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
photo: Vismante Ruzgaite.
Whether you are just getting into running or are already a regular runner, Berlin is the right place for you. The city has one of the largest and most dedicated running communities in the world. Berlin is the only city in Europe besides London to be part of the World Marathon Majors, the world’s most prestigious running events. Some of the most popular running groups were born in Berlin and then spread around the world. Nowadays, running goes beyond sports, it’s a lifestyle. Everywhere you go in Berlin, you can really feel the presence of the running culture. For me, running has been a great way to discover a city, to connect with its people and of course, stay fit!
I am happy to share with you my top 5 running routes in Berlin that I enjoy the most.
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by Guest Author | Wellness
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
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
After a year of suspension and anticipation it’s finally the time: Germany’s first street art and urban art museum Urban Nation is celebrating its big opening this coming Saturday (September 16th 2017, at 19h) and we had the chance to take a sneak peek and snap some pictures in advance!
Urban Nation has a really compelling history here in Berlin. Founder Yasha Young started the project in 2013 by organizing exhibitions on the many empty facades of Berlin’s building. We owe many of Berlin’s cool street art murals to her. Before that she used to run an urban art gallery in Berlin and New York, but the few walls of a gallery space were simply not big enough for what she envisioned. With Urban Nation of course there was a masterplan behind it. Funded by the Berliner Leben foundation and designed by prestigious architecture bureau Graft she created the first museum for street art and urban art in Germany – right in the heart of Schöneberg. Thanks to the ever changing murals in the neighborhood the whole area around Bülowstraße has now been transformed into a hot spot for urban art. Whole building facades are covered with artworks there which is quite the contrast to the many grey residential buildings in Berlin.
Urban Nation aims to become not only an exhibition space for artists who used to present their work on the streets, but also an archive for urban art like it never existed before anywhere. It’s an exciting edition to the art and museum scene of Berlin and we are excited to see what the future holds for this place.
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by Frank | Art, Galleries, Museums, Schöneberg
For me 2016 was actually a great year, even though I almost don’t dare saying it out loud. A lot of sad and terrible things happened in 2016, yes, but there still was a lot of good stuff that I think needs some more attention: Small and big moments in Berlin that showed what a great city this is and what amazing people live here. We should focus more on these things, at least for a moment, and take these positive memories and feelings with us into the new year.
Here are the most happy moments and amazing happenings of 2016 in photos and videos.
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by Frank | Photos, Stories, Videos
photo: Thomas_k
I’ve been in Berlin for a year now. It’s been a great adventure involving a good deal of self-exploration, and I’ve already covered some aspects of it on the blog. And, quite ironically, that’s the part I find most exciting – the fact that I’ve slowly started to carve out my path as a writer. And I can’t complain about the lack of inspiration. As a matter of fact, Berlin is home to quite a lot of amazing, independent women who have a clear vision of themselves and work hard every day to make it their reality. Following the tradition of previous years we want to recapture the past year by honoring the amazing women that have done great things in these past twelve months.
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by Michalina | People
Whatever your opinion on the murals at Art Park Tegel might be, I bet their sight will not leave you indifferent, which is actually the true purpose of art; the ability to convey feelings through opening the door to fruitful dialogue, to peaceful exchange of opinions, to communication. Read on…
by Nikos | Art
photos: alexberlinetta
Street art is alive and kicking in Berlin; what better proof for this ongoing development than the several new murals scattered all over the city? The best part is that you are most likely to discover a new one, every time you take a different path on your way to work, home, etc.; and while you are walking down the street immersed in and overwhelmed by your worries, you lift your head and there you see one: colorful or in black-white, depicting figures or people, they are always striking; as if they have the power to grab you from the pool of thoughts you so gladly swim in, and show you a different world, much more refreshing and easy-going. On the pictures below you can see people (inter)acting with the murals consciously and unconsciously. It is truly remarkable how present they are in our everyday life and how they can have an impact on our mood so easily.
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by Nikos | Art
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
