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Tag Archives: Friedrichshain
Berlin Street Art Vol 10 – Various Artists
New pieces appear year round on the streets of Berlin but it has been noticeable that since the weather has improved more artists have been hitting the city. With lots of great Street Art from ALANIZ, ALIAS, CAZ.L and El Bocho to name a few, the problem with compiling this post wasn’t finding good work but agonizing over what to leave out.
That just means that there’s plenty in the bag for more posts though.
ALIAS
It’s always good to find new work by ALIAS and I love the pieces that appeared in Mitte recently.
Peter Pink
This is the first time I’ve seen a Peter Pink piece for myself so the first time he’s appeared on andBerlin but I love the humour in his work that I’ve seen on his Facebook page and other blogs – especially his potatoes.
CAZ.L
I used a piece by Berlin based street artist CAZ.L in my Dog Lover post and here are a couple more paste-ups spotted in the city lately. I don’t know much (read next to nothing) about the artist but check out the Facebook Page for updates.
El Bocho
It would seem that El Bocho favourite Little Lucy has spent the winter coming up with a business plan – she’s still finding inventive ways to kill Kitti who is now on the menu.
ALANIZ
As well as the usual paste-ups I’ve found a couple of huge ALANIZ paintings in Berlin lately. Painted with giant rollers you can see more new work in ALANIZ’s Flickr stream.
Robi The Dog
I don’t know if Swiss artist Robi The Dog has moved to Berlin but I’ve seen new works from him regularly since last summer.
.FRA
Plenty of paste-ups by Swiss street artist .FRA have appeared on walls and doors all over Berlin lately – I’ve seen them in Mitte, Friedrichshain, Prenzlauer Berg and Wedding.
.FRA and Robi The Dog
These two Swiss guys have obviously been out pasting together and I love this combination.
Stay tuned for more great Berlin Street Art soon.
JR – Wrinkles of the City in Berlin
French Street Artist JR began his Wrinkles of the City project in Cartegna in 2008 – since then, he has continued the theme in Shanghai, Los Angeles and Havana and this month, Berlin.
As luck would have it, I spotted JR and his crew at work at Warschauer Strasse two weeks ago today. Having recognised his work, I followed him on Twitter and Instagram, where he posted shots of work in progress and some of the completed artworks.
The concept behind Wrinkles of the City is to take photos of the old people living in the city in which the art will be displayed as large-scale paste-ups on walls that have their own texture so that the architectural wrinkles enhance the physical wrinkles.
JR has left his mark on between 15 and 20 walls in Berlin where suitable buildings are plentiful.
While he was here he also created impromptu artwork at the East Side Gallery, where he rebuilt a section of the wall recently removed by developers amid protests and added a paste up. In this article in Berliner Morgenpost (auf Deutsch) it is alleged that a Security Guard was knocked out during the incident. A photo of the artwork has subsequently been removed from JR’s intagram feed.
This isn’t JR’s first contribution to Street Art in Berlin. JR collaborated with BLU on the mural at Cuvrystrasse that represents the struggle for East and West to remove each other’s masks to reveal their true identity, which featured in my BLU in Berlin post. JR’s input, the eyes, had unfortunately long since disappeared by the time I first came to Berlin in 2009. There is also a huge pair of eyes under the railway bridge from Friedrichstrasse station at Schiffbauerdamm.
An exhibition of Wrinkles of the City at Galerie Henrink Springmann runs until 25 May 2013, with two of the outdoor pieces nearby. The exhibition includes original artworks on wood, incredible photos from the project in previous cities, a captivating multi-screen video installation (with blinking eyes) in the front room and a film of JR at work on loop in the back of the gallery. It really compliments the street work and I would highly recommend a visit.
You can see more photos of JR’s Wrinkles of the City project in Berlin on his website, including photos of the piece on Warschauer Strasse with an uninterrupted view – an advantage of having access to the train tracks (parked trains have been in the way each time I’ve been there).
