Art and Adrenaline: An intro to graffiti and street art in Berlin

Last week was the last Berlin's Best (the super interesting outings organized by a small group of dedicated parents at the school) outing of the year. It was a "street art tour" given by a group called Alternative Berlin. I have been less than impressed with Berlin's "street art" ever since the first time I set foot in this city. The graffiti on every surface - every wall, tunnel, overpass, underpass, bridge, even schools, statues, etc. - makes the city look dirty and trashy, in my opinion. So I had mixed feelings about this tour: on the one hand, I didn't really want to spend a few hours listening to someone glorify vandalism; on the other hand I was curious to learn about something I knew absolutely nothing about.

It turns out that this was my favorite tour of Berlin so far. Our tour guide was Ben, who knew what he was talking about because he himself is a street artist. He was smart, funny, enthusiastic and engaging. I think I enjoyed this tour so much simply because the topic was so completely foreign to me. Everything our guide said was interesting because every sentence was something new to learn.

This graffiti is notable for its perilous location: high up and only accessible by a steep roof.
Artists use climbing ropes and other equipment to access locations like this.

He began the tour by explaining to us that street artists give themselves a name -an alias - and a lot of street art simply consists of signing your name in unusual places. Locations can be notable for example due to their difficulty to reach (very high up, on a steep surface, etc.) or their level of risk (on a moving surface like a train, or a public building). CBS, the artists responsible for the work on the left, became legendary in the graffiti world for the the sheer volume of graffiti they produced and also for the crazy locations they were able to paint. The one at left is called a 'heaven spot' - so called both because of its proximity to the heavens and also because one false move would send the artist straight to heaven. The name CBS stands maybe for "Cowboys" or maybe for "Can't Be Stopped". Their logo is two yellow fists, signifying power to the people or reclaiming the streets. When CBS decided to retire from the world of street art, they staged a mock funeral for the group, complete with a procession and a coffin!

The two raised yellow fists of CBS

How can CBS hold a public event when what they are famous for doing is illegal? Wouldn't the police swoop in and arrest them? We learned that while of course street art on public or private buildings is against the law, artists can only be prosecuted if the police can tie a specific person to a specific piece of art. They obviously can't convict someone based on reputation or rumor; they have to find actual DNA evidence at the scene of the artwork. Artists, of course, have lots of tricks for avoiding leaving any DNA at the scene. They wear gloves whenever they are in contact with their cans of spray paint, including at the time of purchase, so that there are never fingerprints on the paint cans. They wear very expensive face masks that filter out a lot of the fumes from the paint; spray paint is incredibly toxic and breathing the fumes, even in open air, will make you sick. The masks cut down on the fumes that are inhaled, but they can't completely eliminate them, so artists will often vomit during work. They have to be careful to vomit into a container they can take with them; otherwise police can collect DNA from the vomit. Artists also never carry anything that could identify them, including smartphones.

Avoiding leaving evidence at the scene of the artwork is one thing; artists first have to actually do the art without being detected. Every artist has his or her own personal methods for avoiding being arrested while painting. Some hide in plain sight by painting in broad daylight, sometimes wearing a yellow vest and hardhat in order to look as if they are on official business. Others paint in the dead of night wearing night vision goggles. Ninja techniques come in handy: sneaking, hiding in shadows, performing hours of surveillance while hiding in bushes, waiting for the right time. And of course being able to run fast is a big plus in case you get busted!

The portrait painted by the guy with the fake
authorization forms

One hilarious story we were told is of a guy who took the 'broad daylight' approach. His personal strategy for not getting caught was to pre-print fake authorization forms. He made up language authorizing the artwork and signed the document with official-sounding names and titles. When the police approached him, he showed them his paperwork. Satisfied, the officers, who were fans of his work, asked if they could pose for a photo with him and his art! The artist finished his portrait in peace and came away with a nice selfie of himself with the two officers.

We learned that there are 30 full-time police officers in Berlin in the GIB unit (Graffiti in Berlin). These officers are solely devoted to patrolling against graffiti. Anyone who is caught painting graffiti is fined €483.72 minimum. That's a pretty precise fine, right? Why the 72 cents? Because this is Germany and all costs are precise; 72 cents is the cost of the postage required to mail the paperwork to the appropriate processing offices. This is just the minimum fine, but the actual cost of getting caught can be much, much higher because the culprit will often be responsible in the civil domain for cleaning up the artwork. This can be expensive and challenging because naturally artists want their artwork to last so they deliberately use techniques to make the paint difficult to remove. And if there happens to be any damage to the building or structure during the paint removal then the artist is obligated to pay for repairs as well.

