On the 20th and 21st of October I made a couple of quick runs to the TA Wall and Factory to see if there was any recent activity. It seems that the buffing is still in full effect. The upper wall area looks to have been maintained regularly having only a few hollow throw ups and tags. Towards the far west end a lone fill in by MEAT and a hollow done by LEGAL were the only hits that were up on the wall. The supports along the way are also equally as bare with only a few tags and throw ups. The above image is a pan shot of the buffed upper wall. Not the best pan shot put together but it does show you the extent of the buffing on the upper wall.
Alveno and Kode rocked a couple of burners on the support across from the junction box platform as well. Other than MEAT, ROCO and FIEFER bombed the area -FIEFER having tagged up most of the supports running from the west end down the service path leading to the lower wall. Repeatedly he wrote the message "Repeignez bande d'encules!" ("Paint over these fuckers' buff!) on almost every support column along the way.
Alveno and Kode rocked a couple of burners on the support across from the junction box platform as well. Other than MEAT, ROCO and FIEFER bombed the area -FIEFER having tagged up most of the supports running from the west end down the service path leading to the lower wall. Repeatedly he wrote the message "Repeignez bande d'encules!" ("Paint over these fuckers' buff!) on almost every support column along the way.
I made my way to the lower wall area and found that it had also been recently buffed. It seemed, however, that the local writing community was not going to give this wall up as easily, evidenced by a good amount of tags, throw ups, and some pieces that had gone up recently. And they were not happy about it either. Numerous grievances scrawled in spray paint and marker on the wall and surrounding supports: "fuck buffing", "fuck the buff", "Beau pillage de fonds publics" ("Nice waste of public funds"), and another wrote "You suck, let this grey city have color on our walls, let us have art". "Fuck the buff" though seemed the most popular choice by many of the writers as it was pretty much up on the area from end to end. Clearly local writers were unimpressed and had decided to voice their discontent of the recent buffing of the TA Wall.
Although the upper wall has been maintained pretty regularly for the last while, the lower wall will not be silenced so easily. The importance of this spot to the local graffiti community has definitely been voiced to the city and MTQ. The TA Wall is an historical referent for local writers, years of painting have been put into this spot, it is a pillar when it comes to unofficial spots for painting. The comments and recent activity at the wall displays the outrage of writers to the buffing of this area and their resolve to fight for it. Keep posted, I'll be checking this spot as regularly as I can and keeping my ear to the rail for anything in the headlines.
I'll post my factory pics from the 21st soon. 