Also, for an interview with JR about the project, shot while he completed the work at Postbahnhof, check out this video from Enter Berlin, a YouTube channel dedicated to urban culture, art, food, fashion and music.
Street Artist JR – Wrinkles of the City // On the Beat
I hope to find more of the JR pieces from Wrinkles of the City in Berlin over the coming weeks. Sooner rather than later hopefully because there is a question over how long some might last – the diggers are already perilously close to this piece.
Stolpersteine 198 – 203
I have updated my Stolpersteine Gallery with photos of the Stolpersteine I saw in Berlin over the last week (with the exception of one very special group of stones that I will post about soon).
These Stolpersteine were dedicated to: Heinrich Thieslauk (Warschauer Strasse 60); Robert Becker, Jenny Becker, Erna Becker and Erich Becker (Warschauer Strasse 61); Hans Litten and Martha Litten (Grünberger Strasse 43-45); Wilhelm Selke (Ritterstrasse 109); Willi Otto Büttner (Reichenberger Strasse 184); Morduch Raichlin, Erich Lustig, Frida Raichlin, Ida Lustig, Arthur Itzig, Gertrud Itzig, Amalie Itzig, Gerd Itzig, Cäcilie Lazarus, Tana Stern and Berthold Goldschmidt (Reichenberger Strasse 181).
My first post about Stolpersteine explains the background to these memorials to the victims of National Socialism created by artist Gunter Demnig.
Owner Of A Broken Heart
The East Side Gallery – “Mr Wowereit, DON’T tear down this wall!”
The East Side Gallery is one of Berlin’s most popular tourist attractions – a 1.3km stretch of the Berlin Wall that stands as an ‘international memorial for freedom’.
The wall running along Mühlerstrasse near the banks of the River Spree was painted with over 100 murals by a group of international artists.
On 28 February 2013 my Twitter feed was abuzz with the news that a section of the wall was to be removed so that a developer could build a block of luxury flats on the land between the wall and the river.
People reacted strongly.
A protest was organised for the following day at the Wall and thanks to those protesters the removal was halted with just a small section gone.
A larger protest was organised on the Saturday morning. Reports of the numbers present varied but official estimates put the turnout at 6,000.
A petition was started and thousands of signatures were quickly added.
On Monday morning events took a turn for the bizarre.
I woke up when my phone buzzed beside me. I had a notification of a tweet from @HildaHoy.
I blinked a few times. I pinched myself. I wasn’t dreaming.
Where do I sign? How can you tear down the wall that signifies freedom, perserverance and the sacrifice of human life andberlin.com/2013/03/03/ohr…
— David Hasselhoff (@DavidHasselhoff) March 4, 2013
David Haselhoff had somehow read a post I had written on Sunday about his song Looking For Freedom, in which I had referred to the threat to the East Side Gallery and had tweeted about it.
Later that day, David Hasselhoff wrote his own blog post about the issue and urged his fans to sign the petition.
The Hoff’s involvement was widely reported – articles appeared on the websites of The Guardian, Berliner Morgenpost and Süddeutsche. The Mädels with a Microphone made a great podcast about the protests.
And now to top it all off in an interview with HuffPost Live, David Hasselhoff has said that he would be willing to perform at the Wall to show his support.
Image: Change.org
The number of signatures on the petition to Berlin mayor, Klaus Wowereit, is now closing in on 75,000 – you can add your name to it on change.org.
To paraphrase Ronald Reagan’s famous speech, delivered at the Berlin Wall in 1987, the message is:
“Mr Wowereit, DON’T tear down this wall!”
Work at the wall has been suspended until after the issue has been discussed at a meeting of the Berlin Senate on 18 March.
The developer has how said that the section of wall was being removed to give access to a new pedestrian bridge – a replacement for the Brommybrücke, which was blown up by the Nazis as the Soviets advanced on Berlin. Klaus Wowereit has indicated that he thinks removal of the wall should be avoided if possible. Early signs are good that a suitable compromise can be reached.
