Urban Nation

Museum for Urban Contemporary Art

WE ARE OPEN Urban Nation
Museum for Urban Contemporary Art
WE ARE OPEN

Museum Opening Hours:
Mon: -
Tue: 10:00 - 18:00
Wed: 10:00 - 18:00
Thu: 12:00 - 20:00
Fri: 12:00 - 20:00
Sat: 12:00 - 20:00
Sun: 12:00 - 20:00

Address:
Bülowstrasse 7, 10783 Berlin, Germany

Contact:
info@urban-nation.com

News.

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BOOKS IN THE MCL: A CITY BECOMES COLORFUL. Hamburg Graffiti History. 2021
Preparing the graffiti history of a city is a major project. Although the first graffiti in the style of the New York model appeared in many major European cities in the early 1980s, they were only sparsely documented, if at all. The comparatively high cost of analog photography at the time often meant that not even the creators recorded their first attempts. Official publications devoted to the subject are rare, since most outsiders could do little with the images.
INSIDE OUT PHOTOBOOTH PROJECT
To show the diversity of the city, we invite people who live in Berlin, work or just visit the city to have their portrait taken for a special project: The Berlin Team of the Inside Out Project will be in front of the UN Museum from September 17th/18th from 11am to 5pm. Participants will be photographed inside the Inside Out Truck. The resulting portraits are used to create black-and-white posters in the familiar look.
COMMUNITY WALL BY HUNDERTZEHN
For the facade of a daycare center on the first floor of Bülowstraße 55, the artist Hundertzehn has designed a COMMUNITY WALL with the kind support of Gewobag. Together with users and owners, Hundertzehn developed a motif that clarifies the use of the first floor. Only facade paint was used. The work is the result of various techniques: Using stencils, roller and brush, Hundertzehn creates a colorful design of the small-scale surfaces that form a large overall work. Typical for the artist are the vertical elements, which appear abstract when viewed up close and represent clear figures when viewed from a distance.
COMMUNITY WALL BY EL BOCHO
El Bocho is a welcome guest on Bülowstraße. His paste-up blends into the street’s fabric as naturally as is customary for the artist’s works. With wit and melancholy, the artist from Frankfurt has been working in Berlin for a long time, decorating the city’s streets with illustrative motifs that tell their own story. Thus, he beautifies the city with his images and creates a freely accessible gallery in the public street space.
LONG NIGHT OF MUSEUMS 2022 AT URBAN NATION WAS A BLAST
On August 27th 2022 from 6pm until past midnight the URBAN NATION Museum took part at Long Night of Museums. We are happy that over 1000 people showed up and enjoyed the program: - Express tours Apropos! in German and English in the exhibition “TALKING… & OTHER BANANA SKINS“ - Abstract Live Performance – Philip Wallisfurth with moss and spray cans
REDESIGNED READING ROOM OF THE MARTHA COOPER LIBRARY
We used the closing time for the museum renovation to redesign the MCL reading room. As you can see in the pictures, a photo of Martha Cooper and a plaque about the MARTHA COOPER LIBRARY as well as a reference to the Stiftung Berliner Leben were added to the room. Furthermore, some pictures show the way in which the foundation's projects and workshops are connected to the museum - more about this can be found under Education and Outreach. There is also a new signage on the door to welcome visitors. We would like to remind you of the free use of the library. Find out more on the official library page.
DU BIST AM ZUG
Participation of Berlin citizens in public space DU BIST AM ZUG is an art-scientific project in which creative contributions by Berlin citizens are presented in public space. In July and August 2022, in cooperation with Wall GmbH and the URBAN NATION Museum, 1500 City-Light posters will be raffled off in Berlin, which can be freely designed by people in the city.
COMMUNITY WALL BY JONATHAN JAMES
In Frobenstraße, artist Jonathan James designed a new community wall. This new paste-up now fits in between the existing works by Miss Glueniverse and Peter Missing. It fits in and yet clearly stands out from the figurative representations of the neighbouring wall through technique and design. The picture was created using the monoprinting technique. In the newly created painting, the artist used water-based ink and mulberry paper. The colours and shapes of the wall invite you to step closer and observe the detailed gradients and textures.
BOOKS IN THE MCL: SUBWAY ART. MARTHA COOPER & HENRY CHALFANT. 1984.
