All posts tagged: Berlin

Various & Gould Tell a #PublicTale as Scavenger Hunt in Berlin

June 9, 2015 Artists

A new elaborate and inventive public art / scavenger hunt installation in Berlin brings you back inside the combined imaginations of Various & Gould, where you must trust them as they lead you along a colorfully quirky and storied path to find their next installment to continue the story. If art is truly a projection of your internal dialogue, Various & Gould must never sleep, or rather, they possible live in a dream-like state.

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Various & Gould: Public Tale in collaboration with Polina Soloveichik. Berlin, 2015. (photo © Various & Gould)

To follow this installation you merely need to stumble upon it on the street and follow the map with directions to the next location. Along the way you are given excerpts from a friendly and riddling tale written to accompany the illustrated collage scenes, which in themselves are each an installation. It helps if you have a sense of adventure, an inquisitive mind, and an afternoon to stroll. It probably also helps if you read and comprehend German, although V&G have thoughtfully translated this story by artist Polina Soloveichik into English.

Gould tells us that it was quite an undertaking to conceive of and create this #PublicTale in studio, and then they had to stick it all up. “It took us seven hours and loads of glue. We were totally exhausted, but happy, when we finished.” They have already been contacted by people who have completed the full hunt, and “So far the pieces and text posters are intact,” he says.

Various & Gould: Public Tale in collaboration with Polina Soloveichik. Berlin, 2015. (photo © Various & Gould)

The outdoor exhibition is part of a project that V&G completed for BackJumps, a Berlin-based graffiti zine-turned-arts movement that is celebrating 21 years. As part of their new show BackJumps is hosting international and local artists and presenting a series of events this spring/summer that include workshops, lectures, and guided walks, among other activities. Various & Gould had conceived of this project as a public art component of the show and even though they had chosen their ideal locations for the collage illustrations……they confess that they had not actually secured permissions.

“We had chosen the specific spots beforehand and when we went wheat-pasting during day it happened; we encountered people at the locations!” says Various, explaining that they suddenly had doubts about being able to finish. Luckily, they were charming enough to persuade the owners to let them put up their corresponding chapter.

“Three times we had to ask spontaneously to see if it was okay to paste on the respective house/wall/gate, and – to our total surprise – all three times we were given the permission!!” It was a happy ending. Also, says Gould, it was an unusual experience for the duo, “Asking for permission is rather new to us.”

Various & Gould: Public Tale in collaboration with Polina Soloveichik. Berlin, 2015. (photo © Various & Gould)

One more thing as a point of clarification, and hopefully without spoiling the story or confusing you, dear reader: an actual halted construction project is one of the sites of the art installation and its status as an unfinished project runs parallel to the project in the storyline. Also, the joke told within the story is never revealed, but we have learned that it is actually sprayed upon the wall of that same stalled project. It doesn’t really sound like a “joke” in English; it reads more as a pithy proverb. The text is high upon the side of a building is right next to the famous squat “Köpi”. You can see it also here and here.

Various and Gould have translated it for us.

„Die Grenze verläuft nicht zwischen den Völkern sondern zwischen oben und unten“

or “The border doesn’t run between the nations but between the top and the bottom (or the rich and the poor).

Enjoy this extensive documentation of #PublicTale and check out the hashtag on Instagram.

Various & Gould: Public Tale in collaboration with Polina Soloveichik. Berlin, 2015. (photo © Various & Gould)

Various & Gould: Public Tale in collaboration with Polina Soloveichik. Berlin, 2015. (photo © Boris Niehaus)

Various & Gould: Public Tale in collaboration with Polina Soloveichik. Berlin, 2015. (photo © Various & Gould)

Various & Gould: Public Tale in collaboration with Polina Soloveichik. Berlin, 2015. (photo © Boris Niehaus)

Various & Gould: Public Tale in collaboration with Polina Soloveichik. Berlin, 2015. (photo © Various & Gould)

Various & Gould: Public Tale in collaboration with Polina Soloveichik. Berlin, 2015. (photo © Boris Niehaus)

Various & Gould: Public Tale in collaboration with Polina Soloveichik. Berlin, 2015. (photo © Various & Gould)

Various & Gould: Public Tale in collaboration with Polina Soloveichik. Berlin, 2015. (photo © Boris Niehaus)

Various & Gould: Public Tale in collaboration with Polina Soloveichik. Berlin, 2015. (photo © Various & Gould)

Various & Gould: Public Tale in collaboration with Polina Soloveichik. Berlin, 2015. (photo © Boris Niehaus)

Various & Gould: Public Tale in collaboration with Polina Soloveichik. Berlin, 2015. (photo © Various & Gould)

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Please note: All content including images and text are © BrooklynStreetArt.com, unless otherwise noted. We like sharing BSA content for non-commercial purposes as long as you credit the photographer(s) and BSA, include a link to the original article URL and do not remove the photographer’s name from the .jpg file. Otherwise, please refrain from re-posting. Thanks!
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“We are the people!”, Xenophobia, and Penises for Rallitox in Berlin (NSFW)

May 21, 2015 Artists

“Wir sind das Volk!” and Dildos from the “Confusionist”

Continuing his human sticker campaign, street artist Rallitox has gathered a nice crowd in front of this portion of the Berlin Wall, otherwise known popularly as the East Side Gallery, many of whom are happily snapping photos as he sticks a couple of friends to it. The installation is a bag of mixed messages, perhaps the biggest is “look at me”, but we’ll help you unpack a couple of others here while we all stare at the spectacle of duct tape and dildos.

