2001. After a decade of railway graffiti, Opak and the SDK crew stop painting trains in France, caught up in the legal system. Twelve years later, SNCF accelerates the scrapping of the country’s most beautiful trains and officially announces the death of the famous “petits gris.” That’s the trigger—Opak goes on a quest to paint all these legendary trains one last time.
In the form of a logbook, Olivier Scuro reveals in the first volume of Painted Graves the details of this adventure and its origins in the 1990s. At the time, the most talented graffiti writers from the international scene join them on their missions. Among them, Risk (Finland), Stone (France), Remo (Switzerland), Math (Netherlands), Nesh (Austria), Choc (Belgium), Ruzd (Germany), and Aone (USA)… All passed away at the height of their passion.
In Painted Graves Volume 2, Olivier Scuro keeps digging into graffiti archives and pays tribute to friends lost too soon: travels, flashbacks, and the quest that comes to an end. Most of these trains—painted or not—have now disappeared as well.
248 pages featuring Opak, Risk, Stone, Remo, Math, Nesh, Choc, Ruzd and Aone, but also Kaos, Micro, Lyte, Sharp, Rough, Jiwee, Inxs, Pum, Honet, Riot, Foe, Vino…
Olivier Scuro—better known as Opak—has been painting trains since 1990. Thirty-five years on, he recounts his journey through words and images, creating unconventional photo-novels. In 2025, Painted Graves lays the cornerstone of this ambitious body of work.
Sabotage Editions: After Dirty Handz, Sao Paulo Signature, and the influential run of Xplicit Grafx magazine (1992–2009), Sabotage Editions returns in 2025. The world of train graffiti is full of closely guarded secrets, and the “tales from the rails” published by Sabotage Editions delve deep into these hidden realms. Painted Graves launches the series with untold stories from the golden age of train graffiti—with much more to follow.
