Yesterdays news of a new Corona variant caused a voluntary withdrawal of all non-essential activities. So I cannot show new pictures of what goes on in graffiti and street art in my area. That’s how I came up with the idea of dealing with variations. In art, topic, subject, or message may often be the same, but approach and implementation depends on the artist’s personality. I find this extremely exciting and worth to be shown in a miniseries due to varieties.

Thinking about the pandemic, it is natural to think of other historical epidemics, such as the plague. This is how I got the rat. That rodent with a dubious reputation, is a popular projection surface for artists like BLEK LE RAT, who has even made the rat his trademark. Banksy, for example, very often used the motif of the rat. I have searched my archive and show a selection of my favourites.

RATS

L.E.T. LES ENFANTS TERRIBLES (Düsseldorf 2016) & PQUS (Düsseldorf 2017)

MTW MORE THAN WORDS – Essen (2014)

BANKSY (Urban Nation Museum 2018) & unknown artist (Alte Post Spandau 2018)