RallitoX. East Side Gallery AKA Berlin Wall. Berlin. May 2015. (photo © courtesy of RallitoX)

Wir sind das Volk! (We are the people!) is a phrase associated with a populist movement of reunification that erupted during the fall of the Berlin Wall that separated West from East twenty five years ago, but strangely, according to Rallitox, has been recently commandeered by xenophobes who want to get rid of certain immigrants. “Now the movement called Pegida, who are against the “Islamification” of Germany, are using this slogan for their own profit,” he says, and he is unhappy with this perversion of the original meaning in a campaign that is swaying opinions.

RallitoX. East Side Gallery AKA Berlin Wall. Berlin. May 2015. (photo © courtesy of RallitoX)

“Since I was a child I was fascinated with how advertising was conditioning our behaviors, the way we act and how are we supposed to be. I guess that at the end, everything is created in our brains. If you can control people’s minds you can dominate them. If you want to manipulate people you have to control in the best way the languages and symbols that affect us as humans,” he explains.

He admits that this new message of his may not be entirely clear. “This is my psycho-confused response to all those who are trying to claim that there are people who deserve to be ‘the people’ and others who are not good enough to be part of it, depending on what they believe.” That seems pretty clear from here – Rallitox wants to seize the slogan and reclaim it in some way.

RallitoX. East Side Gallery AKA Berlin Wall. Berlin. May 2015. (photo © courtesy of RallitoX)

Now, about the fleshy pink appendages pointed rather parallel to the pavement and attached to this installation: that meaning is slightly less obvious, even while being completely obvious.

“For me the penis is an icon that reflect perfectly the human state of mind,” he explains. “The hypocrisy toward part of the human body that is considered ugly and tasteless even when more or less half of humanity have one between their legs is interesting. On the other hand, drawing and working with penises gives me a lot of trouble in terms of selling my art and it closes doors in some mainstream street art circles where this ¨bad taste¨ is normally not so well received, with the exception of some more open minded blogs or magazines.”

Dang! That compliment was obvious too. Sure glad we are open minded, and since you, dear reader, are reading this, you clearly must be as well

RallitoX. East Side Gallery AKA Berlin Wall. Berlin. May 2015. (photo © courtesy of RallitoX)

Yes under a patriarchal construct you may associate these duct-taped dildos as symbols of power and dominion, or as possible weapons and open provocation, or the implication of a virile conceptual idea. Or we may see these as a criticism of boner headed thinking. Mainly we just keep in mind that dick jokes are often funny and when placed on the street at roughly eye-level, present a great number of entertaining photo opportunities.

“Some viewers don’t understand what the relationship between penises and politics is,” Rallitox says as he sounds like he is about to explain. “I aim to be a confusionist and to use Street Art to spread confusion, awareness, and chaos in some organized way.”

You may agree that the confusion aspect of the work is quite successful here.

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Please note: All content including images and text are © BrooklynStreetArt.com, unless otherwise noted. We like sharing BSA content for non-commercial purposes as long as you credit the photographer(s) and BSA, include a link to the original article URL and do not remove the photographer’s name from the .jpg file. Otherwise, please refrain from re-posting. Thanks!

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Human Sticker, Human Behavior in Berlin with Rallitox

May 12, 2015 Artists

You may be familiar with artist such as Maurizio Catelan and Marina Abramović who have featured live humans suspended from the wall as part of gallery or museum installations, and street artist Mark Jenkins creating lifelike sculptures in public space. The effect can be shocking and if done effectively, causes the viewer to review our role as humans when observed at the crossroads of performance, plastic arts, and sociology.

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RallitoX. Human Stickers. Berlin, May 2015. (photo © RallitoX)

Street art experimenter Rallitox treads the fine lines of art and sociology and behavioral studies – often provoking passersby into participating in his works even passively – like staging a crime scene with a grocery store chicken and some ketchup on a sidewalk, or inviting people to walk across the backs of 8 people lying on their stomachs as a free opportunity to walk on immigrants. If it doesn’t delve into sensationalism, this kind of work has the power to focus the view on your role as participant only by virtue of inhabiting a public space.

Rallitox’s latest sociological experiment in Warschauer strasse, Berlin is to transform a friend into a sticker – or rather – to stick a friend to a wall with duct tape. Static images here give part of the story, but nothing compares to the smallest movements of a head or a hand when you walk by, suddenly realizing this inanimate “sticker” is neither a sticker nor inanimate. “Im so interested in using people as an artistic tool to express what I feel, “ he tells us, “Especially when I get to create confusion and to break mental patterns.”

RallitoX. Human Stickers. Process shot. Berlin, May 2015. (photo © RallitoX)

RallitoX. Human Stickers. Berlin, May 2015. (photo © RallitoX)

…and a very brief teaser…

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BSA Images Of The Week: 04.19.15

April 19, 2015 Artists, BSA Images Of The Week

Here’s our weekly interview with the street, this week featuring #dysturb, Balu, Banjo, Bifido, bunnyM, D7606, Dan Plasma, Don’t Fret, Ideal, Left Handed Wave, Martian Code Art, Mr. Prvrt, Myth, Nineta, Obey, Stay Busy, UNO, UTA, and Vers.

