The weather wasn’t great when I took my bike from Neukölln to Reinickendorf to take picture of the Neheimer Strasse Murals but it was worth it. The cloudy sky, the trees turning orange and all the colours of those murals made the pictures great and here I’m to tell you more about street art in Berlin.
When I first thought about going all the way to Neheimer Strasse, my goal was to see a giant blue starling mural and the controversial “bloody refugee” mural. These murals are part of the One Wall Mural Project organized by the guys at Urban Nation, whose name might be familiar to you if you read our article about the street art museum built in Berlin.
Suppose you are asking yourself why there are such cool street art murals in an area of Berlin like Reinickendorf, you have to understand how the One Wall Mural Project works. Their idea is to bring art and refresh neighbourhoods in need of positive light and something to fill the area’s people with something cheerful. This is why you have to take the subway all the way there to see them. But, I can assure you, it is worth it.
Neheimer Strasse Murals
Now, let me talk about those huge murals. I will start with the giant blue starling mural by Super A and Collin van der Sluijs. These artists from the Netherlands teamed up earlier in 2016 to paint a phenomenal mural called Starling on the side of one of the many residential buildings in this part of Berlin.
The painting is more the 40 meters high and depicts a large blue bird whose chest is ornate with a dense patchwork of jewels and plants and seem to shine like crazy. There are so many details in this piece that you need to get closer to it to enjoy it fully. The closer you can get, the better. So, take your bike there soon!
The other mural I wanted to see was the infamous “bloody refugee” mural that was receiving some controversy over its concept. This huge mural is the work of Spanish artist Borondo and depicts a girl in a white nightgown, covered in blood from the head down.
She seems of the leaning against the building on which she is drawn. There is blood on the floor, and there is more to it. On the other side of the building, you can see a forest with a handcuffed, naked body pierced by arrows. Yeah, this sounds as gore as the moral itself as you can see on the pictures here.
But this mural is not supposed to be the cute thing people are getting used to seeing in street art. This larger-than-life painted political statement could only appear in a city like Berlin.
Personally, this is my favorite mural from all the Urban Nation did in this area close to Tegel Lake. It is more than just something nice to look at. There is a meaning to it. There is something to make you think, which is what art is supposed to do.
After taking pictures of everything, I decided to look in the map and see which was the way back to Neukölln by back. I took a wrong turn and then I realized that there are more murals there. On each side of these buildings, there are murals.
This is how I manage to take only one picture from the madness that is the work of How and Nosm. This is the nickname that the twin brothers Raoul and Davide Perre, from New York, use to sign their artwork. Artwork that, often, consists of only red, black and white paint as you can see on the pictures here.
Too bad I didn’t have time to take as many pictures of it as I wanted as you can see some black clouds in the back bringing rain close to me. Since I was on my bike, I just headed home. Maybe soon I will be back to see more murals.
Neheimer Strasse Murals in Reinickendorf
Neheimer Str. 8, 13507 Berlin
If you want to see more of the artwork in Reinickendorf, take a look at the pictures that Marjolein took for her Berlijn Blog and, of course, the map with the murals from Urban Nation.
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