Cuvry graffiti

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The two Cuvry graffiti 2009

The Cuvry graffiti were two large-scale facade paintings by the Italian street art artist Blu , which were among the most famous graffiti in Berlin . They were located on two fire walls on the edge of the so-called Cuvrybrache in Berlin-Kreuzberg . The village of tents and huts on the wasteland had regularly made headlines as “Berlin's first slum ” until it was cleared in September 2014 after a fire. In December 2014, the graffiti was painted over with black paint in agreement with the artist Blu, not so much as a protest against the planned development of the site by a new investor, but rather as a sign against urban development policy and Berlin's handling of art.

Location, Cuvrybrache

The cuvry fallow 2008. A blu graffito is still missing.

The Cuvrybrache is located east of the Schlesisches Tor and the Oberbaumbrücke . The approximately 12,000 m² fallow area at the northern end of Cuvrystraße extends from Schlesische Straße to the banks of the Spree . The site is part of the controversial Mediaspree investor project , which provides for the settlement of communications and media companies along part of the banks of the Spree and a corresponding restructuring of this area . Office buildings, lofts , hotels and other new buildings are to be built on mostly unused or temporarily used land .

The YAAM (Young African Art Market) youth and culture project started work around 1995 on the Cuvrybrache, where a bunker once stood, and opened one of Berlin's first beach bars. In 1998 the YAAM had to give way to the planned shopping center "Cuvry-Center". Since the Friedrichshain-Kreuzberg district spoke out against the center, the then Building Senator Peter Strieder withdrew the district's planning authority and transferred responsibility to the Senate Department for Urban Development. After the investor went bankrupt, the new owners planned two 160-meter-long, five-storey buildings with three additional storeys. They should be built in the traditional office building style and open towards the Spree. It was intended to be used for office lofts, small-scale retail and catering. The building permit for the project was granted in 2002, but the plans initially failed.

In 2011, the property became the property of the Berlin real estate entrepreneur Artur Süsskind ( Lala Süsskind's husband ). He initially planned to build a residential complex with a daycare center and supermarket there. However, the Senate missed the construction of social housing in the plans.

When the BMW - Guggenheim -Lab wanted to settle on the wasteland for a few weeks in 2012 , protest tents were set up. After violent criticism from residents, the lab moved to the Pfefferberg in the Prenzlauer Berg district . The first protest tents turned into a hut village with up to 200 inhabitants from different countries, including homeless people , bon vivants, Bulgarians who had to get out of the old ice cream factory on Köpenicker Straße , and Roma families , according to the Berliner Zeitung . When the village was increasingly stigmatized as the “Kreuzberg Favela ” after acts of violence, fires and neglect and also lost support in the Kreuzberg neighborhood, the new owner and the Berlin police considered eviction.

In 2013, the State of Berlin, in coordination with Süsskind, developed a development plan for the construction of, among other things, “socially acceptable” apartments and a freely accessible bank area and commercial space on Schlesische Strasse. In September 2014 there was a fire in the village after a dispute among the residents. The police then cordoned off the site and handed the area over to the owner. The makeshift wooden huts and tents were torn down, the wasteland cleared, leveled and fenced in. In the spring of 2016, Süsskind spoke out against the plans with the State of Berlin and announced that it would implement the construction project under the name "Cuvry Campus" with the approval from 2002. A contract was signed with the fashion mail order company Zalando , who wanted to move into 34,000 square meters of office space from the end of 2019, which again provoked protests from residents. The company withdrew from the contract in March 2018 because “Cuvrystraße 50-51 Berlin GmbH did not meet the contractually agreed deadlines and milestones”.

Graffiti by Blu from 2007/2008

The graffito is attached.

The two graffiti by the Italian street art artist Blu were created in 2007/2008 and extended over the fire walls (windowless external side walls) of two blocks of houses that border the wasteland. Blu created the first picture in the summer of 2007 as part of the “Planet Process”, an exhibition project on street art by the Berlin art association Artitude. Both murals showed white figures. One picture showed the headless torso of a man who wore a gold watch on each wrist. The watches were designed as handcuffs and connected with a gold chain. The man straightened his tie with his tied hands.