Top Image: UTA. Portrait of Michelle Obama. (photo © Jaime Rojo)

Balu (photo © Jaime Rojo)

Myth (photo © Jaime Rojo)

Ideal (photo © Jaime Rojo)

bunny M (photo © Jaime Rojo)

Image of a kid walking on the street with a tag on the wall, wheat-pasted on a wall on the street. Banjo (photo © Jaime Rojo)

Bifido “Who Eats The Worm” in Naples, Italy. (photo © Bifido)

Nineta (photo © Jaime Rojo)

D7606 has Debbie hanging on the telephone. (photo © Jaime Rojo)

Stay Busy by Panic & Chupa (photo © Jaime Rojo)

OBEY (photo © Jaime Rojo)

Uno in Berlin (photo © UNO)

Dysturb with saxaphone accompaniment (photo © Jaime Rojo)

Dysturb (photo © Jaime Rojo)

Dont Fret (photo © Jaime Rojo)

Martian Code Art (photo © Jaime Rojo)

Mr. PRVRT (photo © Jaime Rojo)

Left Handed Wave (photo © Jaime Rojo)

Dan Plasma (photo © Jaime Rojo)

Vers (photo © Jaime Rojo)

Untitled. NYC Subway. April, 2015. (photo © Jaime Rojo)

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Dain and El Sol 25 on the Street in Berlin

April 7, 2015 Artists

When some of the artists were with us in Berlin for the BSA show “Persons of Interest” at Urban Nation, they also managed to hit up a few walls in the city. Not only did they plaster these in broad daylight, neither DAIN nor El Sol 25 even looked over their shoulder; folks welcome the new art work – often posing for selfies in front of it.

Dain (photo © Jaime Rojo)

Dain busts three in a row. See another full body version below. (photo © Jaime Rojo)

Dain (photo © Jaime Rojo)

Dain sidebusts a piece by Alessio B (photo © Jaime Rojo)

Solito Jibaro inside the future UN museum, currently referred to as the UN haus. (photo © Jaime Rojo)

El Sol 25 (photo © Jaime Rojo)

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BSA Images Of The Week: 04.05.15

April 5, 2015 Artists, BSA Images Of The Week

ECB was back on the streets in Bushwick this week doing his portrait of a Moroccan street barber from his series of portraits in Morocco of traders whose trade is in danger of extinction. That is what BSA Images of the Week starts off with.

Here’s our weekly interview with the street, this week featuring Caroatoes, ECB, Hendrick Beikirch, Icy & Sot, Jaye Moon, London Kaye, ROA, Scott Lickstein, SOBR, Ten Hundred, Trice, Wing, and X-O.

Top Image >> Hendrik Beikirch AKA ECB. Detail. (photo © Jaime Rojo)

Hendrik Beikirch AKA ECB (photo © Jaime Rojo)

Scott Lickstein (photo © Jaime Rojo)

Icy & Sot (photo © Jaime Rojo)

Icy & Sot in Berlin. (photo © Jaime Rojo)

London Kaye (photo © Jaime Rojo)

Wing (photo © Jaime Rojo)

Amanda Marie. Detail. (photo © Jaime Rojo)

Amanda Marie (photo © Jaime Rojo)

X-O (photo © Jaime Rojo)

SOBR in Berlin. It’s Time To Dance! (photo © Jaime Rojo)

Jaye Moon may have gone to see the On Kawarwa exhibition at the Guggenheim before hitting the street with this date. (photo © Jaime Rojo)

If I’ve asked you once I’ve asked you Trice. Quit clowning around. (photo © Jaime Rojo)

Ten Hundred (photo © Jaime Rojo)

Sketches from ROA’s cabinet of curiosities as he prepared this week for his new show at Jonathan Levine Gallery. (photo © Jaime Rojo)

Artist Unknown (photo © Jaime Rojo)

Caratoes (photo © Jaime Rojo)

Untitled. Watcha looking at? Apple Store. SOHO, NYC. March 2015. (photo © Jaime Rojo)

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Sunday Morning Wheat Pasting with Various & Gould

March 30, 2015 Artists

The best cure for jet lag is to jump on a bicycle and weave through the streets trolling Street Artists while they work. At least, that was the theory two hours after we landed early on a Sunday morning in Berlin, and Various and Gould agreed to lead the tour!

Various & Gould. Berlin. March 2015. (photo © Jaime Rojo)

With eyes a bit bleary and balance rather suspect, our intrepid photographer happily trailed the friendly duo who took him to see THE WALL as well as many other more scrappy, hidden, dodgy walls to shoot images of. They even watched in bemusement as he got assistance from a random passerby to hoist him atop an electrical box to get his shot. Dude always gets his shot.

Various & Gould. Berlin. March 2015. (photo © Jaime Rojo)

Naturally they brought wheat paste in their backpacks, and a few newly painted pieces to smack up. For those of you familiar with the mix-n-match limbs, torsos, and heads that V&G have used previously, you can see that the innovative experimenters have evolved their collage style to something new. It’s exactly the same, but completely different.

Various & Gould. Berlin. March 2015. (photo © Jaime Rojo)

You’ll also notice that all these pieces are going up in broad daylight – Berlin is very chill about street art, no joke. Judging by the zillions of people who you see posing for pictures with the art all over the city, they seem to like it.

Our very special thanks to Various and Gould for their hospitality.