It would be incredible to see The Hoff perform at the Berlin Wall and if that happens, Gilly has to be there too. And if it’s going to be perfect, we have to go to a bar on Hasselhoffstrasse (if the concert happens there has to be a street named after him) afterwards for beers, a burger and Vodka Ahojs – the man himself being present would be the icing on the cake.
Berlin Street Art Vol 9 – Various Artists
It’s time for another instalment of some of the best Street Art Berlin has to offer and I think I’ve managed to find some gems over the last few weeks – I hope you agree.
Where a Street Artist has featured on andBerlin before I’ve linked to those posts, just click on the artist’s name.
Prostie is a permanent fixture on Berlin’s streets, smiling from walls, doors and street furniture. On this building by the Landwehr Kanal Prostie is playing dress up – first he’s Picasso then he’s a magician.
Whether it’s Little Lucy’s attempts to kill Kitti or his Citizen series, I’m always to delighted to come across a new El Bocho on the streets of Berlin.
Lake
Lake was one of the artists exhibiting at Stroke Urban Art Fair 2012 in Berlin so I was delighted to come across this street piece when I was wandering around Schöneweide a couple of weeks ago.
Stinkfish
Colombian artist Stinkfish was in Berlin last year and left a few of his distinctive portraits, including this one at Urban Spree. I also saw one of his pieces in an abandoned military base last week, which will feature in a future post.
I was back at the RAW Tempel last week so I took the opportunity to snap this MTO portrait of Michael Jackson. I’m really annoyed that I can’t find the photos I took of this piece before the spliff was added.
NETHER
NETHER made an appearance in Berlin Street Art Vol 6 – Various Artists and is back here again with a great piece on a Crépes van.
Unknown Artists
If anyone knows anything about the artists for these last two pieces please leave the details in the comments so that I can give the proper credit.
I Love Tuesday – FACT Berlin
Berlin Street Art Vol 8 – Various Artists
It’s time for another cracking assortment of top quality Street Art seen on the walls, lamp posts and street furniture of Berlin.
I have linked to other posts where some of the artists have appeared on andBerlin before.
VL
I was really chuffed to find this Dede piece at Urban Spree because I had seen it on his Flickr but didn’t manage to uncover it before I wrote my Dede post.
The London Police
The London Police is a street art collective that was formed to combine travel with art and I love this giant mural spotted in Kreuzberg while I was tracking down pieces for my MTO post.
Colourful and surreal, Robi The Dog‘s paste-ups have added something a little bit different to Berlin’s street art scene.
02:53
I love the placement of this 02:53 street art on the side of a clothes bank near the Mauerpark.
Rylsee x Sophie LeMeillour
This giant robot on the side of Urban Spree was a collaboration between Swiss street artist Rylsee and French visual artist Sophie LeMeillour. The mural was created for New Year’s Eve and LeMeillour animated the eye by projecting onto it.
URBEN
El Bocho is a firm favourite and I’m always amazed at just how much work he gets up in Berlin.
Shepard Fairey
Remembered now for his appropriation of a Barack Obama image, Shepard Fairey is most well known in street art circles for his Obey The Giant art, a progression of this André The Giant campaign.
Unknown Artists
If anyone knows who is responsible for these last two pieces please leave a comment so that I can give the proper credit.
Video Week – Berlin on Vimeo: Day 6 – Berlin Holi Open Air – Festival of Colours
Here’s a splash of colour to start the weekend of Video Week – Berlin Holi Open Air – Festival of Colours.
In July 2012 thousands gathered outside Postbahnhof in Berlin to celebrate Holi – a Hindu Festival of Colours traditionally celebrated in spring – by throwing bags of coloured powder at each other.
Berlin Holi Open Air – Festival of Colours 2013 will be taking place on 29 June 2013. Sign up for more info on the website.
Berlin Holi Open Air – Festival of Colours