The mask image in the original version, still without diving masks, 2007
The "handcuff man" 2012

The other graffiti showed two masked figures, one upside down. Both reached out and tore the masks off each other's heads. With the fingers of their free hands, the figures formed a W and an E - the US symbols for Eastside and Westside, for East and West. The Berlin Wall ran a few meters away on the banks of the Spree . The Süddeutsche Zeitung rated it accordingly : The motif, a statement on the change in the formerly divided city, went around the world. Today the picture is a symbol of Berlin's status as the capital of street art. This picture was originally a joint work by Blu and the French street artist JR , known for his work, The Wrinkles of the City , which is also available in Berlin and winner of the 100,000 US dollar endowed TED Prize 2011. JR contributed the black rimmed eye areas that were exposed in the original version in the face masks. After the rain had washed away most of the eyes, Blu replaced them with the diving masks that are most popular today . Blu and JR left the slogan Reclaim Your City above the picture that was already on the house wall. The slogan is recognized worldwide as an expression of urban protest movements for power and participation in urban space .

According to Spiegel Online , the images became part of the cityscape, photo motif, cult - and a symbol of the wasteland on the banks of the Spree in Kreuzberg. In the last few years of their existence they have been an integral part of graffiti tours. Concerned about the existence of the pictures after the fallow land was leveled, supporters brought more than 7,000 signatures in an online petition up to December 2014 with the aim of placing the pictures under monument protection .

Overpainted in December 2014

On the night of December 11th to 12th, 2014, several men with two lifting platforms and paint rollers came up and painted over the pictures with black paint. All that remained was Your City from the slogan Reclaim Your City and a finger that was later painted over as well. The Berlin cultural scientist Lutz Henke, co-founder of the artists' association Artitude, committed to the campaign. The action should remind of the need to keep affordable and lively places in the city. Henke also wrote: Seven years after the monumental murals were created, it was time for them to disappear - like the fading era of Berlin they represented.

The facades after painting over. Ironic remainder: Your City from the slogan Reclaim Your City .

The overpainting was done with Blu's consent. According to media reports, Blu allegedly wanted to prevent the real estate investor from capitalizing on his artwork. The picture should not serve to drive up the prices for the apartments in the area. However, Henke, who was already involved in the creation of the pictures in 2007/2008, did not want the campaign to be related to the individual investor or the clearing of the Cuvry fallow. Rather, it is a signal against the unsuccessful urban development as a whole and Berlin's handling of art. An epoch in Berlin can be explained well on the black walls. In an interview he shared:

“We are not just talking about the phenomenon of gentrification - we definitely don't want to shout populistically“ Everything is going to be bad ”without dealing with the processes. But it is a symbol that can be used to illustrate and show a lot. […] There is a permanent exploitation of street art - by the city of Berlin, by the city marketing and the neighborhood administration, for example. In the field of street art, an industry has emerged that obeys a logic of exploitation; At the latest since street art travel guides existed or graffiti and street art became part of city marketing. Don't get us wrong: this art is there to be seen. To exploit art on the one hand, but on the other hand not to make it politically, to maintain the conditions for independent art in the city and to ensure that this art has space in the future, is absurd. Phenomena similar to those experienced by the Free Scene coalition: We actively contribute to the added value of the city, but nothing comes back. "

- Lutz Henke in an interview with taz , December 19, 2014.

According to Henke, the black wall should not be a statement of helplessness, as it has already been interpreted. On the contrary, it is a demonstration of the ability to act. Good art or good street art is also characterized by the fact that it works in relation to a situation and is not just illustrative. Blus' Leviathan mural (also Pink Man , Blus Backjump Mural ) at the end of Falckensteinstrasse is still available (as of 2015) . When you leave the Oberbaum Bridge in the direction of Kreuzberg , you walk towards the pink giant, which cannot be overlooked .

