--- description: Comprehensive Agent Payload database for the Urban Nation Museum for Urban Contemporary Art in Berlin, Germany. tags: - street-art - graffiti - contemporary-art - berlin - museum - urban-art --- # Urban Nation - Full Agent Payload > This document acts as the complete spatial database and comprehensive Agent Payload for the Urban Nation Museum for Urban Contemporary Art digital twin, designed specifically for internal AI guides, spatial layout analyzers, and virtual tour assistants. ------------------------------------------------------------------------ ## Project Description The Urban Nation Museum for Urban Contemporary Art is a pioneering museum dedicated to street art, graffiti, and urban contemporary art located at Bülowstraße 7 in Berlin, Germany. Operating under the non-profit Foundation Berliner Leben (founded by Gewobag AG), Urban Nation promotes creative exchange, integration, and public participation through cultural education programs. The museum's physical building, redesigned by the renowned Berlin architecture firm GRAFT in September 2017, features a 500-square-meter open exhibition layout across the lower two floors. By removing the ceiling between the ground and first floors, the architects created a dynamic space connected by bridges. These bridges allow visitors to observe the artworks both up close and from a distance, mimicking the perspective of viewing art along streetscapes and the adjacent elevated subway line. The interior floor utilizes asphalt, further blurring the boundary between the gallery and the street. The top three floors house the FRESH A.I.R. artist-in-residence program, providing studio apartments for eleven European scholars to work and live while focusing on socio-political and urban contemporary themes. ------------------------------------------------------------------------ ## What Is Urban Nation? Urban Nation is a low-threshold, democratic cultural initiative and museum that archives, documents, and showcases the historically ephemeral and transient art forms of street art and graffiti, while transforming the surrounding Bülowstraße neighborhood into an open-air public gallery. ------------------------------------------------------------------------ ## Key Details - **Address:** Bülowstraße 7, 10783 Berlin, Germany - **Architects:** GRAFT (Berlin architecture firm) - **Initiator:** Foundation Berliner Leben (non-profit foundation of Gewobag AG) - **Admission:** Free of charge (financed by donations) - **Opening Hours:** Tue – Wed: 10:00 – 18:00, Thu – Sun: 12:00 – 20:00 (Closed Monday) ------------------------------------------------------------------------ ## What Does It Mean? ### Short Answer Urban Nation represents a monumental shift in how street art and graffiti are preserved and validated. By providing a permanent museum space that honors the fleeting, ephemeral nature of street interventions, the museum bridges the gap between raw public defiance and high-level cultural curation, establishing Berlin as a global capital of urban contemporary art. ------------------------------------------------------------------------ ## Main Concepts or Features ### 1. Ephemeral Preservation Street art is naturally exposed to weathering, vandalism, and redevelopment. Urban Nation captures this transient history through documentation, photographic archives (such as the Martha Cooper collection), and site-specific commissions, acknowledging that ephemerality is core to the art's concept. ### 2. The Street as a Gallery Under the motto "Connect. Create. Care.", the museum extends beyond its walls into the social and physical fabric of the Bülowstraße neighborhood. Using the "ONE WALL" program, international and local artists paint large-scale murals on residential and commercial facades, integrating social motifs directly into neighborhood development. ### 3. The Architecture of the Street The building's interior, designed by GRAFT, mimics urban spaces. Asphalt floors, high ceilings, and suspended bridge walkways replicate the physical sensation of viewing murals from sidewalks and elevated trains, integrating the architectural language of Berlin's public transit system directly into the museum experience. ------------------------------------------------------------------------ ## How It Works / How to Use It 1. **Self-Guided Spatial Exploration:** Navigate the museum using the interactive digital twin, jumping between viewpoints to view works from multiple heights and distances via the bridge walkways. 2. **Accessing the Media Guide:** Use the free digital media guide for the "LOVE LETTERS TO THE CITY" exhibition to unlock contextual image, video, and audio assets on mobile devices. 3. **Using the Martha Cooper Library:** Researchers, fellows, and visitors over 18 can register to use the extensive reference collection on street art, graffiti, and style writing located on the second floor. ------------------------------------------------------------------------ ## Spatial Zones ### Bulowstr. 7 - **Floor Level:** Street Level / Exterior - **Viewpoints:** * **Street View:** Position: X=-16.99, Y=1.3, Z=0.8 | Rotation: Pitch=-2.75, Yaw=-1.01, Roll=3.14 * **Cat:** Position: X=-4.71, Y=1.3, Z=30.13 | Rotation: Pitch=0.2, Yaw=-0.84, Roll=0 * **Main Entrance:** Position: X=-4.98, Y=1.3, Z=0.95 | Rotation: Pitch=-3.03, Yaw=-0.75, Roll=3.14 * **House:** Position: X=17.01, Y=1.3, Z=-3.62 | Rotation: Pitch=-2.91, Yaw=0.5, Roll=3.14 ### Ground Floor - **Floor Level:** Ground Floor / Interior - **Viewpoints:** * **City As Muse:** Position: X=-5.36, Y=0.5, Z=-6.54 | Rotation: Pitch=3.07, Yaw=-0.55, Roll=3.14 * **Kilroy Was Here:** Position: X=1.87, Y=0.56, Z=-3.58 | Rotation: Pitch=-0.08, Yaw=-0.75, Roll=0 * **WORD ON THE STREET:** Position: X=2.1, Y=0.51, Z=0.77 | Rotation: Pitch=3.02, Yaw=-0.97, Roll=3.14 * **LET'S TALK ABOUT GENTRIFICATION:** Position: X=0.27, Y=0.52, Z=5.37 | Rotation: Pitch=3.1, Yaw=-1.47, Roll=-3.14 * **SUBVERTED SPACES:** Position: X=-0.24, Y=0.57, Z=5.24 | Rotation: Pitch=3.05, Yaw=0.7, Roll=3.14 ### 1st Floor - **Floor Level:** First Floor / Interior - **Viewpoints:** * **SPACE HACKING:** Position: X=2.46, Y=3.93, Z=16.62 | Rotation: Pitch=3.11, Yaw=1.55, Roll=3.14 * **NOT ANOTHER PRETTY PICTURE:** Position: X=1.05, Y=4.2, Z=8.14 | Rotation: Pitch=-0.01, Yaw=-1.45, Roll=0 * **Martha Cooper Library:** Position: X=4.87, Y=4.13, Z=16.06 | Rotation: Pitch=-0.17, Yaw=-1.29, Roll=0 * **DE-CONSTRUCT TO CONSTRUCT:** Position: X=3.75, Y=4.31, Z=-4.65 | Rotation: Pitch=-3.14, Yaw=-0.17, Roll=3.14 ### Bathroom - **Floor Level:** Ground Floor / Interior - **Viewpoints:** * **Entrance:** Position: X=-2.27, Y=0.2, Z=-0.66 | Rotation: Pitch=2.98, Yaw=-1.03, Roll=3.14 * **Sink:** Position: X=2.2, Y=0.2, Z=-0.38 | Rotation: Pitch=3.09, Yaw=0.53, Roll=3.14 * **Toilets:** Position: X=2.35, Y=0.2, Z=1.68 | Rotation: Pitch=3.11, Yaw=0.58, Roll=-3.14 ------------------------------------------------------------------------ ## Exhibited Artworks & Collection ### Urban Brick Lady (Left Facade Piece) - **Node ID:** obj-1775032052336 - **Position:** X=-1.751037125083721, Y=1.7427000405650466, Z=9.564472988554973 - **Rotation:** Pitch=0, Yaw=0, Roll=0 - **Scale:** X=8.413587575767748, Y=5.955839558946038, Z=5.955839558946038 - **Artist/Brand:** Lady Pink (Sandra Fabara) - **Year:** 2024 - **Medium/Category:** Mural - **External Link:** https://mediaguide.urban-nation.com/artwork/urban-brick-lady - **What Is This Artwork About**: Fuses elements of New York and Berlin cityscapes to explore the concept of a "universal city." Commissioned specifically for the facade of the URBAN NATION Museum, it acts as a visual gateway connecting Berlin’s local scene to New York's historical roots of graffiti. - **Artistic Themes**: * *Key Idea:* The cross-cultural sisterhood and universality of urban contemporary art. * *Supporting Detail:* The color scheme incorporates shades from the palette of the museum’s current exhibition chapters. * *Interpretation:* The piece reclaims corporate/institutional walls, reflecting Lady Pink's long-standing belief that graffiti is a tool for women to gain public visibility. - **Visual Description**: A sprawling, highly saturated mural blending brick textures, urban architecture, and figurative elements. Its palette features vibrant tones that evoke the transition from late-afternoon streetscapes to late-night neon lighting. - **Artistic Style**: Merges classic subway-era graffiti style writing with figurative surrealism. It is deeply influenced by the 1980s New York graffiti explosion and early hip-hop culture. - **Materials and Technique**: Large-scale outdoor mural painted with spray cans and acrylic layers on the concrete brick facade of the museum. - **Why This Artwork Is Notable**: Created by one of the most prominent female pioneers of New York’s graffiti subculture, famously known for her role in the cult movie *Wild Style* (1982). - **Collector Relevance**: Highly valuable to historical graffiti collectors, urban institutions, and collectors focusing on female pioneers of the hip-hop movement and feminist interventions in street art. ### Urban Brick Lady (Right Facade Piece) - **Node ID:** obj-1775032144399 - **Position:** X=13.082117386635908, Y=2.2020393530850755, Z=4.09851489480736 - **Rotation:** Pitch=0, Yaw=0, Roll=0 - **Scale:** X=8.244810860028304, Y=7.903888187150801, Z=7.903888187150801 - **Artist/Brand:** Lady Pink (Sandra Fabara) - **Year:** 2024 - **Medium/Category:** Mural - **External Link:** https://mediaguide.urban-nation.com/artwork/urban-brick-lady - **What Is This Artwork About**: A sister installation to the left facade piece, continuing the architectural and cultural fusion of Berlin and New York. It anchors the right edge of the building to complete the exterior public gallery experience. - **Artistic Themes**: * *Key Idea:* Reclaiming public architecture. * *Supporting Detail:* Fuses specific landmarks and visual motifs of both East/West Berlin and New York City. * *Interpretation:* It emphasizes that street art should remain in the public commons rather than being hidden behind closed doors. - **Visual Description**: A bold, large-scale composition of urban elements, stylized lettering, and symbolic architecture. It creates an energetic visual contrast against the surrounding streetscape of Bülowstraße. - **Artistic Style**: Classic New York style writing blended with expressive, illustrative street-art figures. - **Materials and Technique**: Layered spray paint and exterior acrylic on architectural brickwork. - **Why This Artwork Is Notable**: Acts as the physical public face of the URBAN NATION Museum, asserting its status as an artwork itself. - **Collector Relevance**: Instantly recognizable public piece; appeals to museums and municipal collections focusing on public monumentality and historical street-art movements. ### Made of Desires and Fears - **Node ID:** obj-1774003791475 - **Position:** X=6.046737984487207, Y=0.27032280171833045, Z=2.260913002952223 - **Rotation:** Pitch=0, Yaw=0, Roll=0 - **Scale:** X=5.749998618319759, Y=3.4461644608394675, Z=3.4461644608394675 - **Artist/Brand:** Drew.Lab_One - **Medium/Category:** Calligraffiti / Mixed Media - **External Link:** https://mediaguide.urban-nation.com/artwork/made-of-desires-and-fears - **What Is This Artwork About**: This complex textual collage translates quotes from the Italian author Italo Calvino into a visual language. It references Berlin's architectural and cultural layers to explore how cities are formed by human psychological projections. - **Artistic Themes**: * *Key Idea:* The city as a psychological and linguistic labyrinth. * *Supporting Detail:* Integrates diverse typographic scripts spanning ancient and modern eras. * *Interpretation:* By layering contrasting historical languages, the artist mirrors the fragmented yet unified cultural mosaic of contemporary Berlin. - **Visual Description**: A dense, calligraphic texture weaving together sharp, gothic letterforms, ancient Sumerian scripts, Arabic sweeps, and Cyrillic angles. - **Artistic Style**: Calligraffiti. It blends the structural, disciplined beauty of traditional calligraphy with the rapid, free-flowing energy of street graffiti. - **Materials and Technique**: Acrylic paint and spray paint layered over a textured collage backing. - **Why This Artwork Is Notable**: Masterfully bridges historical linguistic disciplines with contemporary street-art aesthetics, creating a highly conceptual text-based mural. - **Collector Relevance**: Perfect for collectors of contemporary calligraffiti, text-based art, and post-graffiti conceptualism. ### Der Blobenstein - **Node ID:** obj-1774358211652 - **Position:** X=12.254659084712067, Y=0.42932221732780856, Z=-7.87251911270633 - **Rotation:** Pitch=0, Yaw=0, Roll=0 - **Scale:** X=1.614392580997423, Y=1.700911947173909, Z=1.614392580997423 - **Artist/Brand:** Kenny Scharf - **Year:** 2017 - **Medium/Category:** Painting - **Dimensions:** 120 cm x 190 cm - **External Link:** https://mediaguide.urban-nation.com/artwork/der-blobenstein - **What Is This Artwork About**: Features Scharf's signature colorful cartoon creatures floating in a chaotic cosmic environment. It channels the rebellious and passionate spirit of late-1970s and 1980s East Village art, celebrating pure creative energy. - **Artistic Themes**: * *Key Idea:* Playful pop-surrealism as a counter to everyday urban anxiety. * *Supporting Detail:* The composition is filled with organic, swirling "blobs" with exaggerated cartoon expressions. * *Interpretation:* Using elements of low-culture cartooning, Scharf subverts high-art spaces, making art approachable and fun. - **Visual Description**: A vibrant, high-contrast canvas filled with psychedelic colors, showcasing amorphous, laughing creatures in shades of pink, yellow, blue, and orange on a dark background. - **Artistic Style**: Pop-Surrealism. Heavily influenced by mid-century television animation, science fiction, and classic graffiti writing. - **Materials and Technique**: Acrylic on canvas, executed with smooth brushwork and bold outlines. - **Why This Artwork Is Notable**: Kenny Scharf is a legendary pioneer of the 1980s East Village art scene who shared a studio with Keith Haring. This piece is on loan from the prestigious Gewobag collection. - **Collector Relevance**: Museum-quality asset of blue-chip value. Essential for collectors of 1980s East Village art, graffiti history, and pop-surrealism. ### Untitled (Crash Matos) - **Node ID:** obj-1774358280914 - **Position:** X=12.471525027955982, Y=0.8808328921468858, Z=-4.268887677757059 - **Rotation:** Pitch=0, Yaw=0, Roll=0 - **Scale:** X=1.3935589561300183, Y=0.9592442903511176, Z=0.9592442903511176 - **Artist/Brand:** John "Crash" Matos - **Year:** 2017 - **Medium/Category:** Painting - **Dimensions:** 122 cm x 