Various & Gould. Berlin. March 2015. (photo © Jaime Rojo)

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BSA Images Of The Week: 03.29.15

March 29, 2015 Artists, BSA Images Of The Week

BSA again proudly shouts out Young New Yorkers this week as they offer you works by many Street Artists on the scene today at auction. Check out the auction on April 1st of some of New Yorks’ finest (and generous) Street Artists whose work will benefit the programs of “restorative justice” which YNY offers to 16 and 17 year olds in NYC who have become entangled with the law. (Video at bottom)

Also our hearts go to the neighbors who lost homes and were hurt (some very badly) in the explosion and fire that destroyed two buildings on the Lower East Side this week. Meme-making selfies by callous bimbos aside, stories of strangers and neighbors reaching out to help out remind us why we love NYC.

Here’s our weekly interview with the street, this week featuring B.D.White, City Kitty, Claw Money, Enzo Sarto, Hot Tea, Jeff Soto, Philippe Vignal, Rhino, Sbagliato, Sobr, Stikman, Tona, Urban Solid, and VK .

Top Image >>Urban Solid on Berlin’s East Side Gallery AKA Berlin Wall. (photo © Jaime Rojo)

Stikman (photo © Jaime Rojo)

City Kitty bidding farewell to his prominent spot on the soon to be renovated Maisel building on the Bowery. Photographer Jay Maisel paid 102K in 1966 for the former Germania Bank building built in 1898. He sold it last year to developer Aby Rosen for 55 million. True story. (photo © Jaime Rojo)

Rhino Berlin on Berlin’s East Side Gallery AKA Berlin Wall. (photo © Jaime Rojo)

Enzo Sarto (photo © Jaime Rojo)

Sobr in Berlin. (photo © Jaime Rojo)

Sbagliato in London. In case you were wondering the art is the passageway on the left. That’s not real. It is an optical illusion created with a photograph wheat-pasted on the wall. (photo © Blind Eye Factory)

These bars in Berlin provide a number of great image making opportunities – like this pooch from Tona. (photo © Jaime Rojo)

Claw Money (photo © Jaime Rojo)

VK in Berlin. (photo © Jaime Rojo)

Philippe Vignal in Berlin. (photo © Jaime Rojo)

Hot Tea gets fancy. (photo © Jaime Rojo)

Jeff Soto in Berlin. (photo © Jaime Rojo)

Which is more flammable, the EU crisis or this polyester dress? Various Artists on a “magnet wall” in Berlin. (photo © Jaime Rojo)

B.D. White (photo © Jaime Rojo)

Untitled. Let the right one in. Berlin. March 2015. (photo © Jaime Rojo)

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BSA Please note: All content including images and text are © BrooklynStreetArt.com, unless otherwise noted. We like sharing BSA content for non-commercial purposes as long as you credit the photographer(s) and BSA, include a link to the original article URL and do not remove the photographer’s name from the .jpg file. Otherwise, please refrain from re-posting. Thanks!

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NeverCrew, Andreas Englund, Onur Dinc, KKade, and Dot Dot Dot at Urban Nation

March 23, 2015 Artists

Street Art is this enormous moveable and on-the-move feast for the eyes and mind and heart. The players and places change, the songs and the dancing revolves, the color and texture everchanging. Exploring Street Art in Berlin is like wandering onstage at the Metropolitan Opera during Wagner’s Ring and discovering that there is a superstar DJ with lasers, a death metal band, and a poetry jam on live horses as well. Die Fledermaus meets DeadMaus meets Mickey Mouse.

Mounting a show with Urban Nation (UN) in windows and the gallery was already a feast for senses, but in addition Yasha Young invited guest performers to join in the festivities, making every movement new and many of them revelatory.

So while 12 artists from Brooklyn were mounting Project M/7 we also had the opportunity to see and meet new folks we had not seen before – The NeverCrew (Switzerland) , Andreas Englund (Sweden), Onur Dinc (Switzerland), KKade (Switzerland), and Dot Dot Dot (Norway). Actually DDD was a Nuart last year but evidently was very shy.

Today we wanted to share with you these additional dishes that were on the table at the UN feast, these talented folk deserve their own posting and we are pleased to share them with you.

Onur Dinc (photo © Jaime Rojo)

Onur Dinc (photo © courtesy of @urbannationberlin)

Andreas Englund (photo © Jaime Rojo)

NeverCrew (photo © Jaime Rojo)

KKade (photo © Jaime Rojo)

A KKade observer one second before she began cursing at us and waving us away. Oops! (photo © Jaime Rojo)

KKade (photo © Jaime Rojo)

DotDotDot (photo © Jaime Rojo)

Urban Nation Walls took place in conjunction with Project M7 “Persons Of Interest”. The walls are currently on view 24/7 at:

URBAN NATION
Bülowstraße 97
10738 Berlin-Schöneberg, Germany

http://www.urban-nation.net/

BSA Images Of The Week: 03.22.15

March 22, 2015 Artists, BSA Images Of The Week

Can we please not talk about snow? Spring, you temptress.

Here’s our weekly interview with the street, this week featuring Angelina Christina, Bifido, BiP, Bortusk Leer, C215, Chris Stain, Crummy Gummy, Dan Witz, Dave the Chimp, Ease One, El Bocho, Icy & Sot, Little Lucy, London Kaye, Never, Otto “Osch” Shade, Peter Phobia, Punk Paul, Tuco, and Zid Leon.