See also

literature

  • Ingo Clauß, Stephen Riolo, Sotirios Bahtsetzis: Urban Art: Works from the Reinking Collection . 1st edition. Hatje Cantz, Ostfildern 2009, ISBN 978-3-7757-2503-3 (exhibition catalog) p. 55.
  • Tobias Höpner: Image as a location factor. Image production for the marketing of urban development projects using the example of “Media-Spree” in Berlin . Institute for Urban and Regional Planning, TU Berlin, Discussion Papers 55, 2005, ISBN 3-7983-1957-X .
  • Niko Rollmann: The long fight: The "Cuvry" settlement in Berlin . 1st edition. Self-published, Berlin 2016, ISBN 978-3-00-053042-5

Web links

Commons : Cuvry-Graffiti  - collection of pictures, videos and audio files

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ a b Karin Schmidl: The history of the Cuvry fallow. In: Berliner Zeitung , July 13, 2014.
  2. ↑ Andreas Kopietz: Residents of the Cuvry fallow are expelled. After the huts come the Cuvryhöfe. In: Berliner Zeitung , September 22, 2014.
  3. ↑ a b c d Anne Lena Mösken: Blu becomes black. The most famous graffito in Berlin was painted over. Behind it is the artist himself. In: Berliner Zeitung , 13./14. December 2014, p. 22.
  4. ↑ This is not Bombay, this is Berlin. The slums of Kreuzberg. In: Berliner Kurier , March 16, 2014.
  5. ↑ Jürgen Stüber and Lorenz Vossen: Cuvry-Brache in Kreuzberg: A neighborhood is "disneyfied" . ( Morgenpost.de [accessed on March 24, 2018]).
  6. ↑ Christian Gehrke: Cuvry-Brache: Zalando is not moving into new offices after all . In: Berliner Zeitung . ( berliner-zeitung.de [accessed on March 24, 2018]).
  7. ^ Ingo Clauss, Stephen Riolo, Sotirios Bahtsetzis: Urban Art: Works from the Reinking Collection . P. 55.
  8. ↑ Planet Process - Between Space and Art . Press kit. (PDF) Exhibition in the Senate Reserve Store, Berlin-Kreuzberg, July 20 to August 19, 2007.
  9. ^ Florian Fuchs: Graffiti in Berlin. Against the wall. In: Süddeutsche Zeitung (online), October 2, 2011.
  10. ↑ Lars von Törne, Torben Waleczek, Franziska Felber: Kreuzberg wears black: cult graffiti painted over. In: Der Tagesspiegel (online), December 12, 2014.
  11. ↑ Reclaim Your City: Urban Protest Movements Using the Example of Berlin. Ed. Pappsatt media collective. Association-A Verlag, Berlin 2014, ISBN 978-3-86241-437-6 .
  12. ↑ a b Cuvry-Brache in Berlin: The end of the cult graffiti in Kreuzberg. Spiegel Online , Panorama, December 12, 2014.
  13. ↑ Lars von Törne, Torben Waleczek, Franziska Felber: Kreuzberg wears black: cult graffiti painted over . In: Der Tagesspiegel Online . December 12, 2014, ISSN  1865-2263 ( tagesspiegel.de [accessed March 24, 2018]).
  14. ↑ Pictures of a Faded Era. Who painted over Blus graffiti. In: Berliner Zeitung , December 23, 2014, p. 15.
  15. ^ Graffiti on Cuvry-fallow repainted. ( Memento of the original from January 21, 2015 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link was inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. Rundfunk Berlin-Brandenburg , Kultur online, as of December 12, 2014. @1@ 2Template: Webachiv / IABot / www.rbb-online.de
  16. ↑ “The city that always dreams.” Will Berlin soon run out of space for artistic freedom? Why Lutz Henke painted over the pictures on the Kreuzbzberg Cuvrybrache. Conversation by Paul Linke and Anne Lena Mösken with Lutz Henke. In: Berliner Zeitung , February 17, 2015, p. 14.
  17. ↑ a b Street art picture painted over. "A kind of 'kill your darlings'" . In: taz , December 19, 2014. (Interview with Lutz Henke.)
  18. ↑ Falckensteinstrasse 46, 48 and 49. Wall paintings Berlin
  19. ↑ Wiebke Hollersen: Man-eating giant. Two street art exhibitions will end in Kreuzberg on Sunday. In: Berliner Zeitung , August 18, 2007.

Coordinates: 52 ° 29 ′ 59 "  N , 13 ° 26 ′ 47"  E