Blu - Europe Border Europe is a fortress, you can read that thesis almost everywhere at any time. It describes Europe’s border politics as backward-looking, inhuman and as a mass violation of human rights. Recently, one of the world’s most famous mural artists Blu, who became famous with his critical, questioning paintings around the globe, picked up on this border policy with his latest mural in Melilla, Spain! ...
I have a big foible for abandoned amusement parks. One reason - and it doesn’t matter whether the decaying park is located in the US or even in China - is the somehow scary atmosphere of old, often broken attractions, archaic Western buildings and roller coasters. Another reason is, that those abandoned parks, providing never ending impressions, are perfect playgrounds for urban explorers and photographers like me… Kulturpark - A Public Art Project in Berlin In Berlin, a group of cultural developers and activists together with experimental architects from Berlin, researchers from Harvard, and placemakers from the Urban Art Institute plans to re-open the abandoned amusement park Spreepark, located in the sprawling Treptower Park, as a creative camp. The group’s aim is to utilize the process of producing artistic site-specific visions, combined with ideas and memories of publics, to create a grassroots proposal for the park’s future, what sounds like a really great thing for Berlin! ...
French graffiti artists Sowat (DMV) and Lek, invited 40 urban artists to paint an abandoned supermarket in the north of Paris since they discovered the great, decayed building in summer 2011! Just to make it clear, imagine an old, four storey supermarket and dozens of talented graffiti artists who paint and paint an paint…and film the results! Including stuff by Apotre, Bims, Blo, Bom.k, Boyane, Brusk, Deap, Dem189, Fléo, Gris1, Hobz, Honda, Jayone, Jaws, Kan, Katre, Monsieur Qui, O’clock, Onde, Outside, Rems, Romi, Sambre, Seth, Siao, Skio, Smo, Spei, Swiz and Tcheko, the building has now become - similar to the Ghostvillage or Underbelly Project - an illegal artistic residency. ...
Public murals are often hot-spots for street art and graffiti. When travelling to others cities, have you ever spent hours and hours to find the local public murals to get some pretty nice photos as souvenirs? I did and although this trial an error method of finding the really big murals was usually quite fun, I would have had some more time to do other things either. Luckily, I just stumbled upon the Mural Locator! ...
Great news from South-Germany: In July 2012, the world’s first real-time architecture competition 72 Hour Urban Action is coming to Stuttgart to work together with local cultural activists! All around the site of the largest urban redevelopment in Europe - Stuttgart 21 - the center of a 30 year heated public debate, 72 Hour Urban Action will be the kick-off of a series of major urban interventions in the city… ...
Herakut Train Tracks Mural Commissioned by the city council of Mannheim, Germany’s most famous urban art duo Herakut upgraded the Rhine-Neckar metropolis some weeks ago with a massive train track mural titled Brothers helping Sisters helping…! The piece, being located in Mannheim’s Glückstein Quartier, shows a row of at least twelve people hugging each other. Facing the tracks, this new Herakut train tracks mural now welcomes all visitors entering the city by train. Wow! ...
VNA 18 - Conor Harrington After I recently got the latest Amateur Magazine from Switzerland, I finally received the 18th issue of London’s finest Very Nearly Almost (VNA) Magazine! And again they put together some of the major players in the urban art scene… Featuring not just bloody awesome painter Conor Harrington, whose East-London studio decorates the cover of VNA 18, but also graffiti legend Mode2, Shawn Barber, mister Calligraffiti Shoe, Ronzo, the largest mural painter Remi Rough and more! In addition to the interesting interviews with those great artists, the mag also includes several nice street shots again, this time focusing on London, Sydney and Rio… ...
Amateur Magazine - Smash137 After number 6 and 7 as well as 8 and 9, recently the 10th issue of Switzerland-born Amateur Magazine was published and surprised me again… To publish the first double-digit issue is a good reason to party for every mag, especially when it’s released just twice a year. Nevertheless, it seems that in the case of Amateur, the team didn’t party before the release but tried to produce the best issue ever - and in my eyes, this totally worked out! ...
This subway parasite project is quite old, it was invented by Frédéric Eyl at the University of the Arts in Berlin back in 2005 (long before about 2,200 people liked Urban Art Core on Facebook), but it’s that great that I have to share it with you… Parasite is an independant projection-system that can be attached to subways and other trains with suction pads. Parasite projects films inside a tunnel. These tunnels bear something mystic – most people usually have never made a step inside any of those tunnels. Confusing the routine of your train-travelling-journey, your habits and perception the projections parallel worlds – making use of parasite – allow you a glimpse into a different world full of surrealist imagery. (thegreeneyl.com) ...
As you already know, Washington D.C. native urban artist James Bullough is currently creating two huge, photo-realistic murals in Berlin - here comes the corresponding painting action photo-series! Located near Berlin’s Rosenthaler Platz, the upcoming contemporary art space Torstrasse 111 / Co Verlag provides enough space for the two striking giants James is painting for several days now using all his photo-realistic graffiti skills to finish up with both murals, before the new art space opens the first time at the end of April. ...