bit, but the conversation is leading us to a cultural campus at the Schlachthof and the vision of a European hip-hop museum in Wiesbaden. A city that’s actually known primarily for its spas and beautiful architecture. And we’ve already come a long way.

But I have to be honest and say that after Corona, I never really got back into Kontext. When I look back at how my life went from the Wall Street Meeting to 2020, I was almost always on the move. Not just with the Meeting, I also had one or two graffiti shops, first for eight years in Wiesbaden’s Westend and then later down by Brückenkorb and in the Kreativfabrik. And then I had a part-time job and then I also painted commissions, organized projects and then in 2010 I started Kontext. And with Kontext, I was really on the move and in demand seven days a week. And then Corona came and suddenly, lo and behold, it’s actually quite cool to be able to chill out on a Sunday and go into the woods, go for a walk or just go to another jam somewhere, just be there or maybe even paint, paint funny pictures. I had no time or leisure for that for 15 years.

Above: Wiesbaden, Germany (2018) – Below: (2020)

But still, even if you’re not fully involved anymore, you opened the doors, you laid the first stones, and now others are taking over. So, you kind of set the starting point and built it up.

It’s of course nice to see that something you set in motion with such naivety then gets such a spin. Like a ball that you pick up, which is then held up by others and passed on. Although in terms of context it’s a bit of a thing, it’s a bit of urban development territory at the moment. The Realmarkt is closed and the site is reserved for an investor for the time being, something is supposed to be built and something happens there. And at the moment the context is rather barren and there aren’t many public events. But it laid the stone and opened the door for the cultural campus. And that’s a big thing in terms of urban development. So here in Wiesbaden, down by the slaughterhouse, we also have the Kreativfabrik, which is in a building that is essentially being used temporarily. It used to be a warehouse for butchers. Thousands of sausages were stored there, and now it’s a skate park. The basement downstairs was a warehouse, now it’s a club with rehearsal rooms.

The problem is that the building is getting on in years, just like Kontext. These are all buildings that were constructed in the 70s and 80s and have had various uses. They’re obviously no longer contemporary, no longer sustainable, and things are falling down everywhere. The plaster is crumbling, the toilets are broken, pipes are broken, you name it. But apart from the slaughterhouse, Kontext and the Kreativfabrik are cultural initiatives that have established themselves and are crucial to the cultural spectrum in Wiesbaden, as far as socio-cultural matters are concerned. And that’s how the idea came about. The Kontext has an old building, the Kreativfabrik is in an old building, and the Schlachthof needs a location between the boiler house and the large concert hall. Let’s bring them together in a cultural campus. And then we sat down together, in a wonderful committee, and developed a great plan. The Schlachthof then presented it to politicians and listened to their willingness. And lo and behold, they all think it’s great. The only problem is that Wiesbaden is a bit broke at the moment. And that means we’re kind of treading water.

This whole place is just a huge playground for every kind of artist or art lover, whether they’re into graffiti or music or creativity in general. It’s truly a little adventure land, a really special place. It’s not just interesting for Wiesbaden; many visitors from the surrounding area also come there, whether to actively paint or just to look at the things.

It’s a very lively place and if you look at the history, during the Third Reich people were deported to extermination camps at the back of the ramp. And close to the Third Reich millions of pigs were slaughtered there. So this ground is practically dripping with blood. And I think it’s wonderful that since the mid-90s we’ve been bringing peace to this place and filling it with love, creativity and life. And I think that’s what’s special about the slaughterhouse, that everyone is really welcome there, as long as they’re not a Nazi or some kind of asshole. And that everyone can be who they are and who they want to be. So tolerance is one of the key core values there too.

Das Dreckige Dutzend, Frankfurt, Germany, 2022 – **ALIEN**, **ESOBE**, **SMOK** & **YOURS**

Let’s talk a bit about crews. You were in a several during the years, some may not even exist anymore, but the main ones where you’re still actively involved are CNB and the DBL. Die Bahn Lackierer. You’ve done a lot of things here in Frankfurt under DBL. With CNB, I think you were part of the „Dirty Dozen“, the graffiti jam „Das Dreckige Dutzend“ in 2022 and you made a cool wall on the warehouse with your colleagues.

My old crews are actually UCA and DBL. I met SPIKE and other crew members in the mid to late 80s and we started going out together. At that time we also founded UCA and then the guys accepted me into DBL too. And those are basically my old-school crews. And CNB, „Cans N Beers“, is a crew that I founded seven years ago with a few friends during a project. We just like to drink beer when we spray. Then we made a big wall and suddenly had a mountain of spray cans and a mountain of beer cans. And somehow it was like a revelation. That’s it, there are „Cans and Beers“, we are „Cans N Beers“, so „CNB“. It’s actually a fun crew. There are guys from Venezuela, Mexico, Spain, Germany, and Poland. And yes, it is such a fun crew. Yes, but I think there are crews that take on just about any number of people, as long as they have a reach or are dope. And for me personally, a crew has always been a kind of friendship. I don’t want to be in a crew with people I meet every five years or something, just as a multiplier; for me, it’s just a genuine friendship.

It became clear during the conversation that you’re really very good at networking, you are actively connecting, and not just talking, but actually implementing and creating things. And this current project, which you’ve already talked about a bit, this cultural campus, there are some really nice plans on the website, even architectural layouts of how it could be done. And if it comes to that, then Europe’s first hip hop museum would be built there.

That’s the plan. Of course, there’s a lot more detail involved that still needs to be put in place. What you see on the website is a study by the urban development company, which was conducted with us around two years ago, but the city’s budget situation has changed somewhat since then. This means that Wiesbaden currently doesn’t have the 60 million to build us a campus there. Probably not in the foreseeable future, but if we’re lucky, there might be an investor interested in working with us to implement this vision. We’re very open about it. And I think the structure that exists in the background and is still being developed is really professional. Many thanks to everyone who’s involved. I’m already traveling and contacting people about exhibits and documentation. The important thing about the museum is that it shouldn’t just be documentary, but also interactive. In terms of documentation, it’s quite clear that we’ll be presenting the beginnings of graffiti and hip-hop culture in the 70s in Philadelphia and New York. The Golden Era in New York and then the leap to Europe with Amsterdam, London and Paris. That naturally means a lot of research and cross-checking and acquiring exhibits. And then, of course, Germany from the mid-80s to the present day. And of course it should also be interactive and make hip-hop and graffiti culture tangible with an educational mission.

We’re almost done with the interview, was really great talking to you. There are upcoming next Meeting of Styles events in Ecuador, in Los Angeles or in the Peruvian capital Lima. A new one started also in in Kingston on Jamaica. So it remains exciting. Thanks for the exciting interview and keep up the awesome work! Big respekt! And make lots more events!

Yes, I will! Thank you very much, it was a pleasure. And together we can change the world, but only together!