Graffiti Art exhibition - Berlin 2017

 

Once driving through East Berlin, we passed by the ruins of an abandoned industrial site. The big, red bricked tower, which looked so imposing that we had to stop. On the rusting entrance sign was written in bleached out letters: "VEB Bärenquell".

When in the inside, the whole area didn't look like a typical abandoned space. The big pine on the court was already 7 meters tall. But there were no signs of human oblivion, at all. Graffities were painted on every wall - outside and inside the buildings. The whole site appeared to be more like an art gallery than a (typical) vandalized lost place. Somehow, there also was this atmosphere of concentration and cleanliness - the atmosphere of a museum. And somehow it was an "art gallery"; free to enter for everyone how capable to climb over the three-meter tall wall.

Probably for safety reasons all the wood, insulating material and other combustible stuff was removed from the buildings and were piled up in the courtyard. Sharp metal sheets and window glass had been compiled on separate heaps. Inside the "gallery" there was nothing but blank walls and empty floors. In some rooms, not a single piece of broken glass could be found on the floor.

The property is still secured with razor wire and new fences and we even found newly installed fire distinguishers.