76 cm - **External Link:** https://mediaguide.urban-nation.com/artwork/crash-untitled - **What Is This Artwork About**: Focuses on cropped, giant lettering fragments, bringing classic New York subway-style writing into a fine art gallery setting. The piece deconstructs the scale of street graffiti, inviting viewers to explore individual letterforms as abstract compositions. - **Artistic Themes**: * *Key Idea:* Deconstruction and legitimization of the graffiti letterform. * *Supporting Detail:* Utilizes zoomed-in, cropped shapes filled with bright gradients and bubble patterns. * *Interpretation:* Blurs the lines between public style writing, pop art, and abstract expressionism. - **Visual Description**: High-energy composition dominated by bold reds, yellows, and blues, featuring sharp outlines, circular dots, and lightning-bolt vectors. - **Artistic Style**: Classic graffiti writing transitioned to fine art, reflecting the aesthetic of early Bronx transit system art. - **Materials and Technique**: Spray paint on canvas, displaying clean, clean-cut spray control and dynamic color gradients. - **Why This Artwork Is Notable**: Crash Matos was an early pioneer of the New York transit movement, curating the landmark 1980 *Graffiti Art Success for America* exhibition at Fashion Moda. On loan courtesy of the Gewobag collection. - **Collector Relevance**: A prime acquisition target for collectors interested in the origins of New York subway art and the evolution of post-graffiti abstraction. ### Interpretation Of The Book Cover Of Subway Art - **Node ID:** obj-1774358361215 - **Position:** X=12.363735462280033, Y=0.43431378149569344, Z=-6.781834443463304 - **Rotation:** Pitch=0, Yaw=0, Roll=0 - **Scale:** X=1.0420342977230341, Y=1.2044248132802655, Z=1.0420342977230341 - **Artist/Brand:** Owen Dippie - **Year:** 2010 - **Medium/Category:** Painting - **Dimensions:** 79 cm x 104 cm - **External Link:** https://mediaguide.urban-nation.com/artwork/interpretation-of-the-book-cover-of-subway-art - **What Is This Artwork About**: A meticulous painted recreation of the first edition cover of the legendary book *Subway Art* by Martha Cooper and Henry Chalfant. It serves as an direct homage to the publication that spread graffiti culture globally. - **Artistic Themes**: * *Key Idea:* Tribute to the historical documentation of graffiti. * *Supporting Detail:* Accurately paints the typographic layouts and photographic covers of the original book. * *Interpretation:* Celebrates the print media that inspired generations of artists outside of New York to pick up a spray can. - **Visual Description**: A photo-realist rendering of the famous book cover, featuring a painted subway car adorned with colorful wildstyle writing. - **Artistic Style**: Photo-realist painting mixed with historical graffiti archiving. - **Materials and Technique**: Acrylic on canvas, showing exceptional control over light, shadows, and fine text. - **Why This Artwork Is Notable**: Blends Dippie’s New Zealand perspective with New York history. On loan from the Gewobag collection, celebrating the "bible of graffiti." - **Collector Relevance**: Appeals to graffiti historians, bibliophiles of street-art publications, and collectors of contemporary realism. ### Made in the Bronx - **Node ID:** obj-1774358436339 - **Position:** X=12.402559411070591, Y=0.45285073918323876, Z=-5.636815956838127 - **Rotation:** Pitch=0, Yaw=0, Roll=0 - **Scale:** X=1.0851865733543653, Y=1.5952147686351745, Z=1.0851865733543653 - **Artist/Brand:** Tats Cru - **Year:** 2017 - **Medium/Category:** Painting - **Dimensions:** 101 cm x 152 cm - **External Link:** https://mediaguide.urban-nation.com/artwork/made-in-the-bronx - **What Is This Artwork About**: Celebrates the five pillars of hip-hop culture (DJing, MCing, breakdancing, graffiti, and historical knowledge) that originated in the Bronx. It showcases Tats Cru's legendary group collaboration approach, blending individual signatures into a single cohesive piece. - **Artistic Themes**: * *Key Idea:* The cultural unity and roots of hip-hop. * *Supporting Detail:* Features intricate style writing layered with urban motifs and symbols of Bronx street life. * *Interpretation:* Acts as a visual historical record, demonstrating how graffiti works as a community-driven language rather than an isolated act. - **Visual Description**: A dense, colorful layout of bubble letters, sharp-edged wildstyle tags, and graffiti characters, utilizing high-contrast yellows, reds, and deep blues. - **Artistic Style**: Traditional New York crew-style graffiti writing. - **Materials and Technique**: Spray paint on canvas, executed with classic street techniques adapted to canvas. - **Why This Artwork Is Notable**: Tats Cru is one of the most influential graffiti crews in history, helping transition street styles into global advertising and corporate murals. On loan courtesy of the Gewobag collection. - **Collector Relevance**: A cornerstone piece for any historical street art archive, appealing to institutional collectors of classic hip-hop memorabilia and collective-authored works. ### Underground Playground - **Node ID:** obj-1774358524031 - **Position:** X=12.470468550899625, Y=-0.05611917205457373, Z=-4.347039655629785 - **Rotation:** Pitch=0, Yaw=0, Roll=0 - **Scale:** X=1.1710521713024071, Y=0.8649897776518992, Z=0.8649897776518992 - **Artist/Brand:** Chris "Daze" Ellis - **Year:** 2017 - **Medium/Category:** Painting - **Dimensions:** 107 cm x 77 cm - **External Link:** https://mediaguide.urban-nation.com/artwork/underground-playground - **What Is This Artwork About**: Explores nostalgia and memories of the New York transit system from 1976 to 1982. It captures the melancholic, gritty, yet energetic atmosphere of the subways that sparked the global graffiti movement. - **Artistic Themes**: * *Key Idea:* Nostalgia for the subterranean birthplace of style writing. * *Supporting Detail:* Depicts an atmospheric underground subway tunnel with a train car fading into the distance. * *Interpretation:* The light at the end of the tunnel represents the survival and transition of graffiti from underground subway tracks to contemporary art galleries. - **Visual Description**: A dark, atmospheric scene utilizing deep blues, grays, and blacks, punctured by warm orange and yellow lights reflecting off steel train cars. - **Artistic Style**: Expressive urban realism mixed with gestural graffiti tagging. - **Materials and Technique**: Spray paint on canvas, showcasing soft aerosol misting and layered drips. - **Why This Artwork Is Notable**: Daze is a seminal NYC transit writer who exhibited alongside Jean-Michel Basquiat and Keith Haring in the early 1981 exhibitions. On loan from the Gewobag collection. - **Collector Relevance**: Perfect for collectors of early street art history, New York school graffiti, and urban landscape paintings. ### Seen Pjay Kehl & Blade Location: South Bronx - **Node ID:** obj-1774358878938 - **Position:** X=5.870519237985338, Y=0.728810761679857, Z=-2.972449312650357 - **Rotation:** Pitch=0, Yaw=0, Roll=0 - **Scale:** X=3.164303342051032, Y=2.8078350853063725, Z=2.8078350853063725 - **Artist/Brand:** Martha Cooper - **Year:** 1981 - **Medium/Category:** Photography - **Dimensions:** 207 cm x 100 cm - **External Link:** https://mediaguide.urban-nation.com/artwork/seen-pjay-kehl - **What Is This Artwork About**: Documents a historical "double whole car" painted on a New York subway train by graffiti pioneers. It serves as a visual record of a transient masterpiece that has since been scrubbed from existence. - **Artistic Themes**: * *Key Idea:* Photographic preservation of ephemeral public art. * *Supporting Detail:* Captures the raw subway environment, detailing the rust, metal lines, and context of the South Bronx tracks. * *Interpretation:* Elevates illegal subway graffiti into historical contemporary art, documenting the resilience of young street creators. - **Visual Description**: A large-scale photograph capturing a subway train covered in bright graffiti lettering, set against the industrial backdrop of the South Bronx. - **Artistic Style**: Documentary photojournalism. - **Materials and Technique**: High-resolution print on archival paper, displaying rich color contrast. - **Why This Artwork Is Notable**: Photographed by Martha Cooper, the legendary photojournalist whose images popularized New York graffiti worldwide. On loan from the Gewobag collection. - **Collector Relevance**: Indispensable historical document for museums, public archives, and collectors of twentieth-century photography. ### I will build you up while they put you down (Ground Floor) - **Node ID:** obj-1774359028304 - **Position:** X=-2.782615998766815, Y=3.828147762770949, Z=-1.3101148258413304 - **Rotation:** Pitch=0, Yaw=0, Roll=0 - **Scale:** X=4.226328354708464, Y=3.316438612912453, Z=3.316438612912453 - **Artist/Brand:** Millo - **Year:** 2017 - **Medium/Category:** Mixed Media Painting - **Dimensions:** 232 cm x 289 cm - **External Link:** https://mediaguide.urban-nation.com/artwork/i-will-build-you-up-while-they-put-you-down - **What Is This Artwork About**: Explores deep emotional themes of love, protection, and connection amid a cold, labyrinthine urban landscape. It features Millo's signature stylized black-and-white cityscapes populated by giant, gentle figures. - **Artistic Themes**: * *Key Idea:* Human connection as a buffer against urban isolation. * *Supporting Detail:* The giant figures interact tenderly, oblivious to the dense grid-like buildings surrounding them. * *Interpretation:* Suggests that personal relationships and community are crucial for maintaining mental health in modern cities. - **Visual Description**: Illustrative, comic-style composition utilizing clean black and white lines with minimal color accents, showing towering figures cradled in a dense city block. - **Artistic Style**: Illustrative pop-realism. - **Materials and Technique**: Acrylic on MDF wooden panels, painted on site before the museum's opening. - **Why This Artwork Is Notable**: Created directly inside the museum spaces as a site-specific installation. On loan courtesy of the Gewobag collection. - **Collector Relevance**: Highly desirable for institutions and private collectors focusing on monumental Italian street art and therapeutic illustrative works. ### Three Tier - **Node ID:** obj-1774359143201 - **Position:** X=-0.3271121975604898, Y=3.599670937652867, Z=-3.552506407784537 - **Rotation:** Pitch=0, Yaw=0, Roll=0 - **Scale:** X=1.6325644511609076, Y=3.001308069148145, Z=1.6325644511609076 - **Artist/Brand:** Aniruddh Mehta - **Medium/Category:** Textile / Triptych Print - **Dimensions:** 100 cm x 100 cm Triptych - **External Link:** https://mediaguide.urban-nation.com/artwork/three-tier - **What Is This Artwork About**: Visualizes the density of Indian megacities by layering geometric patterns and street-corner photography. It forms part of Mehta's *Cracks and Pockets* series, exploring the spatial textures of modern India. - **Artistic Themes**: * *Key Idea:* The intricate spatial geometries of rapid urbanization. * *Supporting Detail:* Layered patterns of architectural textures, street corners, and human silhouettes. * *Interpretation:* Presents the chaotic urban fabric of modern Indian cities as a unified geometric construct. - **Visual Description**: A clean-cut, three-part textile work filled with monochrome geometric shapes overlaid with subtle photographic layers. - **Artistic Style**: Abstract graphic design mixed with urban architectural photography. - **Materials and Technique**: Digital printing on textile panels. On loan courtesy of the St+Art India Foundation. - **Why This Artwork Is Notable**: Originally presented at the landmark Sassoon Dock Art Project in Mumbai in 2017, highlighting cross-cultural exchanges between German and Indian urban art institutions. - **Collector Relevance**: Perfect for collectors of South Asian contemporary art, digital textiles, and graphic abstraction. ### Billy #2 - **Node ID:** obj-1774359295154 - **Position:** X=-0.7416738424266098, Y=3.8279318334308594, Z=-2.0142626998532487 - **Rotation:** Pitch=0, Yaw=0, Roll=0 - **Scale:** X=1.2490187127587336, Y=2.0067605886139392, Z=1.2490187127587336 - **Artist/Brand:** Joel Daniel Phillips - **Year:** 2016 - **Medium/Category:** Drawing - **Dimensions:** 106 cm x 238 cm - **External Link:** https://mediaguide.urban-nation.com/artwork/billy-2 - **What Is This Artwork About**: A life-sized charcoal portrait from the series *No Regrets in Life*. It acts as a visual monument to the overlooked and unhoused people living on the streets of American cities, bringing them into the focus of contemporary art institutions. - **Artistic Themes**: * *Key Idea:* Restoring dignity to marginalized street populations through monumental portraiture. * *Supporting Detail:* Captures every line of age, clothing texture, and physical detail in high-contrast graphite. * *Interpretation:* Reverses the modern trend of fast, image-driven gratification by dedicating hours of intensive physical labor to draw a single person. - **Visual Description**: A towering, hyper-realistic black-and-white portrait of a man standing against a stark, white, negative space. - **Artistic Style**: Hyper-realist figurative drawing. - **Materials and Technique**: Charcoal and graphite on paper, requiring meticulous, labor-intensive hand-shading. - **Why This Artwork Is Notable**: On loan from the Gewobag collection, this drawing challenges the transient glance passersby give to unhoused individuals. - **Collector Relevance**: A masterpiece of contemporary drafting, appealing to collectors of hyper-realism, social commentary, and master-level charcoal drawings. ### URBAN NATION Mini Dudes - **Node ID:** obj-1774359368575 - **Position:** X=-3.675564912776992, Y=0.5799895541183256, Z=-8.190851723734543 - **Rotation:** Pitch=0, Yaw=0, Roll=0 - **Scale:** X=4.347935576431742, Y=3.054911140075961, Z=3.054911140075961 - **Artist/Brand:** Jaune - **Year:** 2018 - **Medium/Category:** Painting / Stencil Art - **Dimensions:** 300 cm x 300 cm - **External Link:** https://mediaguide.urban-nation.com/artwork/urban-nation-mini-dudes - **What Is This Artwork About**: Pays playful tribute to sanitation workers and city garbage collectors, playing with their societal "invisibility." Painted by a self-taught artist and former garbageman, it injects humor into public spaces. - **Artistic Themes**: * *Key Idea:* Bringing visibility to essential, yet ignored, urban labor. * *Supporting Detail:* The canvas features miniature figures in high-visibility yellow and orange workwear playing and causing chaos. * *Interpretation:* Subverts the seriousness of urban spaces by turning sanitation workers into playful tricksters. - **Visual Description**: A textured wooden