Yasmin Al-Modhwahi

Street Art BERLINArt vs. Vandialism What do teenagers think?

2GO! A guide on some of the greatest places to experience

What does the law say?

the art of Berlin’s street

“He is such a bomber!”

No. 1 February 2011

Learn how to speak graffiti. Understand and communi-cate with street artists.

cont

ent Street Art in Berlin

2GO!

Art vs. Vandialism

Street Art > Graffiti

“I speak Graffiti”

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STREET ARTin BERLIN

People with some idea of the term street art would agree that the streets of Berlin are covered with artistic expressions. Walls, pipes and roads have turned into a canvas and the canvases have turned into a great public exhibi-tion with free admission. Mean-while the citizents have become the artists. People from all over the world have come to Berlin to leave their

stamp on this beautiful city. Ber-lin’s street art is characterized by the latter, but also by the critical, contemporary and yet colorful his-tory of Berlin. There is no doubt that Berlin has become the capital of street art in Europe. You can not walk in the city without running into some marvelous piece of art in the street.

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BERLIN

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2GO! 3 places1 city

HOW

2GO

from our hotel

1:Walk to U-Bahn Wittenbergplatz, take U1 in direction S+U Warschauer Str., get off

at U-Bahn Schlesisches Tor, walk to The East Side Gallery. Duration: 0:34

2:Walk to U-Bahn Wittenbergplatz, take U2 in the direction S+U Pankow, get off at U-Bahn Stadtmitte, take U6 in direction U Alt-Tegel, get off at U-Bahn Oranienburger

Tor, walk to Oranienburger Straße 54. Duration: 0:25

3:Walk to Breitscheidplatz, take bus 200 in the direction Michelangelostr., get off at Friedrichshain. Duration: 0:39

Our Hotel

THE EAST SIDE GALLERYAfter the fall of the wall on Novem-ber 9, 1989 people crowded to the wall and destroyed most of the 165 km wall. A 1.3 km long section of the wall was however preserved. The west side of this section had been decorated with colorfull paint-ings throughout the Cold War. The east side, however, had stayed white and untouchable since the construc-tion of the concrete wall in 1975. In 1990 hundreds of artist from all over the world went to Berlin to decorate the naked East wall. The Gallery had its official debut on 28 September and was named The East

Side Gallery. The Gallery consists of 106 motives that express the feel-ings and thoughts of Berliners in the time following the fall of the wall. That is to say euphoria, freedom and hope for a new and a better future. The East Side Gallery is an open air gallery. Therefore it has been se-verely damaged by vandalism, pollu-tion and erosion. Most of the paint-ings were in such a bad condition that the colors and the motives had almost vanished. Thanks to restora-tion and repainting, which has been going on since 1996, the Gallery is still a popular tourist attraction.

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TACHELESTacheles is an art centre situated in a ruin in Mitte, Berlin. The building itself has a very interesting history. The five-story building was con-structed in 1907 and used to be a huge shopping mall. During World War II the Nazi’s used the building as an administration department as well as a place for French prisoners. Part of the building was severely damaged by the allied air forces between 1943 and 1945. After the war the east side of the building slowly fell apart, because the gov-ernment of DDR had no wish nor money to preserve the building. After the Berlin wall came down the building was going to be demol-ished. However a group of artists occupied the building claiming that it was a historical site. They named the building Tacheles. Today the building functions as a nightclub, a music scene and an art centre with a range of art types. It has become a tourist attraction and cultural hub.

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3FRIEDRICHSHAIN-KREUZBERG Most people in Friendrichshain-Kreuzberg are young, alternative and left wing. This district of Berlin has turned in to a heaven for those who admire street art. The street art is not concentrated in a specific area in this district. The best way to experience the art here is a walk through Friendricshain-Kreuzberg.

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ART vs

VANDALISM

Name: Rikke Age: 15

“In my opinion you can’t just say wheth-er street art is art or vandalism. As long as the artist has permis-sion from the owner of e.g. a wall and the artist’s intention is to create then it is art.“

Name: Martin Age: 16

“In order to brighten up the city the street needs colors. It needs street art. If young people’s art was accepted and le-gal, they would also respect the guide-lines they receive.“

Name: Ida Emilie Age: 17

“Tagging is terri-ble! I don’t see any point in that form of graffiti. If the work, however, is some-what interesting or pleasing to the eye - yes then it is art.“

teenagers’ view the law

Vandalism is defined as destruction of or damage to the property of another. Whether another is the state or your neighbor does not matter. Whether the street “art” is interesting and beautiful does not matter either. What matters is that the owner of the property, whether it is a wall, a pipe or a bus, gives the artist permission to carry out his or her creation on the given object.

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“Graffiti is one of the few tools you have if you have almost nothing. And even if you don’t come up with a picture to cure world poverty you can make someone smile while they’re having a piss.”

- Banksy

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MULARArtwork that has been painted, sprayed or rolled directly on surface without template.- by BLUS

MOSAICA big image created of smaller pieces of e.g. stone or glass.- by “invader”

INSTILLATIONIn contrast to traditional street art, which is 2D art, installations are 3D objects. - by mentalgassi

STENCILA template is used and thus the motive itself can be eas-ily reproduced. The motive is usually sprayed on a wall.- by victor ash

STICKERArt form where stickers are used to promote the mes-sage of the artist.- by unknown artist

Street art > Graffiti

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“I speak GRAFFITI” Did you ever pass by a group of grafitti painters? Did you under-stand what they meant, when they said “He’s a bomber”? Like all other languages street art has its own vocabulary and slang.

Back to back → a wall has been covered with grafitti from one end to the other

Bomber → someone who covers as large a surface area as possible with tags

Burner → an extraodinary and time-consuming piece of graffiti

Hat → stands for honor-among-thieves, you are a hat if you know who is behind the (illegal) graffiti, but you do not report it to the authorities

Hollows → graffiti that is hollow, it has no fill only the outline

Insides → when the graffiti is done on the inside of e.g. a bus or a train

Safe wall → the graffiti artist has permission from the owner to paint

Tag → the artist’s signature, is considered the simplest form of graffiti

Up → to be up is to be well-known for your graffiti work

Wildstyle → graffiti writing that is hard to read because of its complexity

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Street ArtBERLIN