Urbanism

Between 2009 and the end of 2012, I was deeply embedded in the global street art scene. During those peak years, my blog, urbanartcore.eu, grew into one of Europe’s primary digital hubs for graffiti and urban art culture. It was a daily log of a specific era of hype, documenting the movement as it exploded across walls from Berlin to Bristol. After 2012, the project sat stale. It remained online, a silent archive of that era, until 2016. ...

Graffiti Architecture in Melbourne In Melbourne, Australia, a building complex called Hive combines graffiti and architecture in an exciting new way! Whereas usually graffiti is added afterwards to the facade of a building, the facade of the Hive incorporates a giant three-dimensional concrete tag! This project by ITN Architects is real graffiti architecture! Built for an architect and artist, this building has its name written right into its walls and also comes with other graphical elements like arrows giving the entire complex an urban, sci-fi dynamic… ...

The urban farming project Himmelbeet (sky patch) is currently planning an extensive roof-top garden over Berlin! On the top of a former multi-storey car park in Berlin-Wedding, the nonprofit project is going to open an open gardening zone as from May 2013… In addition to the crops a beekeeper will supervise beehives. Workshops, cultural events and a coffee shop will revive the environment. We take a stand for maintaining of regional varieties, and want to grow organically and by the principles of permaculture. Gardening will take place in mobile raised beds. In addition to the community garden space, it will be possible to lease an own bed for a season. (loosely translated) ...

Anna Borgman and Candy Lenk realized the installation Luftschloss (cloud castle) on Alice-Salomon-Square in Berlin-Hellersdorf. The temporary urban intervention is the result of the examination of the fragmentation and incompletion of the space and the disappointed hopes for permanence and wholeness. The installation is 2300 m³ in size and is divided into four phases, showing different stages of transformation… I really like the idea, but what’s even more interesting is to see the exaggerated carelessness of the pedestrians. It’s like nobody notices anything; no one questions the installation, or wonders about it. It’s unbelievable… ...

Popular urban artist Clemens Behr and graphic designer Raby Florence Fofana teamed up not long ago and together created a subway sculpture for Berlin’s probably most famous subway line U1! The so-called U1 Objekt is a two meters tall sculpture on wheels built out of wood and aluminium plates. The plates have been screenprinted with pattern-designs by Raby which where afterwards arranged and screwed together by Clemens… This Berlin subway sculpture is not just adding another part to Clemens Behr’s Places and Spaces series, but also objectifies the look and feel of a well-known means of local transport. Great! ...

In history, garages are well-known for their contribution to mankind. Garages gave birth to Microsoft, Hewlett-Packard, Apple, Iggy Pop and other garage bands, etc. Now, a Berlin-based art project gives away nine free garage studios for artists in Berlin… *This is an open call for a nice project in August. The winner gets 1.000 Euro. The participants get a GDR-style double garage for 3 weeks to do whatever he/she wants. ...

Blake Shaw and Bruno Levy aka Sweatshoppe developed video painting, a technology that allows them to create the illusion that they are painting videos onto walls with electronic paint rollers they built! Their latest video again showcases their live interactive video wheatpaste, this time in the streets of Berlin, Bristol, Belgrade, London and Paris. Over a two week period the duo pasted their videos in over 10 spots including the Berlin Wall, Les Invalides, Cordy House and even a two-story tall video painting in Bristol… ...

Is urban art influencing urban development and planning? How does creative street culture cause social restructuring? And does graffiti equal gentrification? With its new monthly Culture Talk series, the network for cultural development Platoon is going to discuss those and similar questions! Furthermore, the NGO for culture, art and communication is going to open the doors of its new headquarter in Berlin for the first time… Urban Art vs. Gentrification? The discussion about street art and graffiti triggering first beginnings of a gentrification process is not new, at least in Berlin. Nonetheless, almost everyone in town, being threatened by gentrificational impacts has a different opinion and blames someone else. Platoon is now going to bring together artists, scientists and scene players, who all are probably part of the extensive social, economical and cultural shiftings taking place here and elsewhere… ...

The best places in Berlin are now marked as such by students of Communication in Social and Economic Contexts (Gesellschafts- und Wirtschaftskommunikation, GWK) at the Berlin University of the Arts (Universität der Künste Berlin, UdK)! The group placed several controversial posters throughout the entire city, presenting slogans like - *U8 is the best place for buying heroin in Berlin. Amen.*, - *Mustafas is the best place for waiting in line in Berlin. Amen.*, - *Kastanienallee is the best place for dying on your fixi in Berlin ever. Amen.* or - *Revaler Straße is the best Technostrich ever. Amen.* For those of you who already visited Berlin, these best places in Berlin should not be that unfamiliar… ...

German Urbanscreen crew is specialized in large-scale projections on urban surfaces. Recently they lighted the sails at the famous Sydney Opera House, combining the art of light projection, video mapping and motion graphics to extraordinary heights… German design collective Urbanscreen transformed the Sydney Opera House with their Lighting of the Sails. They projected large-scale pictures of people moving on the surface, crawling or walking from different perspectives. The project is part of the Vivid Live Festival running from 25 May to 11 June 2012. Urbanscreen was founded in 2008 and conceives and produces custom-made media installations using high artistic standards and stylistic devices, a spacious architectural background and a consistently professional completion. Their aim is to transfer their concepts into a dialog between art and urban communication. (ignant.de) ...