UNLOCK BOOK FAIR
VÖLKLINGEN 2026

A Feast of Graffiti, Art & Subcultures

For its 10th anniversary edition, Unlock lands at the UNESCO World Heritage Site Völklinger Hütte to make it the global hub for graffiti and subcultural art publishing. The fair runs alongside the opening of the long-established Urban Art Biennale.

The graffiti publishing scene has grown exponentially over the past decade. Unlock has grown with it, establishing itself as the field’s driver and essential annual gathering for publishers and book lovers. This anniversary edition at Völklinger Hütte celebrates what has been accomplished while pointing toward what’s ahead.

Produced by GRACE Project (Greater Region Artistic and Cultural Education), Unlock Bureau, and Urban Art Biennale.

A New Gathering for Graffiti Books & Culture

Larger than ever, this year the fair brings over 100 publishers and projects from 22 countries across four continents, with a growing foothold as far as Canada and Russia. Come browse the stalls, talk to the publishers, and don’t miss our Guest UK Table.

A lot has happened since the first Unlock Book Fair in Barcelona in 2016. For graffiti book lovers, the fair immediately became the scene’s highly anticipated gathering. For publishers, it serves as the premier specialised showcase and as a deadline for projects that need to reach an international audience.

Most exhibiting publishers are small, self-supported ventures, often cut off from traditional distribution and dependent on online sales. The Unlock Book Fair creates a rare physical marketplace where visitors can touch, leaf through, and directly purchase hundreds of specialised books and zines, all in one place.

Once again, Unlock provided free exhibitor tables and nearly 100 hotel nights to small and independent publishers.

More Than a Book Fair: A Fully-Fledged Cultural Conference

This year’s programme runs to over 60 events across three days: 30+ book launches, 10+ talks, panels, screenings, a kids’ workshop with Remio VTS, a dance performance, and a street calligraphy residency by Tomek & Mosa87.

Once again, Unlock becomes the global summit for graffiti and subculture-related art. The stage is hosted as usual by Unlock’s own Dumar NovYork, NYC graffiti legend and favourite of the European scene, alongside long-time accomplice Prof. Susan Hansen (UK).

Graffiti and Comic Books: Coming Full Circle

In recent years, graffiti has turned to comic books to tell its own stories. A culture originally inspired by comic book letters and characters, which adopted Vaughn Bodē as an icon, is now producing its own refined sequential art.

Our programme brings a dedicated panel with French author Loiq, Berlin-based Riot1394 launching El Puño, Chilean-German publisher Null Null, and Mathieu Tremblin of Éditions Carton-pâte presenting Du Graffiti en Bande Dessinée: a survey of graffiti in comic book panels across 40 years, including the French Glénat edition of Akira where real ’90s Parisian tags appear in the Neo-Tokyo backgrounds.

Also at our tables: London-based Zoot Patrol Comics, with its unique universe inside the city’s subway graffiti, and the comic book series of Santiago-based Colección Calígrafo. Among the launches at the stage is Malicia (Ediciones Raritas), an autobiographical trainwriting comic from Barcelona. And don’t miss Carpe Noctem’s zine Réveil Forcé, featuring comics by Jujucomix and Nono32.

Tomek & Mosa: Street Calligraphy Residency

Unlock brings Pablo Tomek and Alexandre ‘Mosa87’ Bavard from Parisian collective PAL, highly influential artists who merge graffiti calligraphy with contemporary art practice in new and striking ways.

Tomek and Mosa will create site-specific calligraphic interventions throughout the streets of Völklingen, as well as in the post-industrial spaces of Völklinger Hütte. Part of the results will be visible across the weekend on large windows behind the book fair tables.

The artists will present their residency on Saturday at the stage, where Mosa will also present his new publication Of Spirituality in Tagging. Residency curated by Unlock director Javier Abarca.

➔ Unlock partners with art project space Automat for Tarblack, an exhibition by Tomek and Mosa related to their residency work. Opening Friday 19:30, Martin-Luther-Straße 7–9, Saarbrücken.

Urban Art Biennale Opening

Unlock takes place alongside the opening weekend of the Urban Art Biennale, a long-established event for the European scene, with a consistent output of quality lineups and well-conceived installations across the Völklinger Hütte industrial complex.

The Biennale’s work has spilled into the city of Völklingen with small-scale, site-specific works that represent the cutting edge of institutional street art practice. For this edition, event curator Frank Krämer has enlisted leading European specialists as guest curators, including Mathieu Tremblin, Robert Kaltenhäuser, Jasper van Es, Andrea Ceresa, and Javier Abarca.

Many of the Biennale’s featured artists are also exhibiting at Unlock, including abcdef, Alex FaKso, Analog Delinquents, Andrea Ceresa, Boris ‘Delta’ Tellegen, Brad Downey, Frukty, Igor Ponosov, Jens Besser, Mathieu Tremblin, Pablo Tomek and Mosa, Remi Rough, Vladimír Turner, X-Pome, and Zelle Asphaltkultur.

➔ The official Biennale Opening takes place on Saturday afternoon at Völklinger Hütte (free access from 4:30pm), with live music by Elektro Hafiz, panel discussions, a documentary on Harald Naegeli, and a closing dance performance by Kadir ‘Amigo’ Memis.

WissensART Film Programme

Rare films about early street art history, curated by Marita Brinkmann and KP Flügel of German foundation WissensART. Each screening accompanied by talks with filmmakers and experts.