Given the pretty serious financial penalties for getting caught, why do so many people take the risk to do street art? The reasons are varied and personal, and often they change over time. For many it is about leaving your mark. So much of the graffiti you see in Berlin is signatures - initials, names, etc. - carelessly spray painted all over the place. This is what I really don't like. Of course many people do it for the adrenaline rush or as a way to rebel. Many others choose the street art medium as a way to make a political statement. Others aspire to be artists and this is a way to display their art. Some truly want to beautify the city and believe that street art is a way to bring happiness to people. For some making street art is a way to prove their inclusion in the culture of a gritty and artsy city like Berlin. Our guide told us that for him, making street art had become a way to experience the city. He spent time walking around, observing streets and buildings, looking for good locations. Street art takes him to places where he might not otherwise go. He said that street art has also opened up a new hobby for him: photography. Street artists naturally want to document their work photographically, because it might not be there tomorrow due to getting washed off or changed by someone else's art nearby. The combination of exploring the city and taking photographs led Ben to the genre of "urban exploration" or "urbex". This means sneaking into abandoned places and photographing them, which is apparently a thing. He told us that recently some friends and he had snuck into an abandoned S-bahn tunnel and had a picnic there, complete with candles, wine and guitar music.

Serious artists carefully choose the location of their work. The first rule is a blank space. It's typically considered bad form to cover up someone else's work. Next, many artists try to guess where their work is most likely to persist. The artist who created the fake authorization forms painted his lovely portrait of a girl on the inverted entrance to an apartment building. Its location meant that, really, only the residents of the apartment would see the art. We asked, why choose a location where so few people will see it? But Ben told us that the artist had chosen that location carefully. He had noticed that there was other graffiti in that space that was dated, and the dates were years ago. So he knew that the owner of the building was disinclined to clean up graffiti. He also chose the building because it was in a relatively poor neighborhood, and he wanted to beautify it.  

One of about 2000 smiley hearty flowers,
systematically scattered in certain
neighborhoods

Another artist Ben knows, who just so happened to choose the exact same location for his art, was very systematic about choosing his locations. He got a street map of Berlin, chose a neighborhood, and walked up one side of the street for kilometers, periodically painting his signature picture, a simple stick drawing of a flower with a smiley face for a center, surrounded by hearts. Then he would walk back down the opposite side of the street, painting periodically, until he reached the starting point. In this way he covered many neighborhoods with about 2000 smiling flowers, which he hoped would provide joy to the people who came across them. 

Another topic we talked about was the materials that artists use. I had no idea that there were specialized spray paint cans for graffiti artists, but naturally there are. Different cans have different nozzles, depending on the type of line you need to paint. Also, many artists swear by their own secret ingredient that they add to the paint to make it sink into the material it's painted on so it's harder to clean off. Urine was one such ingredient that stuck in my mind, I can't remember any others. There's also a stealth ink that some people use, that looks like water when it's being sprayed at night, but turns to color when UV rays hit it.

Interestingly, Ben leads street art workshops for criminally-inclined youth. He teaches them art techniques and also advises them on ways to mitigate their risks when making street art. We asked him if it was really a good idea to be encouraging kids to break the law. He shrugged and explained that these are kids who have committed crimes, sometimes violent ones like stabbings. Maybe teaching them a non-violent way to break the law is a good way to give them a peaceful way to rebel. Also, these are kids who have not done well in school. Street art gives them a way to both express themselves and achieve something despite their inaptitude for school. In a related but completely different money-making application of street art, Ben offers spray-paint birthday parties where groups of kids can learn the art of graffiti in a completely legal setting.

You may have noticed that I'm using both the terms "street art" and "graffiti". What's the difference? Google it and you will find various people much more qualified than I who attempt to explain it. In my simple understanding, graffiti seems to come from the desire to be known. With graffiti, the main focus is the name; you want your name all over the place so people see it and recognize it. Some graffiti is scribbled or scrawled; some is carefully and artfully rendered in big bubble letters or perfect script or even a font the artist invented himself and becomes known for. By contrast, the purpose of street art is not recognition. Artwork is sometimes signed but the name isn't the primary focus. Instead the artist wants to make a statement or create art or influence people in some way. Street art can be a painting sprayed or drawn with special markers, but it can also take any form or medium. 

Recognizing the street art was particularly interesting for me. All over Berlin, especially in certain parts of town, there is junk all over the walls. To the uneducated it looks like trash somehow got stuck on the walls and no one ever bothered to clean it up. But lo and behold, it's art! 