Top Image >> C215 in Berlin (photo © Jaime Rojo)

London Kaye. So, if you are made of crochet, do you get cold? Also see the Smells tag floating above this little lady. (photo © Jaime Rojo)

Angelina Christina, Ease One and Never painted this wall in the Summer of 2014. I really never took a good photo of it due to cars always parked in front. The harsh winter conditions of the New York Winter 2015 made possible for me to take this photo. On a great day like this, as we endure our 154th snowstorm of the season, many of us have low hopes for the spring. (photo © Jaime Rojo)

Tuco. Manimal Chimp in Switzerland from his “Manimal” series. This image also looks rather like it was shot on the set of a TV show. More on this artist to come shortly. (photo © Tuco Wallach)

El Bocho in Berlin (photo © Jaime Rojo)

El Bocho . Little Lucy in Berlin (photo © Jaime Rojo)

Little Lucy in Berlin (photo © Jaime Rojo)

Bifido in Caserta, Italy. (photo © Bifido)

Chris Stain in Berlin. (photo © Jaime Rojo)

We spotted this ceramic sculpture perched on a beam on the platform of the Berlin metro. This is the only one we saw so we are thinking it wasn’t sanctioned art. Who is the artist? That gold crown looks familiar. (photo © Jaime Rojo)

Dan Witz in Berlin. (photo © Jaime Rojo)

BiP in San Francisco, California. (photo © BiP)

Otto “Osch” Schade in Shoreditch, London. (photo © Kate O’Callaghan)

Would you like a ride in my golf cart? Peter Phobia in Berlin. (photo © Jaime Rojo)

Bortusk Leer in Madrid, Spain. (photo © Bortusk Leer)

Crummy Gummy in Las Vegas, Nevada. (photo © Crummy Gummy)

Oof! My head! Must have been those last few shots. Dave The Chimp in Berlin. (photo © Jaime Rojo)

Zid Leon in Berlin in line for the porta-potty. (photo © Jaime Rojo)

BSA in Berlin. (photo © Jaime Rojo)

Punk Life, No Limit in Berlin. (photo © Jaime Rojo)

Um, personal comment: beauty queens should not smoke. It sends the wrong message to impressionable kids. That is all. Nick Flatt and Punk Paul in Berlin. (photo © Jaime Rojo)

Icy and Sot in Berlin for Urban Nation One Wall. (photo © Jaime Rojo)

Untitled. Layers in Berlin. (photo © Jaime Rojo)

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See the Gallery Show! The BSA-UN PM/7 Pop-Up Exhibition

March 21, 2015 Artists

Behind the Scenes for the Brooklyn-Berlin Pop-Up

Last Saturday the 14th the public was invited to an open reception to meet the artists who had flown to Berlin to create new portraits for Urban Nation (UN), curated by BSA.

Don Rimx checks his original illustration on his phone while creating much larger color version on the wall at the UN Gallery Pop-Up show (photo © Jaime Rojo)

The companion show for “Persons of Interest” at the UN Gallery is a pop-up show by the same Brooklyn artists whose portrait works were in the windows of the future museum but there were two important differences from those installations:

1. The artist had no limitations or guidelines regarding the subject or style of their chosen piece
2. The installation was to be mounted directly on the wall and not for sale.

Don Rimx (photo © Jaime Rojo)

After asking each artist to research and select their “person of interest” for the main windows and façade of the UN, it only seemed fair that we put no restrictions on the content or inspiration for their other piece for the opening to allow more free expression.

While we like gallery shows that sell art it felt much more natural to see the artists hit the walls directly as they would on the street – from floor to ceiling and side by side, they created a sort of continuum that lead out of the gallery doors out to the walls of this much-decorated city.

Don Rimx “Ache”, a bendicion in the spirit of his birthplace of Puerto Rico.(photo © Jaime Rojo)

Because these new artworks will have a limited run that ends in their destruction, the experience for the gallery goer of viewing them is an acknowledgement that the roots of this art-making practice embraces its ephemeral quality.

Something about that fact makes the work more immediate, more consequential, knowing that the work you are viewing on the street may not be there tomorrow. Each one of these artists knows this on the street, something another kind of artist may find difficult to accept or incorporate into their thinking.

Cake (photo © Jaime Rojo)

In the first couple of days everyone was recovering from serious NY-Berlin jet lag, and a handful of the artists were wearing the same clothes they arrived in while waiting for their luggage that was stuck in Düsseldorf because of a strike by bag handlers. One artist missed his plane, others got a little lost on the metro, and there were two lost phones – but these are small problems once you are confronted with a blank wall next to 11 peers on which to create something amazing.

It is a prospect full of opportunities and maybe a little bit of anxiety, but each artist brought their A-game and knew they were in a supportive environment. They also created it – reaching out to help with a brush or a ladder or can of paint, a word of advice and some problem solving too. Ultimately they were total professionals with skillz to lay down. By adapting and excelling at their work, the collective effect that this eclectic harmony produced clearly energized the crowd that overflowed onto the sidewalks Saturday night.

The result on the gallery walls is an acid rainbow pop of personality, metaphor, text, pattern, socio/political commentary, activism, and a tribute to ancestors. Each artist brought their individual style and approach to gallery walls in much the same way that appears on the street. For a few it was the first time meeting while others were long-time friends and clearly some were fans of each others work.

One coincidence that sort of blew us away was that Don Rimx and Specter both told us that their pieces were meant to be a “blessing” to their hosts; Rimx featuring a re-worked traditional image of a Puerto Rican grandmother and overflowing bucket of water – “the source of life” he said, and Specters post-modern repetition of leaves from a plant that he said you would bring someone as a gift. Neither had consulted with the other or us, and yet both mounted these pieces side-by-side.

