Street Art

Graffiti and Other Street Art

Last Sunday, we finally got around to doing a bike tour of Berlin Street Art. We'd been wanting to do it all along, but a 3-hour chunk on a Saturday afternoon is not so easily available.

We joined a group of 5, for a total of 8, and our guide took us to different "galleries" and explained different techniques. First, he explained that in some parts of the city, home owners will hire artists in self defense, hoping to avoid graffiti by not offering an appealing white wall.

I've seen that work, but I've also seen it fail, as with this wall where the art is visible, but graffiti has been added at the bottom.

But there's much more to street art than just graffiti. Our guide explained that many artists move away from the spray painted letters to much more sophisticated art. We enjoyed this gallery along the river, which was visually interesting and had been around for a while.

One artist took advantage of the reflection to create a full image.

And there was even a small sculpture, in a way poking fun of the traditional bridge sculptures.

Sculpture was rare, but we saw another one at a "gallery" in Mitte. 

That gallery featured different artists and techniques. One had printed photos of dancing women on thin paper and pasted it on the wall, with a Time to Dance slogan and some confetti surrounding the dancers (you see them approximately in the middle of the picture, and then again to the left of the yellow face.

Another artist, also featured in the first picture of this post, paints on paper and pastes the painting on the walls. The big advantage of pasting or stenciling is that it can be done quickly, with the risk of detection and arrest significantly reduced.

The gallery also included a Little Lucy paste-up. She, for some reason, doesn't like cats and is also seen making cat stew. In the picture above, she says "6 Lives Left".

Some artists really to show off their art as if they were in a gallery - and for some, the main form of expression is verbal, as in the yellow sign.

"Where is the place that shall quench the thirst of your soul? You have slept for innumerable eons and now you don't want to wake?"

Well, I don't understand it so it must be art...

I do understand this pretty little paste-up crane on top of graffiti - so maybe it isn't art?

Regardless, we came away from the tour with a new appreciation of street art. Now, instead of being annoyed, we're happy to explore, have a closer look, and be surprised. For me, graffiti itself is still an annoyance, but I'm now more able to see that there's more to it than meets the eye.