From 5 to 12 September 2018, the first URBAN ART WEEK, a new format for the Urban Art movement, will be launched throughout Berlin. The new format presents a comprehensive program and insights into the participating locations and projects under one roof. The format serves both to make Urban Art visible and to mediate, as well as to improve networking between local actors.
The URBAN ART WEEK provides insights into the locations and work of the participants, who present their own program for the URBAN ART WEEK. This gives visitors the opportunity to get to know Urban Art, Street art and Graffiti Writing within one week.
The art program includes numerous exhibitions in galleries, project rooms, art spaces and institutions as well as Performance, Live Painting and artistically designed walls.
A supporting program accompanies the URBAN ART WEEK: workshops by experts offer professional training and useful information for the daily work of artists and cultural workers. The two-day film program shows experimental films, portraits and documentaries about the French and German scene. Daily Street Art tours by local experts give visitors an insight into Urban Art in Berlin. Artists offer workshops for all ages to try out different techniques.
Why does the URBAN ART WEEK belongs to Berlin?
In Berlin, Urban Art has become an integral part of the cityscape, and large murals and surprising interventions in urban space can be found regularly. The city and its marketing is also adorned with the colorful paintings of its Urban Art artists, as is the local creative industry. But is there a dialogue between the scene and the city? Where is the line drawn between professional art and exploitation through increasingly fast-moving advertising purposes? Do we still have to ask the question whether Urban Art is art at all?
The first URBAN ART WEEK pursues these thought-provoking impulses. In addition to discussions with representatives from city politics and local art institutions, the scene meets at workshops and symposia to discuss the concept of Urban Art and its own selfimage. The week should leave something behind for the Berlin scene, it should convey a lasting value to the fast-moving Urban Art and create a basis for future communication.
Urban Art in Berlin has been around for decades and the media attention for it has increased. Berlin’s claim as an Urban Art Mecca is not only demonstrated by the last major exhibition projects with record attendance. The many small and independent art venues, project spaces and freelance artists who have been active in Berlin since the 1980s, have created the breeding ground for the subversive Berlin mix, that now makes the capital so attractive. URBAN ART WEEK is committed to their recognition and networking and ennobles the local scene with a gold medal – because Urban Art has actually earned this here for a long time.
The program booklet with a city map, a website and a broad publicity campaign in German and English will accompany the week from 5 to 12 September 2018.
Further information under www.urbanartweek.de
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