Event Coverage: The Urban Nation Museum for Urban Contemporary Art in Berlin, Germany
Since the fall of the Wall, Berlin has become one of the most attractive places to go to for urban artists as well as for lovers of urban art. After this weekend, the city’s appeal as one of the most exciting cities for urban contemporary art has only grown bigger. The Haus was the last big urban art project in Berlin not too long ago. It let street artists use an old bank building as their creative playground. Even though only being around for two months, The Haus was a huge success, while also provoking discussions about whether or not street art belongs into a closed space. For Yasha Young, director and curator of Urban Nation, it’s not a contradiction to present street artists and their art in a museum, thus using the form of a museum as a possibility of documenting contemporary urban art.
The Urban Nation Museum for Urban Contemporary Art, that ironically refers to itself as “Museum that shouldn’t exist” had it’s opening weekend on the 16th and 17th of September. Apart from being able to discover the art in the museum, visitors were also invited to walk down an art mile in the neighborhood that stretched underneath an elevated subway. Since the Urban Nation project first started in 2013, muralists were given the possibility to paint walls all over the city and also close to Urban Nation itself (you can see a piece by Shepard Fairey just around the corner).
Looking at the colorful neighborhood with it’s painted walls, I was quite surprised to learn that most of the museum’s walls were simply white, which makes it look more like a typical gallery. Even though appearing like it at first glance, it’s certainly not a just another gallery space – the content makes all the difference. The first exhibition “Unique. United. Unstoppable.” features more than 150 urban artists and brings together all sorts of creative minds – no matter if sprayer, painter or digital artist, well established or newcomer. Even though there have been attempts of museums, to include urban art into their collections, there has never been a place that was fully dedicated to it. Urban Nation is giving this ever changing art an exciting new home to be documented.
Top image courtesy of The Urban Nation Museum for Urban Contemporary Art.
Art Mile – Ben Frost Installation “Urban Addiction”
Art Mile – Bordalo Installation from recycled materials
Art Mile – Cranio Sculpture “Business Man”
Art Mile – Herakut Installation “Urban Jungle”
Art Mile – Herakut Installation “Urban Jungle”
Art Mile – Juxtapoz Newstand
Art Mile – Live Painting
Museum – 1UP Crew
Museum – Shepard Fairey
Museum Stairs