Saturday’s screening takes place at the Unlock stage within the Völklinger Hütte, while Friday’s programme happens at Kino Achteinhalb, the cosy and iconic art cinema in neighbouring Saarbrücken. Screenings are accompanied by talks and panel discussions by guest speakers, moderated by KP Flügel.

✦ Optische Schreie | 2025, 90' | Friday 7:30pm, Kino Achteinhalb (Saarbrücken), Free Access | A film on German street art pioneer Klaus Paier, active in Aachen and Cologne in the 1980s, who left a lasting legacy in local culture. Some of his pieces have been officially preserved. | Presented by filmmaker Lovorka Peric-Hassler.

✦ Panel: Street Art, Between Illegality and Monument Protection | Saturday 6pm, Völklinger Hütte | With Nathalie David (Naegeli film director), Valentin Rothmaler (professor, artist, and Naegeli collaborator), Lovorka Peric-Hassler (filmmaker), and Monika Krücken (Conservator for the City of Aachen).

✦ Harald Naegeli: Der Sprayer von Zürich | 2021, 97' | Saturday 6:45pm, Völklinger Hütte | Swiss artist Harald Naegeli, still active at 85, reflects on his five decades of furtive street work.

Punk, Hobo, Rave: A Spotlight on Subcultures

Unlock showcases the cutting edge of graffiti books and zines, with many publisher catalogues overlapping with related subcultures. This year the fair expands further into this larger field with a selection of international titles and projects.

London-based Velocity Press presents a strong display from their catalogue across rave, club culture and underground sound systems. From Lille, Carpe Noctem brings new issues of its punk-and-graffiti zine Réveil Forcé. Death Vallée presents the reprint of its unique zine series on Athens football ultras, while Doppelhand launches Ausreißen, a book on subcultures in rural East Germany.

London-based Livor Mortis comes back with their DIY zine collection overlapping graffiti and punk art. Hobo and trainhopping culture remain an Unlock hallmark: learn about this obscure lore among the titles by Jens Besser, The Good Time People, Doppelhand, Analog Delinquents, and in a new hands-on report from PlayBomb Magazine.

Publication Launches Galore

The stage hosts so many launches this year that we can only highlight a few here. Titles range from large-format hardcovers on landmark histories to unknown outsider gems like Alain Rault, many of them produced specially for the fair.

At the heavyweight end, ML7–Metro Lisboa brings the photobook about Lisbon’s metro graffiti, Coast Kings launches a volume on early Brighton history, and Bald Books reissues the legendary Berlin magazine Backjumps 1994–2000.

Among other highlights: French street art legend OX presents his new monograph, Publikat opens its Graffiti Blackbooks series with Bates signing copies, and terminal° brings their acclaimed Full Auto: Vancouver SkyTrain Graffiti, 2001–2007.

At the scholarly end, Routledge reissues the 1980s classic Moscow Graffiti: Language and Subculture, brought to the stage in conversation with Igor Ponosov.

Talks and Panels at the Stage

This year’s stage gathers speakers from across Europe and the Americas in 15+ talks and panels: magazine editors, university lecturers, museum founders, pioneering artists, and legendary writers.

Some highlights from the programme: European pioneer Boris ‘Delta’ Tellegen, Museum of Graffiti co-founder Alan Ket, Art Crimes archivist Jon Phillips, UK legend Remi Rough, Canadian scholar Jamie Jelinski, Parisian veteran Chaze, Marseille globetrotter Fink, and Munich publisher Klick Klack.

Topics range from trainwriting and transit bureaucracy to digital archives, publishing journeys, scene memoirs, and life histories. Plus a panel on graffiti and photography with pioneering figures Alex FaKso and Ruediger Glatz joined by Berlin spotter Sascha Blasche.

Guided Tours & More

Three guided tours visit Biennale site-specific street pieces, works from the Tomek and Mosa residency, and the Biennale exhibition works—plus a live role-playing game!—across the Völklinger Hütte.

✦ Völklingen City Tour | Visit small site-specific works installed across the streets of Völklingen by 2024 Biennale residency artists. With curator Mathieu Tremblin. Find also fresh works from the Tomek and Mosa residency. ➔ Friday 2pm, 45 min

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✦ Urban Art Biennale Tour | Visit the indoor Biennale exhibition, featuring works by over 50 international artists installed across the Völklinger Hütte galleries. Includes access to the major show X-Ray: The Power of Roentgen Vision. With curator Frank Krämer. ➔ Saturday 5pm, 45 min

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✦ Völklinger Hütte Tour | Visit the outdoor Biennale interventions across the UNESCO World Heritage industrial complex. With curator Frank Krämer. ➔ Sunday 11am, 45 min

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✦ SAZ L-S role-playing session. Outdoors at the Völklinger Hütte, explore the future liveability of Völklingen in light of its industrial past. Includes results from 2026 Biennale artist residency. With curator Mathieu Tremblin. ➔ Sunday 2:30–7:30pm

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Relax and Connect at Our Railside Chill Spot

This year the book fair takes place on a huge covered terrace with soaring ceilings, overlooking Völklinger Hütte’s biergarten plaza.

Adjacent to the book tables, Unlock’s own outdoor bar and chill-out space sits next to the railway tracks and passing freight trains. The area features a large-scale sculptural intervention created for the 2026 Biennale by American artist Brad Downey.

Don’t Miss the Feast of Graffiti, Art & Subcultures!

EXHIBITORS

FEATURED

GUEST UK TABLE

PROGRAMME

FRIDAY 8

SATURDAY 9

SUNDAY 10

ACROSS THE WEEKEND

Times & Tickets

Unlock Book Fair 2026