2020, when the Corona pandemic was a constant and annoing topic on all media channels, my Berlin friend and me were lucky to find an interruption in negative thoughts. We both discovered simultaneously „The Masked Singer“, a tv show, which is around celebrities singing in head-to-toe costumes and face masks, which conceal their identities from all others. What started as a good distraction from the misery, developed soon to a competition between Berlin and Essen, to find equivalents of the shown characters in street art and graffiti.

The show is in the 5th season now, and here we are again. This time my Berlin friend and I have problems to show all of the 10 charcters started. Last week a chilli pepper was exposed. I was happy – I couldn’t find a chili pepper, nor my Berlin friend. Yesterday one of my favorite masks, a Hammerhead shark, was debunked. Too bad, the mask strongly reminded of „DER VIERECKIGE HAI“. In the end Pierre Littbarski, a German soccer legend, came to light. Remain in the competition Mülli Müller, the guy in the dumpster, which reminds a lot of Oscar the Grouch from Sesame Street. My Berlin friend couldn’t find something like that. Axolotl – also missing in Berlin and last but not least the Phoenix. That are the masks, which should be the subject here.

Bülowbogen (07/2017) unknown artist & Waldring (10/2021) NORBERT 3000 work in progress

The Axolotl brings victory! BUSE is a female graffiti writer based in Essen and the Axolotl is something like a sigature of her.