Any day you get to work with artists is a good day – especially driven dynamic talented ones who are always challenging themselves, digging deeper to pull out something that speaks, that means something. These few precious days in Berlin with these few artists were very good days indeed for us and we hope for them too.

Swoon’s undulating biomorphic and ornate paper cuts were at center stage of the gallery, wrapped around the columns in the middle of the room.(photo © Jaime Rojo)

Specter took off his shoes to create but remained in his long-johns while waiting for his luggage to arrive a day and a half after him. This plant was understated and yet commanded attention – this guy is one of the most intellectually adventurous in his street practice, easily sliding between mediums and concepts. (photo © Jaime Rojo)

Dain prepped his wall by tagging the surface multiple times in multiple colors and mucking it up with a roller – effectively bringing the street into the gallery so he could paste his new longer form enigmatic collage portrait on it and within the sea of colors and texture. (photo © Jaime Rojo)

Dain likes to work alone so he took his body parts and pieces into the adjacent store room to assemble and reassemble, spray, color, cut out, selectively damage or damask – a process that allows for experimentation and discovery while the artist relies on some intuitive guidance to get to the final piece. (photo © Jaime Rojo)

Some place in there you’ll find Chris Stain at work on his piece – an artist whose work always reflects the people you see on the street and in your neighborhood. (photo © Jaime Rojo)

Gaia’s gallery piece was directly related to his portrait of Fereshta Ludin that he completed for the “Persons of Interest” window installation. An artist who makes a fulsome study of his subject matter and the historical/social/political/anthropological factors that surround it – Gaia here incorporated the marching mass of right wing anti-Islamic Pegida demonstrators as a backdrop to a disembodied draped head scarf, a symbol of religious expression by Muslim women. Posted on the front, with dropped shadow to pop it forward, is a published interview with Ms. Ludin -who attended the opening reception last Saturday, meeting the artist and us in person for the first time. (photo © Jaime Rojo)

El Sol 25 and the German translation of “Here today, gone tomorrow”, his reference to the ephemerality of the graffiti/street art game, and perhaps larger existential considerations. (photo © Jaime Rojo)

For some, these are two essential products to survive while painting in a foreign country (or at home) (photo © Jaime Rojo)

Icy & Sot used this opportunity to create something more abstract than the work that they are known for, which can be quickly understood. According to a few people at the opening, they liked it more than the brother’s typical work for that reason, so it was successful in that respect. Icy explained that it is a crouching figure with a mashup of a destroyed city within it. (photo © Jaime Rojo)

Project M/7 “Persons Of Interest” Street level exhibition and the Pop-Up show are currently on view and free to the general public at:

URBAN NATION
Bülowstraße 97
10738 Berlin-Schöneberg, Germany

Opening Hours
Monday-Friday 10.00 -18.00

http://www.urban-nation.net/

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Complete “Persons of Interest”: Brooklyn in Berlin

March 18, 2015 Artists

All the Works Completed for Project M/7 at Urban Nation with BSA

Our trip to Berlin with 12 of Brooklyn’s finest street artists was a quintessential cultural exchange; bringing together artists, curators, social activists, ministers of art, museum board CEOS, collectors, gallerists, fans, and the director of a future museum called Urban Nation. The seventh Project M, a program to draw artists and attention to the enormous UN haus while it is under construction, was called “Persons of Interest”. All week we got to meet interesting people – not a surprise in this raw cultural hot spot that bubbles with an effervescent underground and creative laboratory that is full of youthful vigor and serendipity.

Icy & Sot. “Persons of Interest” Portrait of an unknown girl from Brooklyn to the people of Berlin. Detail. (photo © Jaime Rojo)

How fitting then that our first youthful arrivals were Icy & Sot, who set the tone with their 4 story portrait of an anonymous Brooklyn woman with “Freedom” scrawled across her face, an iconic scene of the celebrants at Berlin’s fallen wall inside her. With one of the brothers turning 24 that week, it was even more touching to see them marking an important event that predated him by one year – a new generation of artists helping us identify what events of the modern age are truly touchstones.

The 176 piece stencil had taken about 10 days for them to cut back in Brooklyn and the brothers methodically sprayed their missive to Berlin’s people over the course of 5 more days. This, their largest mural ever, was enormous and peaceful and an incredible act of discipline, determination, and dedication to teamwork.

Icy & Sot. “Persons of Interest” Portrait of an unknown girl from Brooklyn to the people of Berlin. Detail. (photo © Jaime Rojo)

“Persons of Interest” was meant to celebrate the connections between the lively artists communities in these sister cities over the last few decades, and being in Berlin felt like home to most of the artists in many ways. The curatorial vision was also meant to counter the criticism of many of the new Street Art mural festivals that have taken hold in cities around the world that they are not considering their hosts and to help focus on the neighborhoods where the new works appear.

Undeniably the Internet has supercharged this worldwide peoples’ art movement and has allowed us to learn about and connect with artists and their street work as we never would have encountered previously. It also has created a strata of international artists whose names appear again and again on these festival lists and while it is sort of exciting, it also is producing a sort of cultural imperialism that leaves a sour taste in the mouths of locals who don’t feel a connection to the artists or the art works that remain in their neighborhoods long after the festival has ended.

Our aim with “Persons of Interest” was to suggest a new model that may also be considered, one that is based on impactful work and meaningful exchange.

From this experiment that took us roughly six months to conceive, organize, and execute, we discovered two things:

1. Artists actually like to do research and create art that is meaningful and relevant to their personal stories, and
2. Many street passersby and art audiences are elated to find work that they can relate to – that reflects their lives, history, and culture.

