Berlin

Yesterday I met the Australian tape artist BUFFdiss. I was really happy that he had some time for a small session in one of Berlin’s most famous abandoned factories, the “Eisfabrik” in Mitte. If you are living in Berlin or if you have a foible for Berlin, you maybe know that the snow is actually thawing here. For that reason every wall we tried to tape was already wet… Any way BUFFdiss did a nice typo tape art piece and we drunk some beer and everything was fine, but I’m now on the search for some other tape artists around the world who will fight with us against the winter! ...

Niels “Shoe” Meulman from Amsterdam has worked on perfect his dirty styled combination of calligraphy and graffit. Next month he releases his new book “Calligraffiti” on From Here to Fame Publishing. “Street-edge meets high-end design as artist Niels Meulman explores the contours of words as images in “Calligraffiti” - his hybrid art form which blends calligraphy and graffiti. He presents a wonderful interplay of contrasts with a series of fast phrases and upbeat witticisms in the form of captivating typographic masterpieces.” (press release) ...

Yesterday, I visited the Pisa73 and Czarnobyl stencil art exhibition in Berlin-Kreuzberg. Although the shown artworks were really nice, they unfortunately were the same I already know from the “Aerosol Fumes” stencil art group exhibition… Nevertheless I took some shots, because Pisa73 and Czarnobyl are two of the most famous Berlin-based stencil artist and their artworks are well-known in Europe and overseas. Most notably is the great location. It’s called the “Nest” and it’s above a little nice café. It’s the same interesting location were the Streetfiles urban art photo show took place in November 2009. ...

For some weeks, Australian urban and tape artist BUFFdiss is in Berlin. Some days ago, he published first shots of new, sticky tape artworks from the streets of Berlin… BUFFdiss is the or at least one of the forerunners of tape art. His large-scale hand-sketches are well-known not only in his hometown Melbourne, but also in the rest of the world. Always they are in direct interaction with their architectural, urban surroundings. ...

Maybe you know the traditional outdoor sport “Capture the Flag”, for those of you who haven’t heard something about it yet, I will say some words about it. “Capture the Flag” is a two teams game. Each have its own flag (or other marker) and the simple objective is to capture the other team’s flag, located at the other team’s base, and bring it safely back to their own base. Enemy players can be tagged by players in their home territory and are temporary out of the game. That’s all! ...

This Saturday, a new urban art gallery with a pretty cool concept will open in Berlin - Its name: 72h Gallery. The exhibiting artists have 36 hours for preparing their artwork. That mean 36 hours to create, spray, tinker, photograph, shoot, screw, hang, rock, be awake and paint. Ongoing the public is able to visit, view, fall in love, jaw, hear, feel and enjoy for exactly 36 hours. All in all it’s always an 72 hours action exhibition. ...

I was really flashed, when I saw the photos of Rero’s great new text-message artworks in an abandoned hospital somewhere in Paris yesterday on Ekosystem! Rero is a conceptual artist with a graffiti background, although the only similarity between graffiti and his artworks is that both can be seen on the streets. He calls his very minimalistic and simple style “Image Negation”, which is a reversion of the rules of classical illustration: ...

As you may already know, I love urbanity! I love it to see and discover different city around the world. I love it to explore cities in different seasons. For me, there’s almost nothing better than to get new and nice impressions - maybe from an other point of view - of urban scenes. Yes, you could say that I know my hometown Berlin, but I never saw nicer images of snow in Berlin. ...

This year, a spectacular urban art event will take place in Berlin: “Art Monument 2010”! For many years, a unique architectural building, a 46 meters high tower called “Bierpinsel”, has been asleep in the center of Berlin. Its paint fades and until yet the tower was only used by students, who studied the futuristic architecture of the 1970th. Between April 1st and May 15th, four famous street artist will repaint the monument! One of the most spectacular open-air galleries of Europe will be created. ...

Some days ago, Jaybo Monk and Remi Rough meet each other at the Style Project Room in Berlin-Mitte, but before I write something about the “Jaybo Monk vs. Remi Rough” live-painting, I will wish you a happy new year, with a lot of creative ideas and great inspirations… Born in France, Jaybo Monk came to Berlin in the 80th. Because of the variety of media, he uses to create his urban influenced artworks, and the fact that he’s the founder of the important “Style” magazine, he became a influential figure on the urban scene and internationally famous. ...