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It’s times like these when being together with our loved ones is the only thing we look forward to. But because of the situation, the entire world has found itself in this year, it’s the one thing we should all avoid. And the realization of how much we miss being together is hitting us harder than we ever imagined. As the famous Janet Jackson song goes: you don’t know what you got till it’s gone.
It seems an impossible task – being together without actually meeting. We’re all trying to redefine and rethink the ways we socialize in these testing times. Long phone calls, writing physical letters, video conferencing – we’ve all experimented with these things to make up for what we are missing. It can be an alternative, a new way that we can learn to cherish. But this requires a great amount of goodwill and optimism.
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by Frank | Products
photo: Nika Kramer.
Last Autumn, the incredible Urban Nation museum for contemporary urban and street art has given us one of the most memorable exhibitions with their own Biennale. Using the empty space underneath the subway train viaduct right in front of their main building they installed a walk-through immersive installation featuring countless urban artists from around the world. The main museum building was a sight not to be missed as well, as huge tentacles were sticking out of the windows as if the museum had been invaded by a giant octopus.
It’s incredibly sad what is currently taking over the building: nothing. Because of the pandemic, it had to close much like any other big gallery, museum and cultural space until an unknown point in the future. The current exhibition is excellent and features works from iconic artists such as D*FACE, Nychos, Martin Whatson, Shepard Fairey, Swoon, Vhils, and THE LONDON POLICE. If you haven’t seen it yet, now there is a new way to experience the museum. Following the lead of several other art spaces, Urban Nation has now released a virtual tour, and it’s actually a guided one with hosted by art dealer Markus Georg.
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by Frank | Art, Videos
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Today we want to introduce you to a very special event that will tickle the interest of both street art lovers and runners alike: The On Art Run.
Our new guest writer Laurent has already introduced himself to you as a running enthusiast who likes to combine this sport with other activities and also compiled a list of the best running routes in Berlin for us. To our big delight this week there is a chance for all of you to go out running with him for the On Art Run that will take place on Thursday starting in Kreuzberg and going all the way Friedrichshain past some of the most iconic street art murals of the city including the cosmonaut by Victor Ash that was recently illuminated by a spectacular video mapping.
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by Frank | Events, Wellness
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After last year’s intriguing Canvas Bar event in an unused subway tunnel of Berlin, Bombay Sapphire gin is continuing their collaboration with the art world with an exciting new project that we want to introduce to you today: With their new pop-up art campaign, they decided to go BIG. In five German cities, they have claimed the biggest canvas they could get: the walls of buildings.
For four weeks in September, five stunning murals will grace a big wall in Düsseldorf, Köln, Hamburg, Leipzig and – of course – Berlin. For each of the murals they commissioned established local artists: Semor, Jana Wind, Martin Grohs, and Stefan Kunz. But for Berlin, they did something special.
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by Frank | Art
We already have you a bit of a preview of the new street art murals that were added to Berlin’s landscape thanks to the Berlin Mural Fest 2019. One piece that really stands out is actually an old classic – but revisited.
I’m sure you’re all familiar with the big cosmonaut by Victor Ash that you can see from Skalitzer Straße corner of Mariannenstraße. It’s probably one of the most known pieces of street art in Berlin and has become really a symbol of the district and the city. The idea to create a video mapping to bring the spaceman to life is really ingenious – but wait until you see the final result. Read on…
by Frank | Art, Videos
Last year’s Mural Fest added a stunning 30 new street art murals to the open gallery that is the city of Berlin. This year’s edition is now adding 6 more stunning pieces to the mix that have been finished in the past couple of days and that will be celebrated this weekend with a Night Walk on Saturday and Sunday from 20:15h onwards. All the artworks will be illuminated and as a special treat, there will be some additional elaborate video mappings on some old classics such as the spaceman by Victor Ash on Skalitzer Straße. The video of the rehearsals look like this should not be missed!
We have a few making-of photos for you that give you a bit of a preview of the new works. If you want to find all the murals from this and previous editions you should download the Berlin Murals app for your details and exact locations.
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by Frank | Art
After having left a mark in 2013 with his eye-catching street art pastings “Wrinkles of the City” all over Berlin, the world-wide famous French artist JR has reappeared in Berlin, with a new inspiring installation.
In order to celebrate Germany’s Reunification Day on the 3rd of October, JR recreated a representative scene to commemorate the fall of the Berlin Wall and the celebration of freedom. The installation is a photo collage set on the west side of the Brandenburg Gate, whose visual impact is remarkable, given its more than 25 meters high. The strength of the work of art is given by its composition: a picture from the Reunification Day representing people standing together on the top of the Wall has been built in front of the Brandenburg Gate.
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by Giulio | Art
As one of the newest museums in the city and with a focus on such a young and developing genre the team of Urban Nation, Berlin’s first permanent museum for contemporary urban art and street art, have a lot of explaining and educating to do. While urban and street art is still fighting for recognition in the otherwise quite elitist world of contemporary art the wide audience of the art enthusiasts and art-curious have long embraced it – especially because this particular genre of art is so open and accessible on various levels.
With their artist in residence program, Urban Nation is continuing on that path of making art, the artist and the artistic progress accessible to everyone who is interested – no matter if they are an art collector or curious grandmother. Embracing the fact that the house the museum was constructed in used to be a regular residential building, part of it is still occupied by apartments that function as living studios for the artists participating in the residencies. Right now the first batch of artists has finished their time and open their apartments for the public to see the results of their work. What you step into is not just a regular apartment or artist studio, they are like little art installations almost as if you were to step into the mind of the artist. It’s a great way to understand more about the creation process and the personal aspects of the works. If you are lucky that the artists are there at the moment of your visit you will also get to chat with them about their motivations, techniques and artistic visions.
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by Frank | Art
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One of the things that everyone tells me when I ask them what they think is special about Berlin is the sense of freedom here. Having lived here for such a long time I often tend to take it for granted, not realizing how it’s actually quite special to be able to wear whatever you like, love whoever you want, work in whichever job you want to – and generally be free in many more ways. But the moment I hear from people from other cities or countries, or when I personally set foot in them, I remember how privileged we are in Berlin.
To celebrate this freedom the city has set itself its own freedom monument in the shape of an installation in front of Hauptbahnhof. Designed by the prestigious architecture office GRAFT the monument reads out #FreiheitBerlin (freedom Berlin) which also functions as a social media hashtag so people can share their own thoughts about the freedom in Berlin on various social media platforms. So far over 9000 people have already shared the hashtag.
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by Frank | Art
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