Each of the artists had really challenged themselves to learn about the city they were making work for, and each had a story that also spoke of their own. Every day we were learning from them and they were learning from each other and without hesitation our hosts were schooling us as well.

Of course it helps when you are working with a dynamic urban contemporary art expert like Yasha Young, who has a deep well of ideas about community and more connections than the WiFi router at a One Direction concert. All week we were treated to a rotating list of visiting photographers, videographers, art directors, reporters, radio hosts, writers, culture mavens — and to many artists who were in town to put up new walls, show us their black books and iPhoto libraries, or just to meet their New York friends who were painting in the gallery.

Dain on the left with Gaia on the right at work on their portraits for “Persons Of Interest” UN PM/7 Berlin. (photo © Jaime Rojo)

Shout out to Onur Dinc, Andreas Englund, Herakut, The Never Crew, KKade, Various & Gould, Strok, David Walker, FKDL, James Bullough, Vermibus, Roland Henry, Nika Kramer, Butterfly, Mark Rigney and other very cool well-wishers. While we’re at it, we all send a gold-plated shout out to the three women who kept us all cared for in so many ways in the gallery and on-site at the UN – Alejandra, Elisabetta, and Ana were indispensable.

Speaking of meeting interesting people, a huge highlight of the program for us was when two of the artists got to meet their “Person of Interest” face to face. We had arranged a surprise visit of one of them; NohJColey had no idea that Katharina Oguntoye would walk on the sidewalk in front of the UN and peer in the window where he was preparing his portrait of her.

To witness the enthusiasm with which they greeted one another and to hear them excitedly asking and answering each others questions regarding his work as an artist in Brooklyn and hers as an Afro German feminist in Berlin was the epitome of art as a catalyst for cultural exchange. We didn’t know life could be so rich.

Gaia’s person of interest, Fereshta Ludin also attended the opening in person on Saturday night, the first time that the two had met in person. Only two days before a Berlin law had been overturned allowing Muslim school teachers to wear headscarves – and Ms. Ludin has been a social activist advocating for the right for the last decade and a half.

The politics around this of course are highly charged and there have been xenophobic right-wing marches against Muslims and others in their defense in the streets in Berlin in recent months. Meeting Ms. Ludin in person and seeing her reaction to Gaia’s portrait of her gave such a powerful additional dimension to the entire experience of “Persons of Interest” that we never could have predicted when we first conceived of it. Gaia said it was a “life affirming moment”.

Probably what is most gratifying is when you see someone’s eyes light up with recognition at seeing one of their icons brought to life. One woman told us that she couldn’t believe that El Sol 25 knew Hannah Höch so well. Was it that she couldn’t imagine a former graff writer honoring the central female figure of Berlin’s Dada movement? We were shocked when a UN board director told us Marlene Dietrich had grown up in the same neighborhood where this new DAIN portrait of her was going up – we even met someone who went to her funeral here in ’92!

In the final analysis once again we witnessed the creative spirit alive and well in the street and in the gallery. Unlike early graffiti writers, these artists come from different backgrounds and disciplines – yet all intersected with art in the public sphere in New York; graffiti writers, muralists, painters, wheat-pasters, paper cutters… In Berlin you would have thought that they all had been working together for years, the collaborative spirit was so high – and luckily for us, Berlin welcomed them all.

The photo above captures the moment when NohJColey learns that Ms. Oguntoye is outside on the sidewalk looking at him through the window working on his portrait of her.

In the photo you see Ms. Oguntoye meeting NohJColey for the first time.

Urban Nation Project M/7 “Persons of Interest” is currently on view on the streets of Berlin until June 22nd at Bülowstraße 97
10738 Berlin-Schöneberg, Germany.

For more details on each artist’s Person of Interest click on the links below:

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Various & Gould: Public Tale in collaboration with Polina Soloveichik. Berlin, 2015. (photo © Various & Gould)

Various & Gould: Public Tale in collaboration with Polina Soloveichik. Berlin, 2015. (photo © Various & Gould)

Various & Gould: Public Tale in collaboration with Polina Soloveichik. Berlin, 2015. (photo © Various & Gould)

„Die Grenze verläuft nicht zwischen den Völkern sondern zwischen oben und unten“

or “The border doesn’t run between the nations but between the top and the bottom (or the rich and the poor). Enjoy this extensive documentation of #PublicTale and check out the hashtag on Instagram.

Various & Gould: Public Tale in collaboration with Polina Soloveichik. Berlin, 2015. (photo © Various & Gould)

Various & Gould: Public Tale in collaboration with Polina Soloveichik. Berlin, 2015. (photo © Various & Gould)

Various & Gould: Public Tale in collaboration with Polina Soloveichik. Berlin, 2015. (photo © Various & Gould)

Various & Gould: Public Tale in collaboration with Polina Soloveichik. Berlin, 2015. (photo © Various & Gould)

Various & Gould: Public Tale in collaboration with Polina Soloveichik. Berlin, 2015. (photo © Various & Gould)

Various & Gould: Public Tale in collaboration with Polina Soloveichik. Berlin, 2015. (photo © Various & Gould)

Various & Gould: Public Tale in collaboration with Polina Soloveichik. Berlin, 2015. (photo © Various & Gould)

Various & Gould: Public Tale in collaboration with Polina Soloveichik. Berlin, 2015. (photo © Boris Niehaus)

Various & Gould: Public Tale in collaboration with Polina Soloveichik. Berlin, 2015. (photo © Various & Gould)

