Public Art: Exploring Urban Creativity & Expression

It’s urban art festival time in Germany, what’s a good reason for all of you to travel the forgotten, abandoned or public places and spaces in Berlin, Saxony or even Cologne… Artrmx and Colorrevolution are going to present the international urban art festival CityLeaks in Cologne this year! Artists from all over the world are invited to create large-scale murals, paste-ups and installations in public spaces, house fronts, off-locations and galleries during the festival’s outdoor action-week. Well-known urban artists like Blu, (who already created the first mural) Emess, El Bocho, Faith47, Jim Avignon, Roa, Sam3, Smash137, Stefan Strumbel, Zedz and others already agreed, what makes CityLeaks becoming probably the biggest urban art festival on continental Europe. ...

I just noticed, that French urban artist and master of rectangular shaped calligraphy and geometrically forms L’Atlas (who was recently in Berlin!) created a new public installation in March at the Place du Palais-Royal in Paris! Using 2722 cartons he and some assistants spent one day to build (and destroy) one of his well-known geometrically signs in 3D. I really like this work and think that this is again a good example for the diversity of L’Atlas! Watching the video (which is a stop-motion film containing 2754 photos) I tried to imagine what all the tourists around thought is going on…

Art Magazine | Recently I got in contact with the Berlin-based subcultural creativity and art magazine “Mašta”. With creative activism as its main theme, “Mašta” combines experimental, unconventional and positively provocative topics, is open and borderfree and aims to inspire to act… Growing from input, actions and creations, we publish a sparkling magazine to tickle your imagination and inspire you to act. The magazine exists of different forms of creative expression, images, articles, art, discussion, sharing of ideas and experiences. We wish to be inspired by creative acts of others. (Mašta collective) ...

Urban artists versus the ad world is some kind of a neverending story. One one hand site there are artists taking over billboards, some who replace ads with their own posters, others copying special advert-campaign styles to combine them with their own style and still others who just modify existing poster ads… On the other site, there are artists creating whole advertising campaigns for multinational companies and also viral media in urban contexts is no curiosity any more. But what’s worst than this is when ad agencies start to copy entire, well-known concepts for their own interests! ...

…with no apparent intent - Yeah, that’s a great example of a successful artistic intervention in public space! Back in September, EPOS 257 created a nice urban installation in the city of Prague, fencing 50 square meters of public space. The whole thing withstood about 54 days not just because it was embedded in concrete, but also because the council had no idea how to handle the situation… In the current society, our living space is defined by legal norms and regulations, the same way as fences demark the choices of our free movement. ...

It’s not the first technical evolution in urban environment and it’s not the first artistically protest against observations of public space, but the brilliant CCTV birds and the corresponding “panoptICONS” project by Thomas voor ‘t Hekke and Bas van Oerle are somehow special. Maybe it’s because of the strong politically, anti-control background, the great artistic implementation or the fantastic idea of cyborg-animals in a city…these urban installations are fuckin’ great, the public feedback confirms it! ...

Do you remember that ominous massive paint attack in Berlin earlier this year? A group of unknown bikers hit the Rosenthaler Platz in the heart of Berlin and spilled about 500 liters of colorful, water-based environmentally-friendly paint on the asphalt. Back then, a rumor circulated in the web about whether this paint attack was just another form of guerrilla marketing or a brilliant urban art action? Massive Paint Attack Video Today the official documentary video, named “Painting Reality”, was published by IEPE & the anonymous crew! It shows the whole procedure of spilling paint on the junction, which only took a few seconds. ...

Ha, unbelievable! In Matt Groening’s Futurama (series six, episode four) Bender plays the charactere of the street artist Invader, who became famous around the world for his urban tile installations, showing monsters from the old skool Space Invader game. Update: The video is not longer available - Hope I will find a new version soon… The other news, our city’s filthy, urine soaked walls have been desecrated by an mysterious tile-work graffiti artist. Police have no leads as to who’s behind this innovative scourge of public art. (Fox News Entertainment and Earth Invasion Tonite) ...

Although I kept my fingers crossed for the Netherlands yesterday, I had the idea to celebrate the Spanish football team as the new world champion by collecting a list of awesome graffiti and street artists from Spain. Because I’m not able to know every single urban artist by name and mother country, it’s o you to complete the list by adding comments or writing e-mails! Famous Urban Artists from Spain Sam3 - The mural artist paints walls around the world, thereby the size of the wall doesn’t matter. Some weeks ago, he painted together with other well-known artists a facade in Lisbon. (www.sam3.es) ...

A spectre is haunting Berlin - the spectre of Mediaspree! Those of you, who already have been in know, that Berlin is Germany’s capital of urban free spaces, but for years the Mediaspree spectre is haunting the city. Mediaspree is a group of investors, which is in the act of building high office blocks and luxury apartments on the former free spaces in Berlin’s city. Some of the most popular free spaces are the non-private spaces along the Spree’s riverside (The Spree is the river, which crosses Berlin…). These alternative bars, beach areas and parks are so much part of the air we all breathe that we can’t even think of a world without them. For that reason, 30.​000 people (An overwhelming majority!) voted in a referendum against Mediaspree and its gentrification plannings in 2008. But nothing happens… ...