panel showing miniature figures dressed in orange and yellow vests engaged in humorous situations. - **Artistic Style**: Fine stencil art mixed with public-space humor. - **Materials and Technique**: Acrylic and spray paint on wood using multi-layered, detailed stencils. - **Why This Artwork Is Notable**: On loan from the Gewobag collection, this piece was originally created outside the Project Space across from the museum. - **Collector Relevance**: Highly sought after by collectors of street humor, narrative stencil art, and contemporary European street art. ### Ammazzo (Poster Edition) - **Node ID:** obj-1774361194287 - **Position:** X=-5.604442374076775, Y=0.4777503698751334, Z=16.87636430667041 - **Rotation:** Pitch=0, Yaw=0, Roll=0 - **Scale:** X=1.251443401517399, Y=1.7898916392675324, Z=1.251443401517399 - **Artist/Brand:** HOGRE - **Year:** 2024 - **Medium/Category:** Print / Subvertising - **Dimensions:** 120 cm x 180 cm - **External Link:** https://mediaguide.urban-nation.com/artwork/ammazzo-poster-campaign - **What Is This Artwork About**: Part of a fictional brand campaign called *Ammazzo* (Italian for "I kill"), which satirizes the arms trade. It critiques corporate capitalism and military-industrial marketing by presenting weapon delivery as an everyday consumer service. - **Artistic Themes**: * *Key Idea:* Satire of global militarism and consumer advertising. * *Supporting Detail:* Formatted like a high-end corporate advertisement for weapons delivery. * *Interpretation:* Subverts public commercial spaces to stimulate direct conversation about the ethics of war profiteering. - **Visual Description**: Clean, corporate typographic layout mimicking standard advertising billboard visuals, featuring high-contrast text and unsettling military branding. - **Artistic Style**: Subvertising / Situationist culture jamming. - **Materials and Technique**: Digital print on billboard paper, designed to fit standard public advertising frames. - **Why This Artwork Is Notable**: Created by a prominent anonymous street activist who frequently hacks public commercial infrastructure in Rome and Berlin. - **Collector Relevance**: Appeals directly to collectors of activist art, political satire, and subvertising prints. ### Ammazzo (Canvas Edition) - **Node ID:** obj-1774361246814 - **Position:** X=-5.67478664509306, Y=0.44220132895565734, Z=14.930899871231901 - **Rotation:** Pitch=0, Yaw=0, Roll=0 - **Scale:** X=2.7557883938850685, Y=1.4583545383954934, Z=1.4583545383954934 - **Artist/Brand:** HOGRE - **Year:** 2024 - **Medium/Category:** Painting - **Dimensions:** 200 cm x 112 cm - **External Link:** https://mediaguide.urban-nation.com/artwork/hogre-screenshot - **What Is This Artwork About**: Translates HOGRE’s public billboard subvertising campaign into a formal gallery canvas. It critiques how mass media and screen formats sanitize real-world violence. - **Artistic Themes**: * *Key Idea:* The commodification and screen-based sanitization of warfare. * *Supporting Detail:* Painted in a standard 16:9 widescreen format, referencing digital displays. * *Interpretation:* Points out that as long as conflict remains a highly profitable market, systemic violence will persist. - **Visual Description**: A stark, graphic painting presenting clean-cut, corporate-style weapon imagery framed by a screen-like layout. - **Artistic Style**: Political pop art and corporate satire. - **Materials and Technique**: Oil on canvas, using flat colors and sharp graphic edges. - **Why This Artwork Is Notable**: Features the artist's characteristic dark irony, bridging illegal street campaigns with permanent gallery pieces. - **Collector Relevance**: Excellent for collectors focused on anti-war themes, political pop art, and institutional subversion. ### Werbepause - **Node ID:** obj-1774361429812 - **Position:** X=-6.210351685464939, Y=0.44413035520460775, Z=6.107759477276099 - **Rotation:** Pitch=0, Yaw=0, Roll=0 - **Scale:** X=4.941691388700745, Y=3.172175475675124, Z=3.172175475675124 - **Artist/Brand:** HOGRE x Rocco and His Brothers - **Year:** 2022 - **Medium/Category:** Collage - **Dimensions:** 382 cm x 311 cm - **External Link:** https://mediaguide.urban-nation.com/artwork/werbepause - **What Is This Artwork About**: Composed of physical billboard advertisements collected from around Berlin, arranged to mimic an analog television test pattern. It critiques consumer saturation and mass-media control over public spaces. - **Artistic Themes**: * *Key Idea:* Reclaiming public space from corporate advertising. * *Supporting Detail:* Layers torn pieces of consumer ads within a recognizable TV test pattern. * *Interpretation:* By using a "dead channel" test pattern, it creates a visual disruption, urging viewers to "pause" and look beyond consumer culture. - **Visual Description**: A massive, textured collage of colorful, torn commercial paper strips, forming the rigid geometry of a classic broadcast test pattern. - **Artistic Style**: Situationist detournement and raw paper collage. - **Materials and Technique**: Torn billboard posters layered on canvas. - **Why This Artwork Is Notable**: A powerful collaboration between HOGRE and the Berlin-based underground art collective Rocco and His Brothers. - **Collector Relevance**: A key piece for collectors of contemporary German street activism and large-scale collages. ### Collisions - **Node ID:** obj-1774362491352 - **Position:** X=-5.982787588642504, Y=0.9073528825544133, Z=10.3192466045274 - **Rotation:** Pitch=0, Yaw=0, Roll=0 - **Scale:** X=3.778444223947774, Y=1.8678505967439465, Z=1.8678505967439465 - **Artist/Brand:** Jordan Seiler - **Year:** 2016–2020 - **Medium/Category:** AR-Photography - **Dimensions:** 70 cm x 46.67 cm / 100 cm x 66.67 cm - **External Link:** https://mediaguide.urban-nation.com/artwork/collisions - **What Is This Artwork About**: Combines physical prints of hijacked advertising spaces with an interactive Augmented Reality (AR) component. It challenges the corporate privatization of public visual spaces by substituting ads with fine art. - **Artistic Themes**: * *Key Idea:* Democratic participation in public space. * *Supporting Detail:* Scan a QR code next to the photo to view video clips of the original public subvertising installations. * *Interpretation:* Exposes the power imbalance in urban environments where only wealthy corporations control visual media. - **Visual Description**: Series of clean photographs showing city bus shelters and street billboards whose ads have been replaced with abstract, geometric patterns. - **Artistic Style**: Conceptual street photography and digital activist art. - **Materials and Technique**: Fine art photographic prints integrated with custom AR software. - **Why This Artwork Is Notable**: Seiler is a leading figure in the global subvertising movement, bridging the gap between digital technology and physical activism. - **Collector Relevance**: Highly appealing to collectors of digital/AR art, conceptual photography, and institutional critique. ### PublicAccess (Key Box Set) - **Node ID:** obj-1774362562664 - **Position:** X=-5.2542736895824556, Y=-0.5055956594320898, Z=10.309168677779223 - **Rotation:** Pitch=0, Yaw=0, Roll=0 - **Scale:** X=1.8236265790238149, Y=1.0336426734206097, Z=1.0336426734206097 - **Artist/Brand:** Jordan Seiler - **Year:** 2020 - **Medium/Category:** Sculpture / Relic - **External Link:** https://mediaguide.urban-nation.com/artwork/public-access - **What Is This Artwork About**: A set of functional sculptures designed to open commercial billboard cases in cities worldwide. It democratizes access to public spaces by providing the physical tools needed to replace commercial ads with art. - **Artistic Themes**: * *Key Idea:* Direct action and democratic reclamation of urban infrastructure. * *Supporting Detail:* Includes custom keys, tool instructions, and photos of public interventions. * *Interpretation:* Transforms a tool of illegal entry into an institutional art object, highlighting issues of property and public rights. - **Visual Description**: A custom wooden display box containing various shaped metal keys, layout maps, and instructional booklets. - **Artistic Style**: Conceptual, activist-driven industrial sculpture. - **Materials and Technique**: Custom metal key fabrication, wood carpentry, and printed paper materials housed in a glass vitrine. - **Why This Artwork Is Notable**: The tools empower individuals to take direct creative action, challenging the boundaries of legal street art. - **Collector Relevance**: Unique addition for collectors of radical political art, conceptual sculptures, and street-art relics. ### Greetings from Iraq - **Node ID:** obj-1774362649911 - **Position:** X=-2.804917146650169, Y=0.3513388227370317, Z=17.970275121693152 - **Rotation:** Pitch=0, Yaw=0, Roll=0 - **Scale:** X=0.8644658683647792, Y=1.4358338389898764, Z=0.8644658683647792 - **Artist/Brand:** Shepard Fairey (OBEY) - **Year:** 2019 - **Medium/Category:** Mixed Media Print - **Dimensions:** 76.2 cm x 104.14 cm - **External Link:** https://mediaguide.urban-nation.com/artwork/greetings-from-iraq - **What Is This Artwork About**: Highlights the human cost of military conflict, contrasting typical tourist postcards with scenes of Middle Eastern geopolitical reality. It critiques war propaganda, corporate greed, and imperial interventions. - **Artistic Themes**: * *Key Idea:* Questioning mass-media narratives of war and imperialism. * *Supporting Detail:* Combines ornate, decorative floral patterns with depictions of military hardware and soldiers. * *Interpretation:* Subverts pleasant visual design to draw attention to unsettling political truths. - **Visual Description**: High-contrast graphic design in red, cream, and black, featuring layered patterns of ornamental shapes, military figures, and political slogans. - **Artistic Style**: Propaganda poster art and social realism. - **Materials and Technique**: Silkscreen and mixed media collage on paper, hand-painted multiple (HPM). - **Why This Artwork Is Notable**: Created by Shepard Fairey, the world-renowned artist behind the iconic *HOPE* poster and the global *OBEY Giant* sticker campaign. On loan courtesy of the Gewobag collection. - **Collector Relevance**: High-value asset for collectors of globally recognized political prints, social-justice art, and blue-chip street artists. ### Paint It Black - **Node ID:** obj-1774362705668 - **Position:** X=-4.424642123765376, Y=0.35497298185933673, Z=18.08001804608642 - **Rotation:** Pitch=0, Yaw=0, Roll=0 - **Scale:** X=2.0281411406987204, Y=3.534342021960408, Z=2.0281411406987204 - **Artist/Brand:** Shepard Fairey (OBEY) - **Year:** 2019 - **Medium/Category:** Mixed Media Print - **Dimensions:** 76.2 cm x 104.14 cm - **External Link:** https://mediaguide.urban-nation.com/artwork/paint-it-black - **What Is This Artwork About**: Critiques global dependence on oil and fossil fuels, linking corporate greed with environmental destruction. It uses graphic imagery to connect energy extraction with state control. - **Artistic Themes**: * *Key Idea:* Environmental decay and corporate energy hegemony. * *Supporting Detail:* Features oil derrick silhouettes emerging from graphic geometric backgrounds. * *Interpretation:* Expresses frustration with systemic political inaction on climate change, urging viewer awareness. - **Visual Description**: Graphic print in red, black, and cream, featuring layered decorative borders and a centralized image of oil rigs. - **Artistic Style**: Political graphic art, utilizing Soviet constructivist and vintage propaganda aesthetics. - **Materials and Technique**: Silkscreen and hand-painted collage layers on paper (HPM). - **Why This Artwork Is Notable**: A key conceptual piece from Fairey's activist portfolio. On loan courtesy of the Gewobag collection. - **Collector Relevance**: Appeals to collectors of environmental art, political graphics, and graphic design history. ### Proud Parents - **Node ID:** obj-1774362768978 - **Position:** X=-1.1813867426150741, Y=0.3421436229348161, Z=17.876390738102977 - **Rotation:** Pitch=0, Yaw=0, Roll=0 - **Scale:** X=1.2026892148705421, Y=1.512806591369693, Z=1.2026892148705421 - **Artist/Brand:** Shepard Fairey (OBEY) - **Year:** 2019 - **Medium/Category:** Mixed Media Print - **Dimensions:** 76.2 cm x 104.14 cm - **External Link:** https://mediaguide.urban-nation.com/artwork/proud-parents - **What Is This Artwork About**: Critiques early childhood militarization and the cultural normalization of state violence. It highlights how consumer societies prime younger generations for military service. - **Artistic Themes**: * *Key Idea:* The domestic normalization of war and weapons culture. * *Supporting Detail:* Depicts parent figures presenting military equipment to a young child. * *Interpretation:* Urges viewers to examine how national security narratives shape family values and cultural structures. - **Visual Description**: Stylized graphic print in a signature red, cream, and black palette, featuring layered geometric patterns and propaganda-style portraits. - **Artistic Style**: Socially critical print design with historical poster aesthetics. - **Materials and Technique**: Silkscreen print with hand-applied mixed-media collage on paper (HPM). - **Why This Artwork Is Notable**: Highlights Fairey’s consistent anti-militarist philosophy. From the Gewobag collection. - **Collector Relevance**: Valuable for collectors of historical anti-war prints, political graphics, and classic street art. ### Post Vandalism - **Node ID:** obj-1774365174654 - **Position:** X=-1.3822122898320064, Y=-0.17356561542621485, Z=-7.467423841285647 - **Rotation:** Pitch=0, Yaw=0, Roll=0 - **Scale:** X=1.373202796737179, Y=1.3156090429289828, Z=1.3156090429289828 - **Artist/Brand:** Moses & Taps - **Year:** 2024 - **Medium/Category:** Sculpture / Mixed Media - **Dimensions:** 124 cm x 143 cm x 50 cm - **What Is This Artwork About**: Explores how illegal graffiti elements can be recontextualized within contemporary galleries. It utilizes the artists' signature cyan and yellow color scheme, representing their trademark "Taps-Moses" collaboration. - **Artistic Themes**: * *Key Idea:* Rebranding street graffiti as a highly protected gallery asset. * *Supporting Detail:* Incorporates painted steel sheets resembling actual train siding panels. * *Interpretation:* Challenges how institutions classify graffiti, contrasting public "vandalism" with valued gallery art. - **Visual Description**: A geometric, physical sculpture featuring layered surfaces in yellow and cyan blue. - **Artistic Style**: Conceptual post-graffiti and minimalism. - **Materials and Technique**: Spray paint on steel plates, mimicking industrial transportation panels. - **Why This Artwork Is Notable**: A direct donation from