Various & Gould: Public Tale in collaboration with Polina Soloveichik. Berlin, 2015. (photo © Various & Gould)

Various & Gould: Public Tale in collaboration with Polina Soloveichik. Berlin, 2015. (photo © Boris Niehaus)

Various & Gould: Public Tale in collaboration with Polina Soloveichik. Berlin, 2015. (photo © Various & Gould)

Various & Gould: Public Tale in collaboration with Polina Soloveichik. Berlin, 2015. (photo © Boris Niehaus)

Various & Gould: Public Tale in collaboration with Polina Soloveichik. Berlin, 2015. (photo © Various & Gould)

Various & Gould: Public Tale in collaboration with Polina Soloveichik. Berlin, 2015. (photo © Boris Niehaus)

Various & Gould: Public Tale in collaboration with Polina Soloveichik. Berlin, 2015. (photo © Various & Gould)

Various & Gould: Public Tale in collaboration with Polina Soloveichik. Berlin, 2015. (photo © Various & Gould)

Various & Gould: Public Tale in collaboration with Polina Soloveichik. Berlin, 2015. (photo © Boris Niehaus)

Various & Gould: Public Tale in collaboration with Polina Soloveichik. Berlin, 2015. (photo © Various & Gould)

“Wir sind das Volk!” and Dildos from the “Confusionist”

RallitoX. East Side Gallery AKA Berlin Wall. Berlin. May 2015. (photo © courtesy of RallitoX)

RallitoX. East Side Gallery AKA Berlin Wall. Berlin. May 2015. (photo © courtesy of RallitoX)

RallitoX. East Side Gallery AKA Berlin Wall. Berlin. May 2015. (photo © courtesy of RallitoX)

RallitoX. East Side Gallery AKA Berlin Wall. Berlin. May 2015. (photo © courtesy of RallitoX)

RallitoX. Human Stickers. Berlin, May 2015. (photo © RallitoX)

RallitoX. Human Stickers. Process shot. Berlin, May 2015. (photo © RallitoX)

RallitoX. Human Stickers. Process shot. Berlin, May 2015. (photo © RallitoX)

RallitoX. Human Stickers. Berlin, May 2015. (photo © RallitoX)

Top Image: UTA. Portrait of Michelle Obama. (photo © Jaime Rojo)

Balu (photo © Jaime Rojo)

Myth (photo © Jaime Rojo)

Ideal (photo © Jaime Rojo)

bunny M (photo © Jaime Rojo)

Image of a kid walking on the street with a tag on the wall, wheat-pasted on a wall on the street. Banjo (photo © Jaime Rojo)

Bifido “Who Eats The Worm” in Naples, Italy. (photo © Bifido)

Nineta (photo © Jaime Rojo)

Nineta (photo © Jaime Rojo)

D7606 has Debbie hanging on the telephone. (photo © Jaime Rojo)

Stay Busy by Panic & Chupa (photo © Jaime Rojo)

OBEY (photo © Jaime Rojo)

Uno in Berlin (photo © UNO)

Dysturb with saxaphone accompaniment (photo © Jaime Rojo)

Dysturb (photo © Jaime Rojo)

Dont Fret (photo © Jaime Rojo)

Martian Code Art (photo © Jaime Rojo)

Mr. PRVRT (photo © Jaime Rojo)

Left Handed Wave (photo © Jaime Rojo)

Dan Plasma (photo © Jaime Rojo)

Vers (photo © Jaime Rojo)

Untitled. NYC Subway. April, 2015. (photo © Jaime Rojo)

Dain (photo © Jaime Rojo)

Dain busts three in a row. See another full body version below. (photo © Jaime Rojo)

Dain (photo © Jaime Rojo)

Dain (photo © Jaime Rojo)

Dain (photo © Jaime Rojo)

Dain sidebusts a piece by Alessio B (photo © Jaime Rojo)

Solito Jibaro inside the future UN museum, currently referred to as the UN haus. (photo © Jaime Rojo)

El Sol 25 (photo © Jaime Rojo)

El Sol 25 (photo © Jaime Rojo)

El Sol 25 (photo © Jaime Rojo)

Top Image >> Hendrik Beikirch AKA ECB. Detail. (photo © Jaime Rojo)

Hendrik Beikirch AKA ECB (photo © Jaime Rojo)

Scott Lickstein (photo © Jaime Rojo)

Icy & Sot (photo © Jaime Rojo)

Icy & Sot in Berlin. (photo © Jaime Rojo)

London Kaye (photo © Jaime Rojo)

Wing (photo © Jaime Rojo)

Amanda Marie. Detail. (photo © Jaime Rojo)

Amanda Marie (photo © Jaime Rojo)

X-O (photo © Jaime Rojo)

SOBR in Berlin. It’s Time To Dance! (photo © Jaime Rojo)

Jaye Moon may have gone to see the On Kawarwa exhibition at the Guggenheim before hitting the street with this date. (photo © Jaime Rojo)

If I’ve asked you once I’ve asked you Trice. Quit clowning around. (photo © Jaime Rojo)

Ten Hundred (photo © Jaime Rojo)

Sketches from ROA’s cabinet of curiosities as he prepared this week for his new show at Jonathan Levine Gallery. (photo © Jaime Rojo)

or “The border doesn’t run between the nations but between the top and the bottom (or the rich and the poor).

Enjoy this extensive documentation of #PublicTale and check out the hashtag on Instagram.