By Bettina Goemener
What Kurfürstendamm wasn’t and is: entertainment and shopping mile, the showcase of the West, then City West. Now the boulevard is to become a shop window for ideas for the future and offer more incentives to stay there. In any case, the graffiti exhibition “All We Wrote” starting Thursday is a good occasion.
With a length of 1.2 kilometers, it is said to be one of the largest in the world.
You can already see artists from the graffiti strongholds of New York, São Paulo, Amsterdam, Paris and Berlin spraying on the green strip of the Kudamm between Wittenbergplatz and Uhlandstrasse. They spray on subway trains, house facades and boxes, all of which were specially made from wooden panels.
ZIZA comes from São Paulo, Brazil. With her graffiti she wants to pay tribute to two Brazilian rappers Photo: Christian Lohse
“We want to represent 50 years of graffiti culture and show that it is a language of art,” says Roland Prejawa of Urban Contemporary. The project, developed by artist Baye Fall, was created in cooperation with BID Ku’damm Tauentzien GmbH.
Dutchman SERCH thinks it’s wonderful and an honor that he can take part in the graffiti exhibition Photo: Christian Lohse
“It’s incredible to paint in the middle of Kurfürstendamm, we’re used to spraying at night and secretly,” says SERCH, who hails from near Amsterdam. He has been to Berlin several times and has already lived there for a year. The 50-year-old sprayed his name in large letters on a subway train that used to look like in Amsterdam. “I would also like to show my wife and two children in the wagon window,” says SERCH.
ZIZA is the stage name of the 33-year-old social worker from São Paulo. Her motifs are the portraits of two rappers whom she admires. Brazil’s graffiti scene is also interchangeable with other genres, has different styles and is very political in order to draw attention to the problems and needs of the less privileged. This applies to artist and social worker Otito (46).
ASEM is from Berlin. The 47-year-old is a mathematics and chemistry teacher. She began painting graffiti as a hobby, and she also gives workshops to young people Photo: Christian Lohse
The sprayers involved often finance their upkeep with workshops and commissioned work from municipalities or homeowners and often work in the social sector.
Alexander Bülow, also History, from Berlin is proud that he can legally spray graffiti on Kurfürstendamm Photo: Christian Lohse
Alexander Bülow from Berlin is the organizer of Beatbox Battle TV, has been designing international facades with so-called murals since the early 1990s and is a member of the T2B collective. His stage name is History. The 48-year-old says: “I’m a real Kudamm child, grew up in Halensee and am proud that I can now legally paint graffiti there.”
New York’s graffiti scene is represented on the median of Tauentzienstrasse Photo: Christian Lohse
Until June 26th. Guided tours can be booked at the contemporary pop-up store next to Karstadt am Kudamm