the legendary German graffiti duo Moses & Taps, known for their satirical, conceptual public interventions. - **Collector Relevance**: High-value asset for collectors of avant-garde European graffiti, post-vandalism concepts, and contemporary industrial sculptures. ### LOVE LETTERS TO THE CITY (Introduction Board) - **Node ID:** obj-1774365503261 - **Position:** X=-2.892591738794771, Y=1.3139230426758575, Z=-1.2395916607716382 - **Rotation:** Pitch=0, Yaw=0, Roll=0 - **Scale:** X=1.57533923246268, Y=2.052315131027634, Z=1.57533923246268 - **Medium/Category:** Curatorial Panel / Text - **External Link:** https://mediaguide.urban-nation.com/home - **What Is This Artwork About**: Serves as the curatorial introduction board for the *LOVE LETTERS TO THE CITY* exhibition, curated by Michelle Houston. It introduces visitors to the nine thematic chapters of the exhibition, setting up the spatial themes. - **Artistic Themes**: * *Key Idea:* The city as a shared, democratic playground for creative resistance. * *Supporting Detail:* Outlines the thematic links between street art, gentrification, space hacking, and community. * *Interpretation:* Acts as a spatial guide, urging visitors to look past pretty murals and explore the socio-political narratives in our streets. - **Visual Description**: Large graphic informational panel with clean typography, detailing the curatorial philosophy of the museum. - **Artistic Style**: Modern institutional graphic layout. - **Materials and Technique**: Direct print on composite material panels. - **Why This Artwork Is Notable**: Sets the conceptual and curatorial foundation for the entire 2024 exhibition. - **Collector Relevance**: Institutional/archival relevance; documents the museum's curatorial history. ### The Fallen - **Node ID:** obj-1774966834464 - **Position:** X=2.180846711080069, Y=0.5353559930870546, Z=-7.642002181304215 - **Rotation:** Pitch=0, Yaw=0, Roll=0 - **Scale:** X=4.130787198917338, Y=2.4356892517472617, Z=2.4356892517472617 - **Artist/Brand:** Rocco and His Brothers - **Year:** 2024 - **Medium/Category:** Sculpture / Installation - **Dimensions:** 1000 cm x 300 cm x 200 cm - **External Link:** https://mediaguide.urban-nation.com/artwork/the-fallen - **What Is This Artwork About**: This monumental series of four angels is constructed from vintage pieces of New York subway and Berlin S-Bahn cars from the 1980s and 1990s. It stands as a visual monument to the golden era of the graffiti movement in both cities. - **Artistic Themes**: * *Key Idea:* The spiritual, almost religious devotion of historical graffiti subcultures. * *Supporting Detail:* Utilizes actual painted metal panels cut from retired commuter trains. * *Interpretation:* Turns transit system panels—historically a primary target for graffiti writers—into celestial figures, exploring themes of memory, preservation, and decay. - **Visual Description**: A massive, soaring physical installation featuring wing-like metal structures made of painted, weathered train siding. - **Artistic Style**: Heavy industrial installation art and post-graffiti relic sculpture. - **Materials and Technique**: Welded steel frame supporting original painted steel panels from New York and Berlin transit trains. - **Why This Artwork Is Notable**: On loan courtesy of the Gewobag collection, this work bridges the architectural history of transit systems with high-end contemporary sculpture. - **Collector Relevance**: A museum-level focal piece. Appeals to collectors of large-scale industrial sculptures, public transit relics, and institutional-scale art. ### Kill Roy WASSÏERE - **Node ID:** obj-1774966964213 - **Position:** X=0.4057123734361274, Y=-0.6267001571018825, Z=-3.957718799605173 - **Rotation:** Pitch=0, Yaw=0, Roll=0 - **Scale:** X=0.5469382435199689, Y=0.5489607866548227, Z=0.5469382435199689 - **Artist/Brand:** Dan Witz - **Year:** 2024 - **Medium/Category:** Painting / Mixed Media - **Dimensions:** 50.2 cm x 50.2 cm - **External Link:** https://mediaguide.urban-nation.com/artwork/kill-roy-wassiere - **What Is This Artwork About**: Reinterprets the historical "Kilroy Was Here" graffiti motif, placing the peaking figure on a street sign. It serves as a visual critique of real-estate speculation and gentrification in Brooklyn and Berlin. - **Artistic Themes**: * *Key Idea:* Overdevelopment and visual resistance in changing neighborhoods. * *Supporting Detail:* Part of the *Ugly New Buildings* series, reacting to the rise of luxury apartments. * *Interpretation:* Uses a classic WWII soldier meme to symbolize how local residents watch and resist corporate takeovers of their neighborhoods. - **Visual Description**: A detailed painting depicting hands grasping the top edge of a weathered metal street sign against an urban backdrop. - **Artistic Style**: Photorealism inspired by Renaissance and Baroque masters, applied to contemporary street-art motifs. - **Materials and Technique**: Oil and mixed media on sintra board, painted with fine glazes. - **Why This Artwork Is Notable**: Specifically commissioned for the URBAN NATION Museum, fitting into the architectural space. From the Gewobag collection. - **Collector Relevance**: Highly desirable for collectors of photorealistic street art, contemporary oil paintings, and anti-gentrification themes. ### Mauerspechte - **Node ID:** obj-1774967122156 - **Position:** X=5.459596856593579, Y=-0.2929306911245561, Z=-3.4978650545736616 - **Rotation:** Pitch=0, Yaw=0, Roll=0 - **Scale:** X=4.686356129945372, Y=0.5289285438676402, Z=0.5289285438676402 - **Medium/Category:** Historical Artifacts / Installation - **External Link:** https://mediaguide.urban-nation.com/artwork/wall-trophy - **What Is This Artwork About**: Displays original fragments of the Berlin Wall collected by "wall woodpeckers" (*Mauerspechte*) after 1989. It documents the transition of these fragments from personal mementos to valuable historical artifacts. - **Artistic Themes**: * *Key Idea:* Overcoming borders and the commodification of historical relics. * *Supporting Detail:* Showcases small, painted concrete fragments with authenticity certificates. * *Interpretation:* Explores how symbols of division are converted into commercial souvenirs and art objects. - **Visual Description**: Display case containing irregular concrete chunks covered in layers of weathered spray paint, presented alongside historical documentation. - **Artistic Style**: Historical ready-made / Archival installation. - **Materials and Technique**: Chiseled concrete fragments of the Berlin Wall displayed in protective vitrines. - **Why This Artwork Is Notable**: Directly connects Berlin’s street-art history to the geopolitics of the Cold War and the fall of the Wall. - **Collector Relevance**: Highly valuable to historical collectors, museums, and institutions focusing on Cold War history, memory studies, and German reunification. ### Ghost Paintings - **Node ID:** obj-1774969544417 - **Position:** X=-2.7872200410923877, Y=0.7682011465119836, Z=2.866903293333454 - **Rotation:** Pitch=0, Yaw=0, Roll=0 - **Scale:** X=0.9426362453705683, Y=0.6020776712132798, Z=0.6020776712132798 - **Artist/Brand:** OX - **Year:** 2024 - **Medium/Category:** Painting / Mixed Media - **Dimensions:** 547 cm x 366 cm x 40 cm - **External Link:** https://mediaguide.urban-nation.com/artwork/ghost-paintings - **What Is This Artwork About**: This installation preserves the stenciled outlines left on plastic backings during public billboard painting campaigns. It captures the "ghostly" trace of a temporary street artwork. - **Artistic Themes**: * *Key Idea:* The preservation of ephemeral artistic actions. * *Supporting Detail:* The physical sheets are shown alongside a video documenting the street interventions. * *Interpretation:* Explores the transition of a street painting into a gallery relic, highlighting what is lost when art moves indoors. - **Visual Description**: Translucent plastic tarpaulins showing gestural paint splatters and geometric borders, displayed alongside a documentary screen. - **Artistic Style**: Abstract, minimalist conceptualism mixed with street-art archiving. - **Materials and Technique**: Acrylic on polyane tarpaulin sheets. - **Why This Artwork Is Notable**: Created by French artist OX, a pioneer who has worked on public billboard cases for nearly forty years. - **Collector Relevance**: Appeals to collectors of conceptual street art, minimalist abstraction, and video-documented performance art. ### LA: Oceanwide Plaza (Ground Floor Photo Series) - **Node ID:** obj-1774969676051 - **Position:** X=2.695663353579987, Y=0.8637005299899604, Z=3.9393817008620085 - **Rotation:** Pitch=0, Yaw=0, Roll=0 - **Scale:** X=1.2642513457502722, Y=0.9079873834137787, Z=0.9079873834137787 - **Artist/Brand:** Chop 'em Down Films (Zane Meyer) - **Year:** 2023 - 2024 - **Medium/Category:** Photography / Video Installation - **External Link:** https://mediaguide.urban-nation.com/artwork/la-oceanwide-plaza - **What Is This Artwork About**: Documents the massive late-2023 graffiti takeover of the unfinished Oceanwide Plaza skyscrapers in Los Angeles. It critiques real-estate speculation and housing inequality. - **Artistic Themes**: * *Key Idea:* Reclaiming abandoned corporate developments as public canvases. * *Supporting Detail:* Juxtaposes the luxury development with the high rate of homelessness in neighboring Skid Row. * *Interpretation:* Explores how illegal graffiti can bring international attention to systemic housing issues. - **Visual Description**: A large photographic print showing a half-built skyscraper covered in colorful graffiti tags on more than 25 floors. - **Artistic Style**: Documentary photojournalism and activist cinema. - **Materials and Technique**: Fine art digital photographic print. - **Why This Artwork Is Notable**: Captures one of the largest and most viral collective graffiti actions in recent American history. - **Collector Relevance**: High relevance for collectors of activist documentary art, West Coast graffiti history, and socio-political photography. ### Diorama - **Node ID:** obj-1775032386979 - **Position:** X=8.18752354454475, Y=-0.12396087349150123, Z=5.933808687964291 - **Rotation:** Pitch=0, Yaw=0, Roll=0 - **Scale:** X=2.004909702555013, Y=2.149520801148964, Z=2.004909702555013 - **Artist/Brand:** Vhils (Alexandre Farto) - **Year:** 2017 - **Medium/Category:** Sculpture - **External Link:** https://mediaguide.urban-nation.com/artwork/diorama - **What Is This Artwork About**: Exploring how urban identities are layered and constructed. It uses cast concrete, Vhils' signature material, to represent the rough textures of contemporary city life. - **Artistic Themes**: * *Key Idea:* The layering and excavation of urban memory. * *Supporting Detail:* Features molded industrial concrete with rough, textured surfaces. * *Interpretation:* Explores how the physical environment shapes our personal identities, finding beauty beneath urban decay. - **Visual Description**: A heavy, rectangular concrete sculpture with relief layers detailing abstract architectural shapes and human profiles. - **Artistic Style**: Industrial brutalism mixed with subtractive urban realism. - **Materials and Technique**: Molded concrete cast from a custom industrial matrix. - **Why This Artwork Is Notable**: A key courtyard sculpture by Vhils, a leading Portuguese street artist known for etching and blasting portraits directly into city walls. - **Collector Relevance**: Museum-quality brutalist sculpture; highly appealing to collectors of modern concrete art, Portuguese contemporary art, and public installations. ### Word on the street (Thematic Marker) - **Node ID:** obj-1775032516336 - **Position:** X=-0.27050880799449484, Y=0.7560131300037849, Z=2.1494739816337822 - **Rotation:** Pitch=0, Yaw=0, Roll=0 - **Scale:** X=0.41684865848503766, Y=0.4757051695914214, Z=0.41684865848503766 - **External Link:** https://mediaguide.urban-nation.com/word-on-the-street - **What Is This Artwork About**: An educational marker for the *WORD ON THE STREET* chapter. It explores how text and language are used by urban subcultures to comment on public life. - **Artistic Themes**: * *Key Idea:* Language and typography as tools for urban commentary. * *Supporting Detail:* Outlines how public lettering transforms cities into shared canvases. * *Interpretation:* Invites the public to join the conversation through text and calligraffiti. - **Visual Description**: Clean, modern informational graphic panel with high-contrast text. - **Artistic Style**: Modern institutional design. - **Materials and Technique**: Digital print on panel. - **Collector Relevance**: Educational artifact documenting curatorial themes. ### Kilroy was here (Thematic Marker) - **Node ID:** obj-1775032645478 - **Position:** X=11.331975088424803, Y=1.235804574707708, Z=-8.4706600121721 - **Rotation:** Pitch=0, Yaw=0, Roll=0 - **Scale:** X=0.3210114651599627, Y=0.42667409456411387, Z=0.3210114651599627 - **External Link:** https://mediaguide.urban-nation.com/kilroy-was-here - **What Is This Artwork About**: An educational marker introducing the historical origins of graffiti, starting with the WWII "Kilroy Was Here" meme and tracing its evolution to modern style writing. - **Artistic Themes**: * *Key Idea:* Marking walls as a fundamental human urge. * *Supporting Detail:* Traces style writing from 1970s New York to modern Berlin. * *Interpretation:* Explores how public marks serve as symbols of defiance and solidarity. - **Visual Description**: Informational panel with clear typography and historical diagrams. - **Artistic Style**: Modern museum signage. - **Materials and Technique**: Direct print on composite board. - **Collector Relevance**: Archival documentation of graffiti history. ### Let's talk about gentrification (Thematic Marker) - **Node ID:** obj-1775032724622 - **Position:** X=1.7185912436021251, Y=0.961400161216116, Z=6.915332573175622 - **Rotation:** Pitch=0, Yaw=0, Roll=0 - **Scale:** X=0.745710745044446, Y=0.6332445604716664, Z=0.6332445604716664 - **External Link:** https://mediaguide.urban-nation.com/lets-talk-about-gentrification - **What Is This Artwork About**: Introduces the complex relationship between urban contemporary art and gentrification, highlighting issues of housing inequality, displacement, and community resistance. - **Artistic Themes**: * *Key Idea:* Street art as both a tool for and reaction to neighborhood gentrification. * *Supporting Detail:* Highlights how physical street actions document neighborhood transformations. * *Interpretation:* Urges viewers to consider how creative practices shape neighborhood identity without pushing out local communities. - **Visual Description**: A graphic informational panel. - **Artistic Style**: Curatorial signage. - **Materials and Technique**: Printed graphic