Martha Cooper was the first full-time photographer for the New York Times, capturing everyday situations on the streets of the metropolis for the daily newspaper since the mid-1970s. In 1979, while photographing children playing in the Bronx, she noticed a young boy with a sketchbook. It is HE3, a graffiti writer, who willingly lets her photograph him in front of one of his works. When he offers to introduce her to DONDI, a big name in the scene, she gained access to the graffiti world, which is rather closed off to the outside world.
VISIT US AT LONG NIGHT OF MUSEUMS ON AUGUST 27TH 2022
Especially for the Long Night of Museums Berlin, a program with guided tours and live performance will take place at two locations on Aug. 27th: UN PRODUCTION OFFICE Where: Bülowstraße 97, 10783 Berlin When: 6:00p.m.-01:00 a.m. abstract live performance – Philip Wallisfurth (Senor Schnu) with moos and spraycans URBAN NATION MUSEUM Where: Bülowstrasse 7, 10783 Berlin When: 6pm-1am Guided tours through “TALKING… & OTHER BANANA SKINS ” in German and English – 20-minute-express-tours with focus on selected topics and artworks. starting every 30 minutes ab 6 pm (GER) – last tour at 1 am ab 6:15 pm in (EN) – last tour at 1:15 am
MORE ART – LESS LITTER: NEW MURAL ON JAKOB-KAISER-PLATZ BY JÚLIA MOTA ALBUQUERQUE
The first-place design for the street art contest "MORE ART - less litter" by the artist Júlia Mota Albuquerque has been successfully implemented and thus handed over to the public. Her artwork now adorns a huge house façade at Jakob-Kaiser-Platz, which was provided by the housing association Gewobag. With the completion of the artwork, the artist and the makers of the competition set a sign against the waste of packaging and for waste avoidance, just in time for World Overload Day. Because today, we humans have used up the world's supply of natural resources for 2022.
LAST CHANCE FOR VISITING LAYER CAKE "THE VERSUS PROJECT 2" & FRESH A.I.R. #6 SCHOLARSHIP EXHIBITION "REFLECTING MIGRATION
Did you know we have 2 more venues besides the URBAN NATION MUSEUM? Right across the street there is the UN PROJECT SPACE (Bülowstr.97) where the LAYER CAKE exhibition is displayed and just a 2-minutes walk from there you can find the Fresh A.I.R. #6 exhibition at Bülow90. Both exhibitions run until the end of July.
BOOKS IN THE MCL: SPRAY CITY – GRAFFITI IN BERLIN 1994
In spring 1994, the exhibition SPRAY CITY – GRAFFITI IN BERLIN took place within the framework of the “X 94 – Young Art and Culture” festival of the Akademie der Künste. The book of the same name was published by Schwarzkopf & Schwarzkopf Verlag and was the first illustrated book on graffiti in the capital, which also provided background information and insights into the scene.
ONE WALL BY PARADOX
During the Preparations of the exhibition "Talking... And Other Banana Skins" Paradox created this ONE WALL on Bülowstrasse, close to the URBAN NATION Museum. It refers to his displayed piece inside the Museum reading the word "FREIHEIT" meaning freedom in German.
NEW MUSEUM FACADE BY BROKEN FINGAZ
On the occasion of the newly opened exhibition “TALKING… & OTHER BANANA SKINS” in June 2022, BROKEN FINGAZ from Haifa are redesigning the façade of the URBAN NATION Museum. The work ist titled „DOG SNIFF DOG“. The choice of colours and the design of the content relate thematically to the exhibition. After consultation with the curator, the title was also integrated into the design of the façade and now stands above the museum portal. The artists’ work was accompanied by the kind support of the Israeli Embassy in Berlin.
BOOKS IN THE MCL: GUSMANO CESARETTI. STREET WRITERS. A GUIDED TOUR OF CHICANO GRAFFITI.
STREET WRITERS. A Guided Tour of Chicano Graffiti. Gusmano Cesaretti. 1975. The roots of the global graffiti movement lie in New York in the late 1960s. Over the years, the simple lettering first developed into simple, quick pieces and, by the early 1980s at the latest, into elaborate, mostly colorful masterpieces on the trains of the New York Subway. But early on, similar forms of namewriting also appeared in other regions of America.
UNARTIG - Street & Art Festival June 17th - 19th
For the opening celebration of the exhibition “TALKING… & OTHER BANANA SKINS”, the UNARTIG – Street & Art Festival will take place around the museum. The program includes 17 murals designed by 21 artists, workshops and performances by artists such as YOANN BOURGEOIS, as well as guided urban art tours through the neighborhood of the URBAN NATION Museum. There will be discussion panels, street food, music and much more.
STOHEAD WATERKANT ONE WALL
STOHEAD WATERKANT – ONE WALL
The artist STOHEAD designed a ONE WALL for the new residential quarter WATERKANT. The mural typographically refers to the name of the newly emerging neighborhood in Berlin Spandau. The words WATER and WATERKANT were designed in the artist's iconic font (Rouwndy) and implemented through the use of acrylic and facade paint. The artist's specialty is to create his own visual language through scaling, condensation and with the help of transparencies.