A typical wall, quite illustrative of everything I'm talking about

Take, for example, the picture above. There's graffiti - the blue and red and black and white scribbled signatures. But there's also quite a variety of other media: paste-ups, poster art, upcycled trash art, and stencils. Starting from the top we have:

• Top row: The "Arti" face, possibly someone's name?; A masked circular character; a piece of packaging. If I remember correctly, the packing used to hold a PlayMobil figure. The figure was stolen long ago but the packaging remains.
• Second row: A cute cartoon poster; A painted styrofoam block wearing a hat and speaking something from a speech bubble; a small figurine of a man running.
• Fifth row: A stencil of a white rabbit. Ben told us that he passes this wall frequently and had noticed when the rabbit appeared on it. One day as he approached the wall he saw an elderly lady standing close to the wall, pasting something onto it. She was gone in a flash but when he got to the wall he saw that she had pasted a paper carrot by the rabbit's mouth! The carrot didn't survive the test of time, but he used this story to show us that street art is interactive and constantly changing. Artists react to each others' work, and anyone can participate.
• Bottom row: Mirrored squares have been arranged to form the words "YOU ARE". Can't quite remember but I think these used to say "you are beautiful" or something. Of course they're mirrors, so they invite you to see for yourself. There's also a stencil of a flamingo or something and the face of a man whose name Ben told us but I've forgotten. His presence on this wall was a statement of something or other but clearly it was lost on me since I've forgotten who he is. 

We learned that pasting something (trash, a poster, a piece of homemade art) on a wall is a much less serious crime that carries a much smaller penalty than painting on the wall. In fact, I think he said all you have to do is remove the offending artwork. So it's a nice way to stick your toe in the water if you're not sure about going all-in on graffiti.

Ben stressed to us that there is absolutely nothing you can't make art out of. To demonstrate this, he told us the story of a guy who sprays gold paint on piles of dog poo!

Our tour group asked Ben dozens of questions and listened with rapt attention to every story. At one point I asked him what he thought about us: a group of nicely dressed, relatively affluent Moms and Dads in their 30's to 50's. Was he laughing at us and our straight-laced naiveté? I recognize that he may not have been able to give me an honest answer, but he claimed that he was loving our tour. He said he mostly gives tours to teenagers and it's hard to keep their attention because, well, they're teens. He said it was really nice to give a tour for adults, and he was thrilled that we were so interested in what he was saying.

In the end, I came away with a new appreciation for graffiti. I have always appreciated the cool murals that you frequently come across in Berlin; that is more like traditional art to me, albeit edgier. But I find myself also taking a second look at plain old graffiti. I still think a lot of it looks trashy, but now I tend to look closer at instances of graffiti to see if there is something of interest there: a cool font, a piece of street art, a logo I recognize now that I'm wise in the names of the big graffiti groups. Going on this tour definitely helped me understand this side of Berlin, so I would recommend Ben and his tour to anyone coming for a visit!

Bleeding mask guy stuck to the wall

Smart Crew, a New York graffiti group

Ben (beside the wall) tells us stories about
this seemingly nondescript wall 

Myriad forms of art here. Notice the yellow police tape
that says "It's time to dance". Whoever put this up put
up cutouts of dancing ladies with "It's time to dance" tape
in a whole bunch of locations all over this part of Berlin.

How did they do this?? So high up! The letters on the right
hand building spell vertically "Life Uberfresh". They
would have used climbing ropes to strap themselves in and
paint this, or perhaps they did it when the building was
under scaffolding.

This enormous gorilla with a camera is actually meant to
mock the many tourists who come to this spot to gawk
at the graffiti. I, with my camera, was just another silly monkey.

When touring a well-known alley full of graffiti, we came across "Sky Black",
who was at work on this piece of commissioned art: "Tiger wearing
pants and leaning on candy cane roars at squawking ostrich" (my title, not his).
 The better artists are often commissioned to create murals for walls, doors,
entrances, etc.

Angry peanut

The famous "1-UP" group painted this cute version of The Count and signed it with their name.
1-UP is either a reference to Super Mario Brothers, or stands for One United Power.

Commissioned artwork by Victor Ash on the side
of a building; graffiti underneath. There is quite
often a mix of commissioned and street art.

These strange black and white animals are commissioned art created
by the quite famous ROA.

This creepy guy, The Pink Man, is a well-known sight in Berlin. The artist is Blu. We were told to
look at his "Evolution of Man" on YouTube. I looked it up and it was interesting, but I
found another video of his that I thought was even more interesting. Check out
this crazy creativity: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nnRqXvNPSIc
You don't have to watch the whole thing; you can get the idea in a couple
of minutes. 

Not graffiti, but I saw this during the tour and it cracked me up. This
restaurant is called "Korean Fried Angry Chicken" and the subtitle says
"So so angry". I have GOT to go eat there.

Look at the left-hand street sign - can you make out the 

silhouette of a little guy standing with his arms out to the sides?

This is a yoga man made from a wine cork. These little cork men

in various yoga poses are stuck on top of street signs in obscure 

locations around town. Apparently a yoga instructor in his 60's 

makes them. Want to see more and better pics (not mine)? 

Click here.

Here's something I love: it's called "urban
knitting" or "yarn bombing". People knit stuff directly
onto public structures. It's not illegal, although our guide
knew a grandmother who took great pride in
advertising her "illegal knitting classes". 

This bike rack has been yarn-bombed!