Art,  Berlin,  Germany,  Sightseeing,  Street Art

berlin’s awesome street art scene

berlin has been given the title ‘creative city of design’ by none other than unesco itself and after spending nearly a week there, i can understand why.  the ethnic diversity is so strong that the city has turned into a melting pot of cultures which can be seen all over town.  the architecture isn’t as cutting edge as i had expected but having said that a lot of the city has remained true to its roots.  many of the older communist and nazi-era buildings are still intact and provide a stark contrast to the modern architecture.

since we’ve made it to europe, i’ve felt like i’ve been dropped off in the middle of a graffiti haven.  virtually every city this trip has had something unique to offer in terms of street art from seoul’s mural village <link> to granada’s gorgeous sketch collection by el nino de las pinturas <link> to lisbon’s plethora of styles <link> and it felt like it was all building up for berlin.

i was surprised to learn that the graffiti scene started as far back as the late 70s in east berlin.  back then, the wall was still in its heydey and many artists were restricted to half a city.  after the wall came down in 1989, people and artists streamed over to west berlin and the graffiti scene expanded quickly to neighoubourhoods like mitte and friedrichshain.  nowadays it has evolved into street art all across town with the longest remaining stretch of the berlin wall bearing the most popular murals in an area called the east side gallery.

DSCF08401
the longest stretch of the berlin wall that remains. covered with murals and was currently being touched up by the artists
DSCF08441
a rendition of people on the east side of the wall
DSCF08371
quite a change of heart from the nazi days

DSCF08421

when we arrived the wall was going through a touchup and was fenced off for artists to work on.  the side facing the water also had a photo gallery chronicling war in the middle east most specifically, amputees and permanently injured civilians and their families having to cope with the actions of war.

DSCF08391
the grim realities of war torn countries

over the next few days i walked around with my eyes peeled and hopped off the u-bahn (metro) whenever i saw something i wanted to chase.  one stretch between bulowstrasse and nollendorfplatz was just such an area.  i hopped off and followed the murals…

a local who lived in this building flagged me down and showed me his favourite piece that i completely missed (the perils of being vertically challenged)

DSCF10921
creepy?

as i was snapping pics i noticed a couple who was also adding to their collection of pictures.  they were a local couple couple in their 60s and big fans of street art.

DSCF10971
graff-ic?
DSCF10961
a lot of brazilians in this part of town
DSCF10951
my height as of a few years ago
DSCF10771
can’t say its sexy if you can’t tell whether it’s a guy or girl
DSCF10691
love the running man
DSCF10681
this building wrapped around the corner and was a starfield of constellations
DSCF10981
ran into an older couple that was also hunting at the time
DSCF11081
they spend their weekends exploring the city with a camera in tow
DSCF11101
johnny depp if he played an asian?
DSCF11131
hattori hanzo
DSCF11151
when in doubt, listen to advice from the wolfman. and drink milk.

i also tried something different this week and showed up to a street art tour.  while i was expecting a relatively small turn out, nearly 50 people showed up and the group had to be split into two, each going their separate directions with one of the guides.  the tour lasted three hours, started in alexanderplatz and ended in (my favourite) neighbourhood of kruezberg.

there are a lot of famous artists that have made their mark in berlin over the years, a few of them are…

ocho has a character named little lucy that does all sorts of evil things to her pet cat

DSCF11581
so mean
DSCF11591
stew de la chat

sobr is a french artist who has left his mark in the way of girls dancing in confetti

DSCF11561
par-TAY

since these are posters put up with glue, how he does the confetti portion is he rolls the glue over the canvas area and tosses the confetti up (reminds me of the saying, throw sh!t at the wall and see what sticks)

our second stop was a small alleyway/courtyard home to a few bars and berlin’s workshop for the blind.  on one half of the courtyard are random tags and paintings and the other side featured large murals.

 

DSCF11931 DSCF11921 DSCF11871 DSCF11851 DSCF11841 DSCF11831 DSCF11791 DSCF11781 DSCF11751 DSCF11731so one thing i noticed was that the percentage of posters to paintings is much higher in berlin than i’ve seen in other cities.  in fact, almost all the other cities we have visited to this point featured the work of spraycans which generally takes much longer to complete a piece.  we were told that the fines are quite different if one was to be caught postering or painting a wall which is one reason for the larger number of posters.

our next stop was near ostbanhoff station and exiting the station features a large piece from jr.  he’s known for black & white portraits of locals, usually seniors, which he adorns to neighbourhood buildings that have significance to the subject.  in this piece, the man lived in the area and the woman on the right used to be a postal worker in the building

DSCF12021
only remnants of this are still left but this piece is facing the police station. would’ve loved to see their reaction on the morning that this was put up

we then walked to a jamaican compound called yaam which felt like we were on a beach… in the middle of berlin.  a sandy place to kick back and have a drink along the waterfront, a small soccerfield to kill some time and surrounded by tagged and marked buildings as far as the eye can see.

 

DSCF12321
beach time… in the city?!
DSCF12041
lots and lots of paintings fill this place from top to bottom
DSCF12051
if you were a dolphin and i were a lion, i’d go out of my way to eat you…
DSCF12061
suicidal robot
DSCF12171
unfortunate that many will not agree with this
DSCF12221
the closest that i’ve come to jamaica
DSCF12231
saaaaaand. it’s been so long since we’ve seen you 🙁
DSCF12261
>:oP
DSCF12331
hey look! civilized people! (aimed at the moron in our building in prague)
DSCF12341
the jamaicans have setup a really chill area next to the river called yaam. definitely worth checking out if you have some time in berlin

DSCF12391these brick portraits can be seen all around town but aren’t as well received as some other pieces.  all of these pieces have been commissioned by levis jeans and have caused some backlash by street art ‘purists’, if you will call them that, for not remaining true to their roots.  i won’t get involved in that argument but you can see that they’ve even muralized their feelings with the angry mob to the left of the portrait.

the remainder of the afternoon brought us back to the kruezberg area.  many large pieces are scattered throughout this neighbourhood and it’s so walkable (not that any of berlin isn’t) with lots of cool restaurants and cafes.

roa’s mural of hanging and possibly dead animals at the intersection of oranienstrasse and skalitzer strasse
DSCF12621

one of os gemeos’s pieces, brazilian twins that are famous for their oddly dressed, proportionate and overall curious looking yellow people.  my brothers!
DSCF12811

we ended our tour at victor ash’s astronaut piece.  this giant painting was sprayed on and you can still see the gridlines that were used to create it
DSCF12671

this is barely the tip of the iceberg.  berlin has countless other areas that have artwork lining their walls.  in fact, berlin is claimed to be the most tagged city in the world and after our short stint here, i couldn’t argue that in the least.  i can’t wait to come back to see how much the city has changed.

i also have another post coming from my time at teufelsberg, an abandoned nsa base from the cold war era in the southwest part of the city that has since been unofficially turned into a treasurechest of paintings.  more on that soon…

Leave a Reply