MCL presents #1
MCL PRESENTS #1: “MADC AND MARTHA COOPER – FROM STREET TO CANVAS”
URBAN NATION kicks off the "Martha Cooper Library Presents" event series with a talk featuring MadC and Martha Cooper, moderated by Nika Kramer. Time: 6pm–8pm - Admission 5.30pm Street artist MadC will present her new book, "From Street to Canvas", which will be added to the Martha Cooper Library collection. She will be joined by Nika Kramer and Martha Cooper to talk about the conditions of production of photography, graffiti and street art, the meaning of making books and the special challenges for women in the male-dominated scene.
Getting Up. Subway Graffiti in New York - Craig Castleman
BOOKS IN THE MCL: CRAIG CASTLEMAN. GETTING UP. SUBWAY GRAFFITI IN NEW YORK
While teaching at the High School of Art and Design in Manhattan in the late 1970s, Craig Castleman helped his students produce a booklet (NASTY STUFF) on their favourite subject: graffiti on the New York subway. Inspired by the work on this topic, which was new to him, Castleman spent the following years investigating the phenomenon more closely. The result is his 1982 dissertation “Getting Up. Subway Graffiti in New York.”.
LAYER CAKE THE VERSUS PROJECT 2
LAYER CAKE presents THE VERSUS PROJECT 2
Exhibition opening April 10th – Juli 31st 2022 at URBAN NATION For The Versus Project 2, the artist duo LAYER CAKE (Patrick Hartl and Christian Hundertmark/ C100) once again initiated an international exchange with 13 artists. The resulting artworks are not only powerful expressions of artistic communication at eye level, but they also break an iron law of the graffiti scene: Never paint over the work of another artist!
Books in the MCL: Boulevard – On Trespassing and Culture No. 2 – INSTITUTION
Books in the MCL: Boulevard – On Trespassing and Culture (No. 2 – INSTITUTION)
Parallel to the art world's growing interest in graffiti, street art, and urban art, scholarly research on these fields has also increased steadily in recent years. While standard works can be found in specialized libraries, more in-depth texts and primary sources are often lacking for extensive research. These include rare exhibition catalogs, small editions of gray literature such as illustrated books and scene magazines, but also texts whose relevance has changed in the rapid development of the aforementioned subject areas.
Fresh A.I.R. #6 Scholarship Exhibition "Reflecting Migration"
FRESH A.I.R. #6 SCHOLARSHIP EXHIBITION "REFLECTING MIGRATION"
OPEN: March 12th – July 31st The participants of the 6th class of the Fresh A.I.R. Artist in Residence Scholarship Program present their works. Starting March 12th the Fresh A.I.R. Scholarship Exhibition “Reflecting Migration” is open until July 31st 2022. In 10 rooms at Bülowstraße 90 in Berlin Schöneberg, Fresh A.I.R. participants will show their works, in which they reflect their personal views on migration in a variety of ways and implement it artistically.
Kunstforum_Graffiti_Now_260
BOOKS IN THE MCL: KUNSTFORUM INTERNATIONAL VOL. 260, MAY-JUNE 2019
In June 1982, KUNSTFORUM International devoted an entire volume to the subject of graffiti (vol. 50 “Wilde Bilder. Graffiti und Wandbilder”). At the time, the vague term encompassed both ancient commemorative writings, political murals, facade art, ironic slogans, and several other forms of partly illegal interventions in urban space. Classic graffiti writing, which has characterized the New York cityscape for a decade and has existed in similar forms in Philadelphia and Los Angeles since the 1960s, is mentioned rather casually with three photos and half a page of text. In the months that followed, however, Writing would be carried into Western societies worldwide through films and books and mature into a global movement.
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Highlight.

URBAN NATION Museum Foyer
"TALKING… & OTHER BANANA SKINS"
URBAN NATION presents TALKING… & OTHER BANANA SKINS, curated by Michelle Houston. The colorful and vibrant exhibition provokes dialogue through urban and contemporary art. The exhibition will function as a catalyst and serve as a host for discourse about the most pressing issues of our times.

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ARTIST IN RESIDENCE PROGRAM

With the Fresh A.I.R. program, the Stiftung Berliner Leben awards (Artist-In-Residence) grants to European artists who deal with socio-political and urban issues. The funding enables the scholarship recipients to absorb new inspiration during their stay and develop their artistic skills further while being integrated into Berlin’s cultural life. At the same time, the artists give Berlin residents insight into their perspectives and skills, during workshops and events.

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