on composite backing. - **Collector Relevance**: Archival and educational documentation. ### Subverted Spaces (Thematic Marker) - **Node ID:** obj-1775032894263 - **Position:** X=-0.2620371207543755, Y=1.0376888771405666, Z=7.764132538662864 - **Rotation:** Pitch=0, Yaw=0, Roll=0 - **Scale:** X=1.0620701303366542, Y=0.6485172515622003, Z=0.6485172515622003 - **External Link:** https://mediaguide.urban-nation.com/subverted-spaces - **What Is This Artwork About**: An educational marker for the *SUBVERTED SPACES* chapter, introducing the history of subvertising and situationist detournement. - **Artistic Themes**: * *Key Idea:* Reclaiming public spaces from commercial interests. * *Supporting Detail:* Explores how artists visually hack billboards to challenge advertising’s influence on society. * *Interpretation:* Suggests that subverting ads is a democratic right that reminds us public spaces belong to everyone. - **Visual Description**: Informational panel with clean curatorial typography. - **Artistic Style**: Museum exhibition branding. - **Materials and Technique**: Direct print on aluminum panel. - **Collector Relevance**: Curatorial and educational archive. ### AK-47 (Q1) - **Node ID:** obj-1774008688697 - **Position:** X=-6.797721143808487, Y=4.710087147494746, Z=1.108821921386617 - **Rotation:** Pitch=0, Yaw=0, Roll=0 - **Scale:** X=0.6433230566032537, Y=0.8051900776654741, Z=0.6433230566032537 - **Artist/Brand:** Zhang Dali - **Year:** 2009 - **Medium/Category:** Painting - **Dimensions:** 82 cm x 102 cm x 2 cm - **External Link:** https://mediaguide.urban-nation.com/artwork/ak-47-q1 - **What Is This Artwork About**: Constructing human faces using repeating prints of the "AK-47" acronym, referencing the Soviet assault rifle. It critiques the rapid, often violent process of Chinese modernization and urban expansion. - **Artistic Themes**: * *Key Idea:* Modernization as a form of state-sponsored violence. * *Supporting Detail:* Portrays everyday Chinese citizens using photos found in abandoned flea markets. * *Interpretation:* Implies that systemic violence is not just external, but acts as a primary material in modern human existence. - **Visual Description**: A detailed graphic portrait formed entirely by small, repeating text patterns in black on a white background. - **Artistic Style**: Text-based portraiture / Chinese avant-garde realism. - **Materials and Technique**: Acrylic on vinyl backing, using repeating stamp patterns. - **Why This Artwork Is Notable**: Zhang Dali is a pioneer of Chinese graffiti, known for his late-1990s *Dialogue and Demolition* project spray-painted on walls slated for demolition. - **Collector Relevance**: Excellent for collectors of contemporary Chinese avant-garde art, political pop art, and text-based conceptual works. ### B Faza 8 - **Node ID:** obj-1774359494792 - **Position:** X=-1.341740402473294, Y=4.719304751665373, Z=-7.73069787507509 - **Rotation:** Pitch=0, Yaw=0, Roll=0 - **Scale:** X=3.814472354597703, Y=1.9688895451072566, Z=1.9688895451072566 - **Artist/Brand:** Sebas Velasco - **Year:** 2023 - **Medium/Category:** Painting - **Dimensions:** 120 cm x 150 cm - **External Link:** https://mediaguide.urban-nation.com/artwork/b-faza-8 - **What Is This Artwork About**: Melds snapshots of research trips to Sarajevo and Belgrade, presenting a visual tribute to the everyday landscapes of former Yugoslavia. It explores architectural memory and socialist optimism. - **Artistic Themes**: * *Key Idea:* The romantic nostalgia of transient post-socialist spaces. * *Supporting Detail:* Juxtaposes Sarajevo’s spaceship-like concrete rooftops with iconic Yugo cars. * *Interpretation:* Acts as a "tapestry of time," connecting past architectural hope with present melancholic realities. - **Visual Description**: Atmospheric night cityscape in dark blues and warm street-light oranges, showing housing blocks and classic vehicles. - **Artistic Style**: Expressive urban realism with dynamic, visible brushwork. - **Materials and Technique**: Oil on canvas. - **Why This Artwork Is Notable**: Masterfully captures the distinct mood and light of Eastern European cities. From the Gewobag collection. - **Collector Relevance**: Highly appealing to collectors of modern realism, post-socialist industrial architecture, and European nightscapes. ### Dequindre Cut - **Node ID:** obj-1774359541916 - **Position:** X=-2.667898091117782, Y=4.6938164313139525, Z=-8.347618431050478 - **Rotation:** Pitch=0, Yaw=0, Roll=0 - **Scale:** X=0.3785434656790324, Y=0.4552818403964998, Z=0.3785434656790324 - **Artist/Brand:** Stephanie Buer - **Year:** 2014 - **Medium/Category:** Painting - **Dimensions:** 36 cm x 36 cm - **External Link:** https://mediaguide.urban-nation.com/artwork/dequindre-cut - **What Is This Artwork About**: Captures a section of an abandoned railroad line in East Detroit, exploring natural reclamation and decay. It documents how nature and graffiti gradually reclaim abandoned industrial spaces. - **Artistic Themes**: * *Key Idea:* Contemplative beauty in processes of change and decay. * *Supporting Detail:* Depicts an overgrown industrial space covered in layers of weathered graffiti tags. * *Interpretation:* Explores abandoned urban landscapes as spaces of quiet contemplation rather than decay. - **Visual Description**: A small, hyper-detailed square painting showing weeds growing along railroad tracks next to a concrete wall covered in colorful street art. - **Artistic Style**: Realist landscape painting with a focus on industrial textures. - **Materials and Technique**: Oil on canvas, showing exceptional control over concrete textures, rust, and organic foliage. - **Why This Artwork Is Notable**: Highlights the unique visual character of Detroit's industrial history. From the Gewobag collection. - **Collector Relevance**: Highly desirable for collectors of Detroit school realism, industrial landscapes, and botanical-urban art. ### Mehrweg (Dresden Print #1, A.P.) - **Node ID:** obj-1774359627110 - **Position:** X=-7.430640026174035, Y=5.262220720524872, Z=-6.0434618474047275 - **Rotation:** Pitch=0, Yaw=0, Roll=0 - **Scale:** X=1.1148010023001487, Y=1.9370451161451514, Z=1.1148010023001487 - **Artist/Brand:** Evol - **Year:** 2010 - **Medium/Category:** Painting / Stencil Art - **Dimensions:** 97 cm x 82 cm - **External Link:** https://mediaguide.urban-nation.com/artwork/mehrweg-dresden-print - **What Is This Artwork About**: Transforms found cardboard packaging into miniature depictions of Berlin townhouses from around 1910. It critiques the rapid gentrification and demolition of historic residential areas. - **Artistic Themes**: * *Key Idea:* Visualizing the vulnerability of historic housing in changing cities. * *Supporting Detail:* Integrates the pre-existing shipping marks, tears, and dirt of cardboard into architectural facades. * *Interpretation:* Invites us to explore the history of everyday objects, drawing parallels between weathered cardboard and crumbling city plaster. - **Visual Description**: A detailed stencil work depicting complex rows of windows, balconies, and satellite dishes on a brown cardboard panel. - **Artistic Style**: Hyper-realist stencil architectural illusion. - **Materials and Technique**: Multi-layered stencils and spray paint executed on reclaimed industrial cardboard packaging. - **Why This Artwork Is Notable**: Evol is famous for turning street fixtures like utility boxes into miniature apartment buildings. From the Gewobag collection. - **Collector Relevance**: Highly desirable for collectors of German conceptual street art, stencil art, and architectural models. ### RAW-Gelände II - **Node ID:** obj-1774360038486 - **Position:** X=-7.454479243418855, Y=4.338493374791584, Z=-6.017671493585057 - **Rotation:** Pitch=0, Yaw=0, Roll=0 - **Scale:** X=0.9976295433069198, Y=0.8160400188231012, Z=0.8160400188231012 - **Artist/Brand:** Susanna Jerger - **Year:** 2024 - **Medium/Category:** Painting - **Dimensions:** 100 cm x 70 cm - **External Link:** https://mediaguide.urban-nation.com/artwork/jerger-raw-gelaende - **What Is This Artwork About**: Depicts the crumbling brick walls of Berlin's RAW premises, a former rail yard built in 1867. It critiques how development threatens independent cultural hubs. - **Artistic Themes**: * *Key Idea:* Preserving the visual memory of independent creative spaces. * *Supporting Detail:* Focuses on brick walls covered in layers of weathered graffiti tags. * *Interpretation:* Serves as a visual record of a community space before it is lost to gentrification. - **Visual Description**: A melancholic, detailed oil painting showing decaying brick architecture covered in street art, utilizing soft, natural light. - **Artistic Style**: Urban landscape realism with a focus on historical textures. - **Materials and Technique**: Oil on canvas. - **Why This Artwork Is Notable**: Specially created for the *LOVE LETTERS TO THE CITY* exhibition to highlight local Berlin preservation struggles. On loan from the Gewobag collection. - **Collector Relevance**: Essential for collectors of Berlin-centric art, socio-cultural history, and expressive architectural realism. ### Lexington Avenue Local - **Node ID:** obj-1774360105528 - **Position:** X=-7.2905011260657915, Y=4.9057811843033905, Z=-2.8763280817680954 - **Rotation:** Pitch=0, Yaw=0, Roll=0 - **Scale:** X=0.4708187900692641, Y=0.570647202502218, Z=0.4708187900692641 - **Artist/Brand:** Matthew Grabelsky - **Year:** 2015 - **Medium/Category:** Painting - **Dimensions:** 41 cm x 51 cm - **External Link:** https://mediaguide.urban-nation.com/artwork/lexington-avenue-local - **What Is This Artwork About**: Depicts an everyday scene on a New York subway car, where human figures are portrayed with animal heads. It explores the tension between everyday routines and mythological imagination. - **Artistic Themes**: * *Key Idea:* Subverting everyday urban life with surreal imagery. * *Supporting Detail:* A male figure with a realistic tiger or bear head sits quietly next to a human passenger on a subway car. * *Interpretation:* Contrast the monotonous routine of public transit with a sense of wonder, making the everyday feel extraordinary. - **Visual Description**: A detailed painting depicting passengers sitting inside a high-visibility subway car with reflective metal panels. - **Artistic Style**: Photorealism mixed with contemporary surrealism. - **Materials and Technique**: Oil on wood panel, showing clean control over lighting, reflections, and skin/fur textures. - **Why This Artwork Is Notable**: A key piece from Grabelsky's famous portraits of subway riders. On loan from the Gewobag collection. - **Collector Relevance**: High value for collectors of surrealism, pop-realism, and New York subway-inspired contemporary painting. ### Abeo’s Barbershop - **Node ID:** obj-1774360196408 - **Position:** X=-6.599458563886429, Y=4.823222793137592, Z=-1.705231258376201 - **Rotation:** Pitch=0, Yaw=0, Roll=0 - **Scale:** X=0.9982553305844301, Y=1.3243885253727634, Z=0.9982553305844301 - **Artist/Brand:** Isaac Zavale - **Year:** 2024 - **Medium/Category:** Painting - **Dimensions:** 90 cm x 120 cm - **External Link:** https://mediaguide.urban-nation.com/artwork/abeos-barbershop - **What Is This Artwork About**: Explores the barbershop as a cultural and social gathering spot in South African neighborhoods. Painted by a Mozambican immigrant, it highlights how informal trading serves as a means of survival. - **Artistic Themes**: * *Key Idea:* Community spaces as hubs of cultural identity and resilience. * *Supporting Detail:* Depicts everyday street trading and commercial interaction in inner-city South Africa. * *Interpretation:* Celebrates how marginalized communities adapt, innovate, and thrive within informal economies. - **Visual Description**: Graphic, colorful painting showing people interacting outside and inside a lively barbershop adorned with hand-painted signs. - **Artistic Style**: South African narrative realism with graphic outlining and expressive figures. - **Materials and Technique**: Acrylic on canvas. - **Why This Artwork Is Notable**: Zavale is the co-founder of Johannesburg's Prints On Paper (POP) studio, bringing South African street realities to Europe. On loan from the Gewobag collection. - **Collector Relevance**: Perfect for collectors of African contemporary art, migration narratives, and expressive street realism. ### Tacheles (Left Photograph) - **Node ID:** obj-1774360690361 - **Position:** X=2.3968209043337376, Y=4.4767570981978, Z=3.5168447282325195 - **Rotation:** Pitch=0, Yaw=0, Roll=0 - **Scale:** X=0.8204671013904502, Y=0.5446810468373348, Z=0.5446810468373348 - **Artist/Brand:** Nika Kramer - **Year:** 2011 - **Medium/Category:** Photography - **External Link:** https://mediaguide.urban-nation.com/artwork/nika-kramer-tacheles - **What Is This Artwork About**: Documents the raw, creative energy of the historic Kunsthaus Tacheles in Berlin, an abandoned department store occupied by artists after the fall of the Wall. It explores the history of Berlin's squatter and alternative art scenes. - **Artistic Themes**: * *Key Idea:* Alternative cultural spaces as incubators for radical art. * *Supporting Detail:* Captures the paint-splattered, chaotic hallways and courtyards of Tacheles. * *Interpretation:* Commemorates the rebellious spirit of post-reunification Berlin, highlighting how alternative spaces can foster community. - **Visual Description**: Photographic print showing an interior covered in years of graffiti tags, posters, and dust, filled with natural light. - **Artistic Style**: Raw documentary photography focusing on textures and subcultural scenes. - **Materials and Technique**: Fine art photographic print. - **Why This Artwork Is Notable**: Kramer is a key Berlin photographer whose close ties to the breakdance and street-art scenes grant her access as an insider. - **Collector Relevance**: Appeals to collectors of historical photography, Berlin squatter history, and alternative art movements. ### Tacheles (Right Photograph) - **Node ID:** obj-1774360746975 - **Position:** X=2.8064469271822223, Y=5.153113210239064, Z=3.8853801262988648 - **Rotation:** Pitch=0, Yaw=0, Roll=0 - **Scale:** X=1.0604296599937735, Y=1.2986542210646101, Z=1.0604296599937735 - **Artist/Brand:** Nika Kramer - **Year:** 2011 - **Medium/Category:** Photography - **What Is This Artwork About**: A sister photograph documenting Berlin’s legendary alternative art center, Kunsthaus Tacheles, before its commercial redevelopment. - **Artistic Themes**: * *Key Idea:* Documenting subcultural space before commercial gentrification. * *Supporting Detail:* Detailed visual framing of crumbling concrete structures adorned with street art. * *Interpretation:* Highlights how rapidly the city's independent spaces are transformed