Whether it’s the wooden bridge that protrudes halfway over the Isar canal, the oversized sculpture on the side of the road, or the facade that draws attention to itself with colorful pictures: there is plenty of art in public space in the city. Since the beginning of the corona pandemic, however, Munich artists have been dealing with urban space in a different way. Many are now consciously drawn outside.
In Bogenhausen, for example, works of art will once again be stretched to site fences and wander through various parks and green areas as a mobile open-air gallery. “The lockdown presented us cultural workers with a major challenge: museums and exhibition spaces were closed,” says Elke Reis from the artist group BoArt. Many were paralyzed and were looking for a way to get in touch with other people and at the same time “to make art visible, which is now also gone,” she says.
The BoArt group brings art to where it can reach people despite the pandemic: outdoors.
(Photo: BoArt)
The group then decided to take their individual works of art to where the virus allows them to meet: outdoors. So 2021 is under deA traveling exhibition was created with the title “Art on the construction fence”., which is being reissued this year. The eleven artists – a loose association that has set itself the goal of bringing culture to unusual places in the district – are in the middle of the preparations. They are currently having their works photographed and printed on large banners. These will then be attached to metal fences and exhibited at three locations in the district for four weeks at the end of June.
It starts at the end of June at Böhmerwaldplatz, followed by the Herzogpark and the Bürgerpark Oberföhring. This should give as many people as possible in the district the opportunity to enjoy art. “Even in non-Corona times, many people don’t dare to go to a gallery,” says Elke Reis. BoArt deliberately wanted to approach and communicate with the people in the district in a low-threshold manner and over a longer period of time: “Hello, we artists are still here. And we want to stay in touch with you.”
Mural art by Christian Hundertmark is emblazoned on Kaufland on Berg-am-Laim-Strasse.
(Photo: Florian Peljak)
Therefore, each location will be used for a month so that passers-by can come back. The local district committee was so enthusiastic about the project last year that it increased funding for the group and this year there is again financial support from the BA budget.
The underpasses, like here, should be made more beautiful by graffiti.
(Photo: Florian Peljak)
For some time now, city dwellers have had one more place to go where they can always find new colorful facades. In the commercial area on Neumarkter Straße in Berg am Laim, under the title “Munich Art District” regularly open the outer walls of office and industrial facilities for artists.
The project, which is under the patronage of the Bavarian State Ministry for Science and Art and is coordinated by a non-profit company, has several real estate developers as partners who have invested in new office buildings around the Leuchtenbergring.
Both local and internationally renowned artists were hired to design the facades. Above the entrance to a bread factory, for example, oversized hands are kneading dough that Argentine street artist Alan Myers has attached.
The Munich graffiti artist Mathias Köhler, alias Loomit, embellished the corrugated iron on the building materials store building. And the walls of the disused federal monopoly administration for spirits were designed by the artist collective Broke Today, which recently, for example, built the machine house on the Mildred-Scheel-Bogen or temporarily used the Traphouse on Steinheilstrasse.
Neglected places are to become meeting places
Wearing high-visibility vests, they stand in front of the Uhrmacherhäusl in Obergiesing, furniture is built from pallets on Breissasser Platz in Haidhausen, and they organize a series of concerts in the empty Gasteig. And then there is the eternal construction site under the tracks of the Ostbahnhof: “Die Städtische” are a collective that wants to draw attention to neglected public spaces. The 40 or so creative people from 30 disciplines have set themselves the task of making the city (even) more beautiful.
“Last summer we were able to initiate a lot,” says Francesco Sormani, who is responsible for the “More Love, Less Hate” project in the collective. He had already initiated this two years ago – and actually no longer expected it to ever be implemented. Sormani intends to convert the pedestrian and bicycle tunnel between Orleansstrasse and Friedenstrasse into a street art gallery. “If it were up to me, that would have happened already,” he says.
So far, however, the implementation has failed due to bureaucratic hurdles, because Sormani first had to find out who is actually responsible for the tunnel. In the meantime, he has identified Deutsche Bahn as a contact, which has meanwhile also sent him a contract for the redesign. The postman comes just during the conversation with the SZ: The letter has gone through the authorities, and the railway has also signed. “Now I just have to organize the financing and then we can start,” says Sormani.
While he was waiting, he had been involved with the civics elsewhere. There should be a cooperation with the Gasteig HP8 in Sendling in the summer. The creative people intend to install a cultural island there, they are still in the planning phase. It is also not yet certain where the documentary film about their actions from last summer will be shown this year. “We planned to screen it against a fire protection wall or look for other suitable areas in public space,” says Sormani.
The street furniture will be back in spring on Breissasser Platz between Elsässer and Breisacher Strasse. Someone has even planted flowers in a box to make this place a little more colourful.