A museum becomes a work of art: Super A and URBAN NATION set new standards

With its worldwide unique museum facade design, the URBAN NATION Museum in Berlin-Schöneberg has transformed itself into an artwork and become a new urban development highlight.

The street artist Super A is currently celebrating his very own world premiere: he has designed for the first time the facade of the URBAN NATION MUSEUM FOR URBAN CONTEMPORARY ART with one of his own murals.

The building from the years of rapid industrial expansion in Germany (late 19th – early 20th Centuries), innovatively renovated by GRAFT Architekten, has received a unique canvas in the form of the modular, partially convertible facade. The museum can thus repeatedly have its exterior skin redesigned. Painted facades can be removed, archived and reconstructed at a different location. “The facade design gives the Bülow neighbourhood a boost of colour and positive energy. Through the artwork, we have created a highlight that affects the image of the city in a prominent location, which can best be seen whilst riding by on the overground U-Bahn,” exclaims Yasha Young, the Artistic Director of URBAN NATION. “We are once more demonstrating the value of re-thinking the concept of the museum and turning the building itself into artwork. The interplay between interior and exterior – between urban art on the street and the art pieces hanging in the building – creates a fascinating state of tension.”

Roman Goddess meets robin redbreasts and ravens

The new work at Bülowstraße 7, the museum facade with the title, “No Justice, Just Us,” extends over the edges and several floors of the tower. The Dutch artist Super A portrays as his surreal subject the Roman Goddess of Justice, Justitia, combined with robin redbreasts and ravens, which elevate the significance of the scene on a further metaphorical level.
Justitia appears here not as an ethereal heavenly being, but as a mortal, hollow body, with a kind of mechanical nature: her face, body and limbs are fragile, dissolving and enabling a glimpse behind the scenes. Justitia seems to have been deposed of her function: the robin redbreasts symbolise boldly the nature of antiquity and its insignias of power, testing the capacity for manipulation of the scales and forming a contrast to the surreal figure with their photo-realistic impression.

Is Super A questioning justice, its verdicts and structures on a universal level? Or is he also asking the observer to question the institutions of state? His worldview here seems to be positive: the sword of judgement which stands for “strength” is brittle, yet young shoots spring out representing hope. The artist leaves the interpretation to the viewer.

About Super A

The Dutch artist Super A amazes onlookers with highly metaphorical scenarios, which appear to be extremely realistic due to his very individual style. His work is often like a Pandora’s Box which upon closer observation opens up an endless flood of visual references. Super A’s art constantly moves between fiction and non-fiction – from alienated comic and fairy-tale figures to naturalistic objects – which often humorously comment on world politics. He designed a so-called “One Wall”, a 42-metre-high facade, together with Collin van der Sluijs in the Art Park Tegel in 2016.

Picture materials

You are permitted to use the attached photos of the completed works available at https://urban-nation.com/press/ free of charge (registration needed).