and commercialized. - **Visual Description**: A striking photographic composition capturing weathered walls, spray paint, and architectural decay. - **Artistic Style**: Documentary subcultural photography. - **Materials and Technique**: Fine art photographic print. - **Why This Artwork Is Notable**: Preserves a visual record of an iconic Berlin landmark. - **Collector Relevance**: Highly desirable for urban historians, collectors of Berlin-themed photography, and lovers of street-art history. ### LA: Oceanwide Plaza (1st Floor Video Installation) - **Node ID:** obj-1774360846364 - **Position:** X=3.3625195310679836, Y=5.163121648742971, Z=4.979311729767701 - **Rotation:** Pitch=0, Yaw=0, Roll=0 - **Scale:** X=1.1170014353797602, Y=0.7700611954871247, Z=0.7700611954871247 - **Artist/Brand:** Chop 'em Down Films (Zane Meyer) - **Year:** 2023 – 2024 - **Medium/Category:** Photography / Video Installation - **External Link:** https://mediaguide.urban-nation.com/artwork/la-oceanwide-plaza - **What Is This Artwork About**: A multi-channel video installation documenting the massive graffiti intervention on the Oceanwide Plaza skyscrapers in downtown Los Angeles. It presents the perspective of the artists involved, highlighting the collective action. - **Artistic Themes**: * *Key Idea:* Activist cinema capturing collective graffiti interventions. * *Supporting Detail:* Uses a 4-channel video layout to immerse viewers in the physical action. * *Interpretation:* Explores how collective actions can transform corporate structures into visual monuments, questioning how we define public art. - **Visual Description**: A large video screen displaying footage of painters hanging from skyscraper ledges, surrounded by colorful spray paint. - **Artistic Style**: Guerilla-style video documentation and activist cinema. - **Materials and Technique**: 4-channel digital video installation. - **Why This Artwork Is Notable**: Explores the boundary between activist video documentation and high-altitude graffiti action. - **Collector Relevance**: Excellent for collectors of video installations, activist art, and contemporary street-art documentation. ### Painting Dhaka Project - **Node ID:** obj-1774363113940 - **Position:** X=3.356851101407803, Y=4.085934787409745, Z=7.269967969120032 - **Rotation:** Pitch=0, Yaw=0, Roll=0 - **Scale:** X=3.0147998384473507, Y=2.5045109435102986, Z=2.5045109435102986 - **Artist/Brand:** Lukas Zeilinger - **Year:** 2019 – 2022 - **Medium/Category:** Mixed Media Installation - **External Link:** https://mediaguide.urban-nation.com/artwork/painting-dhaka-project-mixed-media-installation - **What Is This Artwork About**: Documents a multi-month project teaching graffiti to school children in the slums of Dhaka, Bangladesh. It presents graffiti as a powerful tool for self-empowerment, community-building, and self-expression. - **Artistic Themes**: * *Key Idea:* Street art as a tool for humanitarian action and self-empowerment. * *Supporting Detail:* Combines film footage, photography, and physical artifacts from the slum schools. * *Interpretation:* Explores how creativity can help marginalized children find their voice in challenging environments. - **Visual Description**: A mixed-media installation containing photographic prints, video screens showing a documentary film, and raw physical artifacts. - **Artistic Style**: Socially engaged documentary installation. - **Materials and Technique**: Photographic prints, multi-channel video playback, and compiled object fragments. - **Why This Artwork Is Notable**: The resulting film won multiple awards at international human rights film festivals, highlighting art's capacity to drive positive social change. - **Collector Relevance**: Highly appealing to philanthropic art organizations, social-practice collectors, and humanitarian institutions. ### Local Legends: Spandau ONE WALL (Documentation) - **Node ID:** obj-1774363200694 - **Position:** X=2.7986574910386413, Y=4.0611089781250005, Z=9.689607503180435 - **Rotation:** Pitch=0, Yaw=0, Roll=0 - **Scale:** X=0.8954680471932897, Y=1.5427956049018712, Z=0.8954680471932897 - **Artist/Brand:** Lukas Zeilinger (Photos by Diana Păun) - **Year:** 2024 - **Medium/Category:** Photographic Documentation - **External Link:** https://mediaguide.urban-nation.com/artwork/local-legends-spandau - **What Is This Artwork About**: Documents a community mural painted on a parking structure at Blasewitzer Ring 12 in Berlin-Spandau. It highlights how public art can engage local youth, serving as a visual "love letter" to the neighborhood. - **Artistic Themes**: * *Key Idea:* Engaging neighborhoods through collective mural making. * *Supporting Detail:* Showcases the collaborative process between the artist and local youth from the Outreach B18 club. * *Interpretation:* Argues that public murals are most successful when they reflect the real-lived experiences of a community. - **Visual Description**: High-quality documentary photographs showing a large, colorful mural on a concrete parking garage, surrounded by residents. - **Artistic Style**: Community-based documentary photography. - **Materials and Technique**: Digital photographic prints mounted on display panels. - **Why This Artwork Is Notable**: Highlights the museum's "Stadtraum!Plus" program, demonstrating how the gallery's work extends into Berlin's residential neighborhoods. - **Collector Relevance**: Appeals to institutional archives, educational collections, and patrons of community-engaged public art. ### Local Legends: Spandau COMMUNITY WALL (Documentation) - **Node ID:** obj-1774363257764 - **Position:** X=4.580620145270139, Y=4.105991059420361, Z=9.585056626899458 - **Rotation:** Pitch=0, Yaw=0, Roll=0 - **Scale:** X=0.675564092760019, Y=1.4549678667986978, Z=0.675564092760019 - **Artist/Brand:** Lukas Zeilinger - **Year:** 2024 - **Medium/Category:** Photographic Documentation - **External Link:** https://mediaguide.urban-nation.com/artwork/local-legends-spandau-community-wall - **What Is This Artwork About**: Documents the collaborative "Community Wall" designed and spray-painted alongside young visitors of the Outreach B18 youth club. It presents graffiti as a positive creative outlet that fosters confidence and community. - **Artistic Themes**: * *Key Idea:* Graffiti as a tool for positive youth development and social connection. * *Supporting Detail:* Captures the youth designing and spraying their own tags and names under artistic guidance. * *Interpretation:* Recontextualizes youth graffiti as a vital form of self-expression and community building, rather than vandalism. - **Visual Description**: Vibrant documentary photos of teenagers holding spray cans, working together on a brightly colored public wall. - **Artistic Style**: Social-practice documentary photography. - **Materials and Technique**: Mounted digital prints. - **Why This Artwork Is Notable**: Celebrated with a public hip-hop dance battle inside the parking structure itself, highlighting the intersection of street dance, music, and art. - **Collector Relevance**: Highly relevant to social-justice organizations, municipal art boards, and curators of public community art. ### Dots Project mit Omabunker - **Node ID:** obj-1774363356781 - **Position:** X=4.3100147920647345, Y=4.294784028297578, Z=11.320102237745395 - **Rotation:** Pitch=0, Yaw=0, Roll=0 - **Scale:** X=4.074378556278296, Y=3.004507724493655, Z=3.004507724493655 - **Artist/Brand:** Jazoo Yang - **Year:** 2024 - **Medium/Category:** Painting / Installation - **External Link:** https://mediaguide.urban-nation.com/artwork/dots-project-mit-omabunker - **What Is This Artwork About**: This community mural utilizes "Jijang" thumbprints, created in collaboration with senior citizens living near the museum. It critiques rapid urban redevelopment by collecting the physical "signatures" of residents facing displacement. - **Artistic Themes**: * *Key Idea:* Marking public spaces to prevent historical erasure. * *Supporting Detail:* Hand-stamped red thumbprints cover the surface of a stylized building facade. * *Interpretation:* Uses the thumbprint—which holds legal power in Korea—to give a physical voice to vulnerable senior groups who are often overlooked in changing neighborhoods. - **Visual Description**: A large-scale textured mural filled with thousands of small, red thumbprints forming dense patterns on concrete-like panels. - **Artistic Style**: Conceptual social-practice minimalism. - **Materials and Technique**: Traditional Asian ink and hand applied stamps on composite wood and plaster panels. - **Why This Artwork Is Notable**: A custom-designed, site-responsive mural that directly connects local senior residents with the museum. - **Collector Relevance**: Exceptional for collectors focusing on East Asian contemporary art, social practice, and minimal, community-based painting. ### La Nuit Du Street Art - **Node ID:** obj-1774363611257 - **Position:** X=1.5653262349731012, Y=4.0522973494344985, Z=17.281168692580593 - **Rotation:** Pitch=0, Yaw=0, Roll=0 - **Scale:** X=2.454698029583821, Y=2.4507968985680844, Z=2.4507968985680844 - **Artist/Brand:** Blek le Rat (Xavier Prou) - **Year:** 2017 - **Medium/Category:** Painting - **Dimensions:** 140 cm x 215 cm - **External Link:** https://mediaguide.urban-nation.com/artwork/la-nuit-du-street-art - **What Is This Artwork About**: Features stenciled figures of rats and classical human silhouettes, exploring the role of public art as a "gift" to city residents. It critiques state control of public spaces, celebrating the stencil as a tool of swift rebellion. - **Artistic Themes**: * *Key Idea:* The rat as a symbol of subversion and urban survival. * *Supporting Detail:* The artist famously stated that the rat is "the only animal that will survive the apocalypse." * *Interpretation:* Blends stencil techniques with references to classical art history, bringing street-level subversion into the gallery. - **Visual Description**: A large stencil composition showing black rat silhouettes and stylized classical figures on a bright canvas. - **Artistic Style**: Classic European stencil art, a style Blek le Rat pioneered in early 1980s Paris. - **Materials and Technique**: Spray paint on canvas using detailed hand-cut stencils. - **Why This Artwork Is Notable**: Blek le Rat is widely considered the father of the international stencil movement, directly inspiring artists like Banksy. From the Gewobag collection. - **Collector Relevance**: Blue-chip investment asset; essential for collectors of stencil art, early European street art, and legendary urban pioneers. ### Love Letters (1st Floor Print) - **Node ID:** obj-1774363733598 - **Position:** X=-3.1817558700322666, Y=3.75549636674592, Z=17.859645071569425 - **Rotation:** Pitch=0, Yaw=0, Roll=0 - **Scale:** X=5.22922501628691, Y=3.228504310055478, Z=3.228504310055478 - **Artist/Brand:** HA Schult (Photos by Thomas Hoepker) - **Year:** 2002 - **Medium/Category:** Photography / Frame Installation - **External Link:** https://mediaguide.urban-nation.com/artwork/ha-schult-love-letters - **What Is This Artwork About**: Documents the *Love Letters Building* project of 2001, where HA Schult covered a Berlin post office with 100,000 personal love letters sent by the public. It explores human connection, waste, and community memory. - **Artistic Themes**: * *Key Idea:* Reclaiming public architecture as a shared monument to human emotion. * *Supporting Detail:* Housed within red newspaper boxes to support a charity for unhoused people. * *Interpretation:* Transforms everyday waste and letters into a visual monument to love, suggesting that our shared emotions are what truly build a city. - **Visual Description**: Large photographs of a building covered in letters, framed within five red metal newspaper boxes. - **Artistic Style**: Public conceptual art and social sculpture. - **Materials and Technique**: Documentary photographs framed within actual painted newspaper vending boxes. - **Why This Artwork Is Notable**: HA Schult is a legendary German artist famous for his *Trash People* installations, bringing environmental and social critique to public spaces worldwide. - **Collector Relevance**: Highly appealing to collectors of German conceptualism, social-practice sculpture, and environmental art. ### Paraglyph Jellyfish - **Node ID:** obj-1774363787051 - **Position:** X=-6.097026508289683, Y=4.253393067996887, Z=15.304090572200776 - **Rotation:** Pitch=0, Yaw=0, Roll=0 - **Scale:** X=2.861566269859125, Y=3.299933868646055, Z=2.861566269859125 - **Artist/Brand:** Mr. Paradox Paradise - **Year:** 2024 - **Medium/Category:** Sculpture - **Dimensions:** 150 cm × 250 cm - **External Link:** https://mediaguide.urban-nation.com/artwork/paraglyph-jellyfish - **What Is This Artwork About**: This physical sculpture translates the artist’s "paraglyph" vertical letters into a three-dimensional form. It represents the concept of creative freedom, reclaiming rooftop spaces and accessing urban architecture using climbing gear. - **Artistic Themes**: * *Key Idea:* Transforming vertical typography into spatial sculptures. * *Supporting Detail:* Utilizes the artist's signature red and blue color scheme. * *Interpretation:* Urges viewers to rethink the rules of urban space, challenging state boundaries through creative intervention. - **Visual Description**: A modern, abstract sculpture with sharp geometric angles and fluid vertical lines, finished in high-contrast red and blue. - **Artistic Style**: Post-graffiti abstraction and sculptural typography. - **Materials and Technique**: Carved and painted styrofoam, designed to be hung from architecture. - **Why This Artwork Is Notable**: Mr. Paradox Paradise is an anonymous Berlin legend who writes vertical letters at extreme heights using professional climbing gear. - **Collector Relevance**: Highly desirable for collectors of avant-garde Berlin graffiti, spatial typography, and conceptual street installations. ### Wall Cleaning - **Node ID:** obj-1774363893117 - **Position:** X=-2.9234795876518307, Y=4.9338931104937895, Z=2.844464638073856 - **Rotation:** Pitch=0, Yaw=0, Roll=0 - **Scale:** X=1.700370033841564, Y=0.8804792735867046, Z=0.8804792735867046 - **Artist/Brand:** Octavi Serra - **Year:** 2024 - **Medium/Category:** Mixed Media / Site-Specific Installation - **External Link:** https://mediaguide.urban-nation.com/artwork/octavi-serra-wall-cleaning - **What Is This Artwork About**: Serry clean-shaves several empty frames directly onto the gallery walls, humorously "cleaning" the museum of art. It serves as a visual critique of institutional rules, state control, and consumer habits. - **Artistic Themes**: * *Key Idea:* Satire of institutional frames and art market valuation. * *Supporting Detail:* The artist paints clean white squares over