After Berlin epically embraced and celebrated the unique art installation “The Haus” in 2017, it was about time for another larger than life urban art project to hit Berlin’s scene (and have it all wet in anticipation). Berlin Art Bang e.V. – the creators of “The Haus” – have thought of something equally special to keep the urban art spirits soaring: large, breathtaking brand new street art murals, all over the city.
About 100 artists were invited to grace Berlin’s dirty old walls with 30 new mind-blowing murals, that turn the city into a big open air gallery for the very first Berlin Mural Fest that took place in May 2018 with artists like Ben Wagin, Arsek & Erase, Herakut, Stohead, Saturnoart, Semor, Tasso, Akteone & Cren, Saturno, One Truth, Insane 51, The Weird, Quintessenz und Mr. Woodland and also Klebebande.
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by Franziska | Art
Teufelsberg was one of the first places I discovered upon arriving in Berlin, because I used to live really close (yes, I lived in Heerstrasse. Yes, people live in Heerstrasse). It is a green, beautiful hill one can choose to go hiking, cycling, and if you’re a lazy potato like me, just to chill on top and enjoy the amazing view. Getting its name from the lake nearby, Teufelssee, Teufelsberg is a man-made hill, created out of the rubble and debris the WWII left behind. It also covers the never completed Nazi military technical college, which after the War, was easier to bury than demolish (literally, the devil’s mountain). Its fascinating history doesn’t stop there, since during the Cold War it was used by Americans as a Listening Station to spy over the DDR.
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by Stella | Art, Photos
Yasha Young
Recently we kicked off a new series of interviews about the movers and shakers of Berlin inspired by the Shape Your City campaign by Heineken, a competition for city shapers in the making who aspire to help create a bar built on the basis of their personal concept. In the first part we introduced you to party and festival organizer PANSY who spoke with us about the changes and prospects of Berlin’s nightlife.
For the second edition we want to venture from the nightlife into the daylight and bring up one of our favorite topics on the blog: Street art. Berlin is full of it and cherished for it. Especially in the last couple of years so many new incredible works have been added to the walls of Berlin making it huge open air gallery for contemporary art. What many people might not even know is that a big part of the new murals in Berlin were organized by Berlin-based contemporary art platform Urban Nation. We spoke with director and curator Yasha Young about the development of this project and their plans to open the world’s first big street art museum.
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by Frank | Art, People
Following the spirit of our Exploring Berlin series we want to look at another district today and show you our favorite places there. This time we chose the one that we are surrounded by the most as our office at Blogfabrik is located right in the middle of it. I’m talking about Kreuzberg of course, probably one of the most popular districts of Berlin at the moment.
People who come to Berlin just love it here. It’s buzzing and it’s relaxed at the same time. It offers everything from delicious food, compelling art, pulsating nightlife and cultural entertainment. But apart from all of that Kreuzberg is particularly good for one thing: Just hanging out and having a good time. So we drove around in the past days dropping by the most beloved hang-out spots of the Berliners and snapping some photos for you. By the way all of the photos in this feature have been taken with the new Sony Xperia Z5 smartphone (versus the Z1 or my SLR that I normally use) which is being presented at the IFA these days. But now let’s dive into our favorite places in Kreuzberg.
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by Frank | Bars, Cafés, Clubs, Galleries, Kreuzberg, Restaurants
Black is the new Blu, photo: Dario-Jacopo Lagana’ / CC
Last night the giant street art mural near Schlesisches Tor got painted over in pitch black. There are various speculations behind who did it and for which reasons. What I found most plausible was a statement found in a Polysingularity article, claiming that it was the italian artist Blu who commissioned the cancelation of his own artwork.
“(…)the artists decided to paint them all black, so that nobody can take advantage of the original work… A “fuck you” gesture towards the city, towards the real estate company, but most of all – to all the people who love this artwork and everything that it’s come to represent. The argument of the people who are doing that is that Berlin is not the same anymore, that the real estate company will just use the artwork to sell apartments more expensive, that a new statement needs to be made at this new moment of time… In a way, they are doing exactly what the artwork says: “reclaim your city”.”
The rest of the article goes on about how pessimistic the destruction of the artwork is. That it is not the right message the city needs right now in this turbulent time of turbo-capitalism & neoliberalism, remodelling Berlin into a Lego-Gotham. Even if I can relate to the arguments, in regards to the artwork, I don’t agree 100%. I share my thoughts on the repainting, along with some videos showing the artist at work, after the jump.
UPDATE (March 12, 2016): BLU has done it again. In a protest against the city’s plans to “secure” street art to be displayed in a museum he painted over numerous of his works from the past 20 or more years in Bologna, Italy. Read more about this here.
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by Claudio | Art, Kreuzberg
Wurstbande
Murals are one my favorite forms of art in public. I just love it when artists turn buildings into giant canvases. Not only do these artworks stand out by their size, they also change the city landscape into something creative that is much more than just concrete, steal and glass.
As part of Converse‘ SNEAKER CLASH series of artistic installations in 16 cities in Europe, the Middle East and Africa the three Berlin-based street artists and illustrators Wurstbande, Gogoplata and Rylsee will create the CLASHWALL here in Berlin. The CLASHWALL is a big mural covering the entire front of a house on Torstraße in Mitte with drawings that have been especially created based on the suggestions and sketches of street art and sneaker fans. Find out more about the artists, how to be part of the mural and the big live event here in Berlin after the jump.
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by Frank | Art, Mitte
M-City
Fans of street art should check out the opening of Narrative Urban Poland tomorrow at the Urban Spree gallery in Friedrichshain. It will showcase the artworks and a mural by four prominent street artists and painters from Poland: M-City, Magda Drobcyzk, Otecki and Zbiok. After the jump you can get a preview of the show, but you should definately enjoy it in the amazing space of the gallery.
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by Frank | Art, Friedrichshain, Galleries
