The Walls of Berlin - A Place to Practice the Art [CCC's Street Art Contest #149]

Not far from where I live, there is a concrete wall covered in graffiti. This statement by itself is so self evident, that it seems almost ridiculous, especially in a place like Berlin. However, this particular wall is different. It is not part of a building, and it is not even used to fend in (or out) anyone from anywhere. It runs along a road passing a field (wheat, or maybe barley?) on the outskirts of the city, where the urban zone gradually - or abruptly - changes into rural. To be exact, it is on the corner of Rosenthaler Weg and Blankenfelder Chaussee.

So what's the point of this wall then, if not to keep passer-bys from stuffing their pockets with grains? As I got to know, the good 100 meter long wall has been set up specifically as a practice ground for street artists, by a shop selling spray-paint and other equippment. This is where they are not just allowed, but encouraged to create art to their heart's desire.

So as you can expect, the images on the wall keep changing at a mind-blowing pace, and almost every time I pass by there, I can see at least one muralist working on a new piece, painting over another one. And sure, there are so many layers of paint covering that wall, that inevitably bubbles are formed, and it would probably flake off soon... if it wasn't for a new graffiti sprouting on top of it. (I assume at some point they would give the thing a thorough scraping.)

The ever changing images are mostly fancy tags, composed of some lettering that I have a hard time deciphering, while I must acknowledge that they do look impressive. Occasionally though, they also include other types of visuals, which I am a bit sorry to see vanish under more practice. No matter the types of art, we all know practice makes perfect, and many of these artist may later create something massively spectacular, which will last for years... the kinds of murals I like to discover. As we all know, practice makes perfect, so I'm glad to get a glimpse of this practice, so close to where I live.

Of course, since this wall is only about ten minutes from where I live, I could just come over here every week, and always a good number of images to choose from, to post in the weekly CCC's Street Art Contest. But I think that way I would get bored very soon, so instead I prefer to rely on my own luck, or any other twists and turns in life, that lets me discover other pieces all around the city. For now, I am going to choose the most unassuming one (out of the pics I took the last time - the murals have changed since then, no doubt) as the one for this week's contest. The lettering on it says: "When dumb prole kids from the village make graffiti". The arrow is pointing to murals the right, which you can see in the first pic in this post. Feel free to zoom in! To see the other murals I have found in Berlin, check out my Walls of Berlin series.