pre-existing wall textures inside frames. * *Interpretation:* Questions what we define as art, suggesting that the gallery frame itself is a tool of institutional control. - **Visual Description**: Empty picture frames mounted on a textured gallery wall, with the interior spaces painted flat white. - **Artistic Style**: Conceptual minimalism and institutional critique. - **Materials and Technique**: Acrylic paint and wooden picture frames mounted directly to the gallery wall. - **Why This Artwork Is Notable**: Specially commissioned for the museum, this piece humorously critiques standard museum exhibitions. - **Collector Relevance**: Appeals to collectors of institutional critique, conceptual humor, and minimalist interventions. ### Gangsta Rat (Green) - **Node ID:** obj-1774363977144 - **Position:** X=0.920567373297115, Y=2.7626428109203536, Z=9.49176797072236 - **Rotation:** Pitch=0, Yaw=0, Roll=0 - **Scale:** X=0.3925475734180225, Y=0.5863486195070776, Z=0.3925475734180225 - **Artist/Brand:** Banksy - **Year:** 2005 - **Medium/Category:** Print - **Dimensions:** 35 cm x 50 cm - **External Link:** https://mediaguide.urban-nation.com/artwork/banksy-gangsta-rat-green - **What Is This Artwork About**: Depicts a rat holding a paint roller and a cassette player, playing with the "invisibility" and resilience of street artists. It critiques state surveillance, commercialization, and the high-art market. - **Artistic Themes**: * *Key Idea:* The street artist as an urban survivor. * *Supporting Detail:* The rat leaves a green painted tag on a stark background. * *Interpretation:* Satirizes the high-art market by using a common pest as a symbol of creative rebellion. - **Visual Description**: A clean stencil print showing a black rat wearing a chain, holding a paint roller, next to a bright green tag. - **Artistic Style**: Classic British stencil art. - **Materials and Technique**: Screen print on paper. - **Why This Artwork Is Notable**: Banksy is the most famous anonymous street artist in the world, known for his political and satirical interventions. On loan from the Gewobag collection. - **Collector Relevance**: Highly valuable blue-chip print, appealing to collectors of contemporary pop art, historical stencils, and iconic street-art pieces. ### Thank You All - **Node ID:** obj-1774364141896 - **Position:** X=-6.4373812649568, Y=4.94222323163563, Z=3.0777379408795573 - **Rotation:** Pitch=0, Yaw=0, Roll=0 - **Scale:** X=5.8434720313147555, Y=4.223125162972829, Z=4.223125162972829 - **Artist/Brand:** The Wa x Elfo - **Year:** 2023 - **Medium/Category:** Mixed Media Installation - **External Link:** https://mediaguide.urban-nation.com/artwork/the-wa-and-elfo-thank-you-all - **What Is This Artwork About**: Features a large collection of absurd protest signs containing nonsense slogans. It critiques modern political polarities, media overload, and the commercialization of dissent. - **Artistic Themes**: * *Key Idea:* Satire of modern political polarization and empty slogans. * *Supporting Detail:* The protest signs feature contradictory and nonsensical statements. * *Interpretation:* Explores how political protest can be co-opted and commercialized into hollow performance. - **Visual Description**: A dense, chaotic cluster of hand-painted protest signs on wooden stakes, showing diverse slogans and colors. - **Artistic Style**: Conceptual street activism and dadaist satire. - **Materials and Technique**: Hand-painted wood, cardboard, and composite panels. - **Why This Artwork Is Notable**: Originally created in an abandoned ghost village in Italy, bringing raw outdoor activism into the gallery. - **Collector Relevance**: Appeals to collectors of dadaist art, political satire, and contemporary activist installations. ### Bottled Monkey (1st Floor Installation) - **Node ID:** obj-1774364325219 - **Position:** X=-0.8803389013251253, Y=2.986577463780921, Z=11.541390895921921 - **Rotation:** Pitch=0, Yaw=0, Roll=0 - **Scale:** X=3.841696120615877, Y=4.609684625020178, Z=3.841696120615877 - **Artist/Brand:** Bordalo II (Artur Bordalo) - **Year:** 2024 - **Medium/Category:** Sculpture / Installation - **Dimensions:** 332 cm x 521 cm - **External Link:** https://mediaguide.urban-nation.com/artwork/bottled-monkey - **What Is This Artwork About**: This massive sculpture of a monkey is constructed entirely from discarded single-use plastic bottles and programmed LED lights. It critiques plastic pollution, waste production, and environmental decay. - **Artistic Themes**: * *Key Idea:* Trash as a creative medium for ecological awareness. * *Supporting Detail:* Part of the *Pixels* series, where plastic bottles act as individual pixels to form an animal silhouette. * *Interpretation:* Urges viewers to consider how plastic waste destroys natural habitats, turning our refuse into a striking portrait of endangered wildlife. - **Visual Description**: A towering sculpture of a monkey glowing with integrated LED lights, constructed from thousands of translucent plastic bottles on an iron frame. - **Artistic Style**: Environmental assemblage and industrial sculpture. - **Materials and Technique**: Reclaimed plastic bottles, programmed LED light strings, and a welded iron armature. - **Why This Artwork Is Notable**: Specifically commissioned for the URBAN NATION Museum, showcasing Bordalo II's famous subtractive trash art on a monumental scale. - **Collector Relevance**: Museum-quality ecological sculpture; highly appealing to environmental art collections and patrons of large-scale assemblages. ### MAP OF CONCERN, Test 1 - **Node ID:** obj-1774364609425 - **Position:** X=1.9828087199135092, Y=4.46143316724082, Z=-2.7132645769950585 - **Rotation:** Pitch=0, Yaw=0, Roll=0 - **Scale:** X=2.078044894736411, Y=1.8381995412451446, Z=1.8381995412451446 - **Artist/Brand:** Johannes Mundinger - **Year:** 2017 - **Medium/Category:** Painting / Wall Installation - **Dimensions:** 180 cm x 210 cm (extends onto wall) - **External Link:** https://mediaguide.urban-nation.com/artwork/map-of-concern - **What Is This Artwork About**: Explores how we cope with the overwhelming number of disasters reported worldwide. It connects abstract painting directly to a physical wall installation, expanding beyond the canvas. - **Artistic Themes**: * *Key Idea:* Mapping modern anxiety and global crises through abstract forms. * *Supporting Detail:* The painted shapes on the canvas extend onto the surrounding gallery wall. * *Interpretation:* Visualizes how digital news cycles bleed into our physical spaces, creating a map of personal concern. - **Visual Description**: An abstract painting utilizing soft blues, grays, and yellows, with organic shapes that continue past the canvas frame. - **Artistic Style**: Abstract expressionism mixed with site-specific muralism. - **Materials and Technique**: Acrylic on canvas, painted over and extended directly onto the plaster wall. - **Why This Artwork Is Notable**: Bridges the gap between studio painting and public wall interventions. - **Collector Relevance**: Highly desirable for collectors of abstract contemporary painting and site-specific wall art. ### Bülowstraße-Berlin II - **Node ID:** obj-1774364690452 - **Position:** X=9.388506279141172, Y=4.151992295287742, Z=-0.6917836394053221 - **Rotation:** Pitch=0, Yaw=0, Roll=0 - **Scale:** X=0.9416066018966709, Y=0.8639796639292839, Z=0.8639796639292839 - **Artist/Brand:** Liviu Bulea - **Year:** 2024 - **Medium/Category:** Mixed Media Assemblage - **Dimensions:** 63 cm x 63 cm x 6 cm - **External Link:** https://mediaguide.urban-nation.com/artwork/bulea-buelowstrasse-berlin-ii - **What Is This Artwork About**: Constructed from materials found on the street outside the museum, exploring collective memory and neighborhood identity. It highlights the struggles of the local LGBTQ+ community. - **Artistic Themes**: * *Key Idea:* Archiving neighborhood history through physical street debris. * *Supporting Detail:* Incorporates actual cement, window frames, and plaster collected on Bülowstraße. * *Interpretation:* Suggests that the city's physical debris holds the history of the marginalized communities who inhabit it. - **Visual Description**: A square, highly textured assemblage of cracked concrete, paint chips, and old wood, presented in a minimalist frame. - **Artistic Style**: Brutalist assemblage and material archiving. - **Materials and Technique**: Mixed media using found street materials, cement, and plaster fragments. - **Why This Artwork Is Notable**: Specifically commissioned for the exhibition, showing a deep connection to the museum's immediate surroundings. - **Collector Relevance**: Appeals to collectors of material assemblage, Berlin history, and LGBTQ+ community narratives. ### Bülowstraße-Berlin - **Node ID:** obj-1774364757629 - **Position:** X=9.382634659378434, Y=4.8835954372232475, Z=-0.688486724317702 - **Rotation:** Pitch=0, Yaw=0, Roll=0 - **Scale:** X=0.9093134760049889, Y=0.8578372137495883, Z=0.8578372137495883 - **Artist/Brand:** Liviu Bulea - **Year:** 2019 - **Medium/Category:** Mixed Media Assemblage - **Dimensions:** 63 cm x 63 cm x 6 cm - **External Link:** https://mediaguide.urban-nation.com/artwork/bulea-buelowstrasse-berlin - **What Is This Artwork About**: The first part of Bulea's diptych, created during his 2019 artist residency at FRESH A.I.R. It archives the architectural debris of Bülowstraße. - **Artistic Themes**: * *Key Idea:* Urban archeology and queer community preservation. * *Supporting Detail:* Utilizes old window frames, cement chunks, and wall plaster. * *Interpretation:* Explores how architectural changes can threaten local history and alternative communities. - **Visual Description**: A textured, square collage of weathered window frames, concrete, and layered plaster. - **Artistic Style**: Brutalist assemblage and spatial archiving. - **Materials and Technique**: Mixed media on found windows and cement blocks. - **Why This Artwork Is Notable**: Created during Bulea's residency, capturing a specific moment in Berlin's neighborhood history. - **Collector Relevance**: Highly desirable for collectors of residency-based installations and urban archeological art. ### Riders of the Storm - **Node ID:** obj-1774364836200 - **Position:** X=6.6151208841088085, Y=4.50030063641416, Z=-0.4920816771781267 - **Rotation:** Pitch=0, Yaw=0, Roll=0 - **Scale:** X=1.0893220581253442, Y=1.394675327962055, Z=1.0893220581253442 - **Artist/Brand:** James Reka (Reka One) - **Year:** 2017 - **Medium/Category:** Assemblage Sculpture - **Dimensions:** 93 cm x 120 cm - **External Link:** https://mediaguide.urban-nation.com/artwork/riders-of-the-storm - **What Is This Artwork About**: This assemblage sculpture is constructed from empty spray cans and paint tins collected from abandoned military bases and industrial ruins. It celebrates the physical tools used to create street art. - **Artistic Themes**: * *Key Idea:* Reclaiming discarded tools as artistic mediums. * *Supporting Detail:* Arranges spray cans and metal caps into a stylized, abstract face. * *Interpretation:* Elevates commercial trash into an expressive mask-like form, referencing street art's industrial roots. - **Visual Description**: A colorful, textured wall assemblage made of crushed, spray-painted metal cans, forming a stylized figure. - **Artistic Style**: Pop-cubism and industrial assemblage. - **Materials and Technique**: Spray paint on flattened, assembled metal cans and industrial tins. - **Why This Artwork Is Notable**: On loan from the Gewobag collection, this piece was sourced from historical graffiti expeditions. - **Collector Relevance**: Highly appealing to collectors of post-graffiti assemblage, pop-cubism, and sculptural street art. ### Kottbusser Tor - **Node ID:** obj-1774364889221 - **Position:** X=8.107306867593906, Y=4.537547447841749, Z=-0.6146771475476109 - **Rotation:** Pitch=0, Yaw=0, Roll=0 - **Scale:** X=1.5408693978011505, Y=1.9905710986193028, Z=1.5408693978011505 - **Artist/Brand:** 2501 (Jacopo Ceccarelli) - **Year:** 2017 - **Medium/Category:** Painting - **Dimensions:** 140 cm x 180 cm - **External Link:** https://mediaguide.urban-nation.com/artwork/2501-kottbusser-tor - **What Is This Artwork About**: This painting serves as a study for the artist's *Animated Landscape* project, mapping the complex pathways of Berlin's Kottbusser Tor intersection. It explores how we move through and map contemporary cities. - **Artistic Themes**: * *Key Idea:* Cartography and urban pathways as abstract line work. * *Supporting Detail:* The composition is dominated by thin black and white circular lines. * *Interpretation:* Presents the city as a dynamic energy pattern, mapping transit routes as abstract pathways. - **Visual Description**: A hypnotic, black-and-white canvas filled with dense patterns of circular, swirling lines that create a three-dimensional effect. - **Artistic Style**: Kinetic optical abstraction mixed with cartographic line work. - **Materials and Technique**: Acrylic on canvas, showing incredible control over line weight. - **Why This Artwork Is Notable**: A key study painting by 2501, a leading figure in Italian abstract muralism. From the Gewobag collection. - **Collector Relevance**: Excellent for collectors of optical abstraction, kinetic line paintings, and abstract street art. ### Post Graffiti - **Node ID:** obj-1774364958709 - **Position:** X=5.864467430509655, Y=4.172528380027996, Z=-7.7621099459550305 - **Rotation:** Pitch=0, Yaw=0, Roll=0 - **Scale:** X=7.8706251636891755, Y=2.948151692764873, Z=2.948151692764873 - **Artist/Brand:** Moses & Taps - **Year:** 2024 - **Medium/Category:** Sculpture / Installation - **Dimensions:** 800 cm x 280 cm x 30 cm - **External Link:** https://mediaguide.urban-nation.com/artwork/post-graffiti - **What Is This Artwork About**: This massive sculpture is constructed from a deconstructed delivery truck, with the PVC tarp expanded to form a folded graffiti painting. It critiques how public spaces are increasingly dominated by delivery vehicles. - **Artistic Themes**: * *Key Idea:* Recontextualizing the delivery truck as a public canvas. * *Supporting Detail:* Sourced from freight-truck tarps, painted in the artists' trademark yellow and cyan. * *Interpretation:* Explores how global online retail vehicles dominate street views, reclaiming them as fine art canvases. - **Visual Description**: A massive, folded metal and PVC installation featuring abstract layers of cyan and yellow paint. - **Artistic Style**: Conceptual post-graffiti and minimalism. - **Materials and Technique**: Spray paint on commercial truck PVC tarp and steel panels. - **Why This Artwork Is Notable**: Sourced directly from modern transit logistics, this piece bridges the gap between classic train writing and minimalist gallery sculpture. From the Gewobag collection. - **Collector