Its not easy, to decide where Friedrichshain ends and Kreuzberg begins. To cross the line is nearly unremarkable and when you don’t know about, hardly to recognize. The shady arcades of Oberbaumbrücke with the views of Molecule Man and „The Pink Man“ of BLU, is some kind of no-mans’s-land and comes closest to a border. It escaped my notice until the point when I came across the  „M99 – General Store with Revolution Requisites“, then it clicked. OK – this has to be Kreuzberg. And it was! And even if the first building greets from afar with „Bonjour Tristesse“, Kreuzberg was anything but depressing (for me).

Directly behind Oberbaumbrücke, which is the entrance gate to Kreuzberg, the building at Falckensteinstraße 47/48 houses since 2007 at its front side „The Pink Man“ of BLU. Now, for 1st Berlin Mural Fest, INSANE51 has left one of his sophisticated 3D artworks, facing the street.  The full brilliance of that piece is visible with 3D glasses only. Insane51 is an artist based in Athens/Greece. He started off as a graffiti writer in 2007 and as far as I know, he is currently a student in Athens School of Fine Arts. In attempt of finding and creating new techniques for visualizing his projects, he often uses 3D lenses and LED light, to create his „Double Exposure 3D“ pieces. Past a lot of paste-ups, installations and rooftop graffiti by BERLIN KIDZ, I followed Falckensteinstraße down to Görlitzer Park, fiercely determined not to get off the track to the next mural at Görlitzer Str. 49. I only could slowly get ahead, because of all those SOPE, KARTOFFELTIERCHEN, DXTRXN and a new discovery: DARED and his nice dog. Is it a bulldog? The next mural has been created by Natalia Rak (Lodz, Poland). Her work is located in the immediate vicinity of Görlitzer Park. Painted in strong colours as usual, the motive is a young buisiness man with dragonfly wings and briefcase. He rests at a funnel shaped flower and looks dreamy, as if he is not sure where he should go now. Fly to work or better fly to the next flower? This mural corresponds in the best way with it’s surrounding, the public park. The next stop at my Kreuzberg walk was Wiener Straße 42, where ELLE, street artist based in Brooklyn, has left her mural „Open Your Third Eye“ with a little help of PARADOX, who is a member of the BERLIN KIDZ. ELLE began as an illegal graffiti artist in New York and is now considered one of the top touring street artists. She creates stories by collaging disparate images: powerful females, flora and fauna, classical paintings juxtaposed with pop-culture and high fashion imagery, revealing purposefully designed messages to the world. Her passion for the environment and feminism are shown in the transparency of messages throughout her pieces. Her work has been exhibited in the Saatchi Gallery in London, as well as in Urban Nation Museum in Berlin. [1] The Berlin Kidz have made a name for themselves in the Berlin graffiti scene and speak for themselves by seizing spectacular spots. They capture facades with their paintings by roping down in spectacular action. Their trademark are hieroglyphic-like marks, laid out in blue and red. To reach Schinkestraße 24 with it’s new mural „The future is female“ by CASE MACLAIM, was difficult. You have to pass a number of distracting spots like Görlitzer Bahnhof, with the famous ROA wall „Nature Morte“ in Oranienburger Straße, Kotbusser Straße with all its restaurants, bars, stencils, paste-ups and installations and last but not least, Landwehrkanal, with its jumble sales and weekly markets. The mural shows the artists friend Benjamin and his smart daughter Carla. CASE MACLAIM dedicates this piece to all the good and hard working Papas out there. Seeing his friends teaching their kids equality and helping them build self confidence, makes him very optimistic for the future, specially because the old guys trying their best to ruin our planet. [2] The next stage along my way to the murals of 1st Berlin Mural Fest was Luckauer Straße 12 and 14, where MILLO and HERAKUT have left their traces. „My head is a jungle“ and „My home might be no palace, but we can share it if you like“ are neighbours.

1st Berlin Mural Fest (2018); MILLO „My head is a jungle“; Luckauer Straße 12

I finished my day in the late evening with the collaboration wall at Prinzessinnenstraße 17

The pictures between the walls please find -> here