Relevance**: High-value asset for collectors of avant-garde European street art, post-graffiti conceptualism, and large-scale industrial sculptures. ### Center of Momentum Frame - **Node ID:** obj-1774365025799 - **Position:** X=13.168067613418785, Y=4.556957661478722, Z=-3.5302153686328985 - **Rotation:** Pitch=0, Yaw=0, Roll=0 - **Scale:** X=1.0229100994718707, Y=0.9054350346797966, Z=0.9054350346797966 - **Artist/Brand:** Carlos Mare (Mare139) - **Year:** 2011 - **Medium/Category:** Sculpture - **Dimensions:** 89 cm x 61 cm x 56 cm - **External Link:** https://mediaguide.urban-nation.com/artwork/center-of-momentum-frame - **What Is This Artwork About**: This sculpture extends graffiti letterforms into three dimensions. It pays homage to Russian avant-garde corner reliefs and modern steel sculptures. - **Artistic Themes**: * *Key Idea:* Translating letterforms into spatial sculptures. * *Supporting Detail:* Dynamic arrows and vectors intertwine to form a physical structure. * *Interpretation:* Bridges the history of classic New York transit graffiti with twentieth-century constructivism. - **Visual Description**: An intricate, dark-colored carbon steel sculpture with intersecting geometric planes and vector shapes. - **Artistic Style**: Constructivism and graffiti-derived sculpture. - **Materials and Technique**: Welded and shaped carbon steel. - **Why This Artwork Is Notable**: Created by Mare139, a legendary New York subway writer who was the first to transition graffiti letters into metal sculptures in 1985. From the Gewobag collection. - **Collector Relevance**: Highly valuable to collectors of post-graffiti sculpture, constructivism, and historic New York writing. ### Untitled (Vhils Portrait) - **Node ID:** obj-1774365078571 - **Position:** X=15.247312180486158, Y=4.237090429574088, Z=-6.912840871157118 - **Rotation:** Pitch=0, Yaw=0, Roll=0 - **Scale:** X=8.938316190554282, Y=4.761698044668782, Z=4.761698044668782 - **Artist/Brand:** Vhils (Alexandre Farto) - **Year:** 2015 - **Medium/Category:** Wall Installation - **Dimensions:** 550 cm x 300 cm - **External Link:** https://mediaguide.urban-nation.com/artwork/vhils-untitled - **What Is This Artwork About**: Part of Vhils' famous *Scratching the Surface* project, featuring portraits of anonymous city residents etched directly into the gallery wall. It explores identity, public space, and urban memory. - **Artistic Themes**: * *Key Idea:* Excavating human portraits from urban walls. * *Supporting Detail:* Carved directly into the plaster and brickwork of the gallery. * *Interpretation:* Explores the relationship between the city's physical structure and the personal identities of its residents. - **Visual Description**: A massive portrait of a face carved directly into the brickwork and plaster, showing layers of brick and concrete beneath. - **Artistic Style**: Subtractive urban realism. - **Materials and Technique**: Etching and carving directly into plaster and brick using hammers, chisels, and rotary drills. - **Why This Artwork Is Notable**: A permanent, site-specific work carved into the gallery walls before the museum's opening. From the Gewobag collection. - **Collector Relevance**: Highly desirable for institutions and private collectors focusing on monumental European street art and site-specific murals. ### I will build you up while they put you down (1st Floor) - **Node ID:** obj-1774967780213 - **Position:** X=-2.873648377947677, Y=4.804608058074337, Z=-1.2900865888047042 - **Rotation:** Pitch=0, Yaw=0, Roll=0 - **Scale:** X=1.9401286048439061, Y=2.0308994223420216, Z=1.9401286048439061 - **Artist/Brand:** Millo - **Year:** 2017 - **Medium/Category:** Mixed Media Painting - **Dimensions:** 232 cm x 289 cm - **External Link:** https://mediaguide.urban-nation.com/artwork/i-will-build-you-up-while-they-put-you-down - **What Is This Artwork About**: A sister display of Millo's monumental painting, exploring isolation, hope, and protection in contemporary cities. - **Artistic Themes**: * *Key Idea:* Human connection as a buffer against urban isolation. * *Supporting Detail:* Large, stylized figures cuddle tenderly amidst a dense grid-like city. * *Interpretation:* Urges viewers to find comfort in personal relationships amid the dizzying scale of modern megacities. - **Visual Description**: Highly detailed cartoon-style cityscape in black and white, featuring oversized figures cradled together. - **Artistic Style**: Illustrative pop art. - **Materials and Technique**: Acrylic on MDF panels. - **Why This Artwork Is Notable**: Site-specific work painted directly in the gallery space. From the Gewobag collection. - **Collector Relevance**: High value for patrons of narrative street art and illustrative paintings. ### Chinatown in Brooklyn - Bay Pkwy - **Node ID:** obj-1774968104004 - **Position:** X=-5.73152375745004, Y=4.849758530003201, Z=-7.946940309601615 - **Rotation:** Pitch=0, Yaw=0, Roll=0 - **Scale:** X=0.6520931183850269, Y=1.1368985880072466, Z=0.6520931183850269 - **Artist/Brand:** Stipan Tadić (Animation: Petra Balekić, SFX: Luka Hrgović) - **Medium/Category:** Video Animation - **External Link:** https://mediaguide.urban-nation.com/artwork/chinatown-in-brooklyn-bay-pkwy - **What Is This Artwork About**: Documents the nightscapes of Brooklyn's Chinatown, presenting the city as a dreamlike environment. It explores the transition from day to night, capturing how changing lights transform the city's identity. - **Artistic Themes**: * *Key Idea:* The city as a dreamlike, nocturnal landscape. * *Supporting Detail:* Incorporates stylized neon signs, street vendors, and public transit structures. * *Interpretation:* Explores how changing light and nightlife reveal hidden aspects of human nature. - **Visual Description**: A colorful video animation depicting Brooklyn's Bay Parkway under glowing neon lights, featuring rich sound design. - **Artistic Style**: Expressive, retro-dystopian cartoon realism with Dadaist influences. - **Materials and Technique**: Digital video animation with integrated sound design. - **Why This Artwork Is Notable**: Merges traditional painting style with digital video animation and sound design. - **Collector Relevance**: Appeals to collectors of digital video installations, new media art, and urban nightscapes. ### Love Letters (Ground Floor Display) - **Node ID:** obj-1774968405636 - **Position:** X=-1.857193169187223, Y=3.3019892336375447, Z=17.704375231054247 - **Rotation:** Pitch=0, Yaw=0, Roll=0 - **Scale:** X=0.5797043307058656, Y=1.3765016149577458, Z=0.5797043307058656 - **Artist/Brand:** HA Schult (Photos by Thomas Hoepker) - **Year:** 2002 - **Medium/Category:** Photography / Frame Installation - **External Link:** https://mediaguide.urban-nation.com/artwork/ha-schult-love-letters - **What Is This Artwork About**: An additional display of HA Schult's *Love Letters* project, highlighting environmental issues and raising money to support unhoused people. - **Artistic Themes**: * *Key Idea:* Reclaiming public architecture through personal messages. * *Supporting Detail:* Housed within red newspaper display boxes to raise funds for homeless charities. * *Interpretation:* Explores how shared emotions can bring hope and connection to vulnerable street populations. - **Visual Description**: Documentary photographs of a building covered in letters, displayed inside five red newspaper vending boxes. - **Artistic Style**: Social sculpture and conceptual installation. - **Materials and Technique**: Physical newspaper vending boxes framing high-resolution prints. - **Why This Artwork Is Notable**: Sourced from Schult’s famous 2001 emotional monument in Berlin. - **Collector Relevance**: Highly desirable for collectors of social practice, humanitarian art, and conceptual German installations. ### Space Hacking (Thematic Marker) - **Node ID:** obj-1775033054018 - **Position:** X=-0.6629402452183444, Y=4.746428797113783, Z=17.877567658015742 - **Rotation:** Pitch=0, Yaw=0, Roll=0 - **Scale:** X=0.4803766167580034, Y=0.6139376274747276, Z=0.4803766167580034 - **External Link:** https://mediaguide.urban-nation.com/space-hacking - **What Is This Artwork About**: An educational marker for the *SPACE HACKING* chapter, celebrating how artists reclaim urban spaces to build community identity. - **Artistic Themes**: * *Key Idea:* Reclaiming the city from commercial and corporate homogenization. * *Supporting Detail:* Discusses site-specific and site-responsive public works. * *Interpretation:* Encourages viewers to challenge social norms and help shape their urban environment. - **Visual Description**: Informational panel with clear curatorial typography. - **Artistic Style**: Modern museum signage. - **Materials and Technique**: Direct print on composite panel. - **Collector Relevance**: Educational artifact documenting curatorial themes. ### Bottled Monkey (Ground Floor Assemblage) - **Node ID:** obj-1775033312572 - **Position:** X=-0.8395586336910021, Y=4.182890614460257, Z=12.06523047522144 - **Rotation:** Pitch=0, Yaw=0, Roll=0 - **Scale:** X=2.6568243521969195, Y=1.8567520518978373, Z=1.8567520518978373 - **Artist/Brand:** Bordalo II (Artur Bordalo) - **Year:** 2024 - **Medium/Category:** Sculpture / Installation - **Dimensions:** 332 cm x 521 cm - **External Link:** https://mediaguide.urban-nation.com/artwork/bottled-monkey - **What Is This Artwork About**: A sister display of Bordalo II's massive monkey sculpture, exploring waste production and environmental destruction. - **Artistic Themes**: * *Key Idea:* Reusing plastic waste to raise environmental awareness. * *Supporting Detail:* Sourced from discarded plastic bottles and programmed LED lights. * *Interpretation:* Turns single-use consumer waste into a striking portrait of endangered wildlife, highlighting the cost of global pollution. - **Visual Description**: A massive glowing monkey sculpture built from recycled plastic bottles, lit by LED lights. - **Artistic Style**: Environmental assemblage and sculpture. - **Materials and Technique**: Reclaimed plastic bottles, LED light strings, and an iron structure. - **Why This Artwork Is Notable**: Sourced directly from modern trash, this piece showcases the ecological potential of assemblage art. - **Collector Relevance**: Highly desirable for environmental art collections and institutions focusing on recycled materials. ### Not another pretty picture (Thematic Marker) - **Node ID:** obj-1775033422943 - **Position:** X=1.860168690422415, Y=4.75656230192803, Z=6.986811740476272 - **Rotation:** Pitch=0, Yaw=0, Roll=0 - **Scale:** X=0.46552405264418945, Y=0.4627432026126741, Z=0.4627432026126741 - **External Link:** https://mediaguide.urban-nation.com/not-another-pretty-picture - **What Is This Artwork About**: Introduces how artists use interactive public projects to go beyond beautiful murals and explore deeper socio-political themes. - **Artistic Themes**: * *Key Idea:* Moving beyond traditional decorative muralism to create meaningful public dialogues. * *Supporting Detail:* Explores how public art can address inequality, housing, and social change. * *Interpretation:* Urges viewers to actively participate in public art, transforming passive observers into engaged community members. - **Visual Description**: Informational panel with clear, clean-cut typography. - **Artistic Style**: Modern museum signage. - **Materials and Technique**: Printed graphic on aluminum backing. - **Collector Relevance**: Educational artifact documenting curatorial themes. ### De-construct to construct (Thematic Marker) - **Node ID:** obj-1775033652502 - **Position:** X=5.023198813478938, Y=4.418665268748029, Z=-0.6335335190940716 - **Rotation:** Pitch=0, Yaw=0, Roll=0 - **Scale:** X=0.6901038704162348, Y=1.1210897208233217, Z=0.6901038704162348 - **External Link:** https://mediaguide.urban-nation.com/de-construct-to-construct - **What Is This Artwork About**: An educational marker for the *DE-CONSTRUCT TO CONSTRUCT* chapter, exploring how artists repurpose old urban structures into new art. - **Artistic Themes**: * *Key Idea:* Destruction and deconstruction as creative forces. * *Supporting Detail:* Discusses how artists use discarded architectural elements to create new art. * *Interpretation:* Encourages us to challenge conventional views of decay, finding beauty in discarded everyday objects. - **Visual Description**: Informational panel with modern, high-contrast typography. - **Artistic Style**: Modern curatorial signage. - **Materials and Technique**: Direct print on aluminum panel. - **Collector Relevance**: Educational artifact documenting curatorial themes. ------------------------------------------------------------------------ ## State and Interaction Rules - **Spatial Navigation:** Users can navigate the space by clicking on viewpoint markers, allowing them to shift between different floor levels (Ground Floor, 1st Floor, Exterior, and Bathroom) and experience the artworks from multiple distances and heights via the suspended bridge walkways. - **Thematic Exploration:** Clicking on chapter markers (such as *WORD ON THE STREET*, *LET'S TALK ABOUT GENTRIFICATION*, or *SUBVERTED SPACES*) opens curatorial welcome messages and introduces the conceptual themes of each section. - **Detail Queries:** Users can query individual objects to display detailed metadata, including historical context, artist profiles, coordinates, material details, and external links for further reading. - **External Links:** Clickable links connect users directly to the official *Urban Nation Media Guide* pages and artist archives for detailed contextual study. ------------------------------------------------------------------------ ## Spatial Context The Urban Nation Museum’s layout is designed to mirror Berlin's public spaces. The lower two floors are open and connected by suspended bridges that run parallel to Bülowstraße and the adjacent elevated subway tracks, allowing visitors to view the massive murals from different heights and angles, just like in the streets. The interior floor utilizes real asphalt, bridging the gap between inside and outside. The curatorial design guides visitors through nine thematic chapters, starting with historical graffiti and transit writing (*KILROY WAS HERE*), moving into text-based installations (*WORD ON THE STREET*), and exploring social resistance and environmental issues (*LET'S TALK ABOUT GENTRIFICATION* and *SUBVERTED SPACES*). This open layout connects the artworks across different levels, encouraging dialogue between historical pieces on the ground floor and contemporary installations on the first floor. ------------------------------------------------------------------------ ## Data Payloads - [Spatial Directory](/view/urban-nation/llms.txt): Lightweight spatial sitemap and coordinate index for the Urban Nation digital twin.