From Görlitz to Taichung

This friday the international group show "coming from the yard - straight out Verschiebebahnhöfe" opens at Neun Görlitz. It's the first show in the european city of Görlitz/Zgorzelec that features a special part of contemporary urban art. Contemporary urban art which is connected to trains. In the City of Waggonbau Görlitz ( now Bombardier Transportation ) it surprises me a lot. I hope in the future we hear more of these specials from Görlitz.
After this opening I'm invited to paint a mural during the show "Face Off" in Taichung/Taiwan. Thanks to Dr. Karsten Steinmetz and Goethe Institut Taipei.

"Travel Of Infinity"- Calender 2014

"Travel Of Infinity -2014 " ( pictures in better quality you can find here) is a silkscreen printed calender i printed this year. The calender is made of 8 sheet of differnt type of paper . The monthly sheets are printed on both sides. Edition of 30. Size 32cm x 50cm - price 150€ (plus shipping) available in Dresden @ Art&Form or via contact form

Three murals for Abrisshaussession 2013

"Welcome 2 Utopia" was located at the entrance to this year edition of Abrisshaussession in Dresden. In abandoned buildings muralists can live the utopia of painting everything they like to paint. Without permissions. Without stress. Without borders. Last Mural in Germany of this years series "Train of Infnity".The infinite train blocks the way of "Handhaving - International". The dutch word "Handhaving" means in german "Ordnungsamt" or in english regulatory authority . These authorities usually criminalise painters in abandoned factories or stop paste up actions in public space. "A view from outside" was my last mural for Abrisshaussession 2013. In the middle of the work you see the weird "Saint Bureokrates" ( der herabgestiegeneParagraphenreiter ) . Attacked from the left by panic-ing masses and on the left a typical yard situation in a peacefull night. Size of each mural is 3m to 4m. To see more details of the works - click on the images.

Abrisshaussessions are back in 2013 !

Between 2005 and 2009 a series of unauthorized exhibitions took place in Dresden called - "Die Abrisshaussessions" ( abandoned buildung sessions)
2005 - NOKOPI AWARD -
2005 - totgesagte leben länger -
2005 - the pixelpunk was fucking your mind -
2007 - ... but sorry i have to leave earlier " -
2009 - Muralismo Morte Museum -

2013 the Abrisshaussessions are back. For one day an abandoned Factory in the area of Dresden is an open place for free art without bureaucratic borders.

The only way to get informations about this show is via E-mail - you can send me a request for this show via facebook or my contact form .
Above you see a first picture of our preparations.

Shepard Fairey, Banksy and ....

This is something about "Nachhaltigkeit" ( engl - sustainability ). In 2005 I runned a small store for street art releated stuff called nokopi. One day a girl arrived in this store and asked for "No logo" - the guy, crew, whatever , who did some stuff in the streets of Barcelona. I told here:"I did some of these paste ups in Barcelona." She was really happy when i said these words. She planned to make a publication about street art in Barcelona during this times. But finally she realized there is much more to research about, if the publication should be good enough for her own standards. The book was never published - but Heike continued to reaserch about the field of street art. From time to time i met here - mostly by accident. The last time i saw here was at some art fair in Berlin about street art. I was there to present my book "muralismo morte". We had a lunch outside the fair and she told me about her results. It was really nice to see, there is somebody who continues to make deep researches in a really dfficult field for outsiders. I was one of the few artists who did not come from a metropolitan City Like Berlin, New York or London. I was the small "noname" from Dresden - who loves to explore the world and paint everywhere. 7 years later i see the results of her long period works - the book "Street Art Karrieren".

For me personally this is not another book about street art. It's in my eyes the first german (maybe worldwide) long term research about the connection of street art hype, art market and style/trademark of an artist. The book shows at its best how much art nowadays is related to a famous name / trademark and how much quality&ideas count (nearly nothing). For Heike I am maybe the artists who is the counterpart in the street-art-world for Banksy&Shepard Fairey. I studied at the academy fine arts, i'm not interested to sell artworks for the financial art market (If I sell my artworks i sell it to collectors & people how appreciate art and not to investment bankers who put my stuff in a bank safe, where nobody can see my stuff )
My main aim is to do public art. Art for the people. Art where I don't need to write concepts. Art where I dont't have to follow bureaucrats and co.
ART THAT HAS NO TRADEMARK. Art that is REALLY free.
Over the years i developed my own way to survive as a freelancer. A mixture of producing, teaching and making research. I traveled to different countries and met a lot,lot,lot active artists. I did murals all over. I printed a lot stuff with silk screen technique. But most of my works are still unpublished till now. I only put works on this blog - that follow a certain style. A style that i like to continue. I still produce a lot,lot,lot more stuff. Stuff that does not fit in here, because it's done for the public and only to be seen in public. And I better leave it to people like Heike to find out who does these works. Who is the "noname" artists who does this kind of scribbling, that kind of message or this type of logolike figure.
It's maybe more difficult to survive from art as an idealist in art ( to have a lot money makes some things a lot easier) But when things like the publishing of this book happen, it's one of the rare moments in my life when i feel: "I did something good in my life. I'm proud about my way".
That's why - THANX A LOT to Heike for her great research. And as i know she is again in a new reaserch project - GOOD LUCK for this and her whole future !!!!
And to finish this article with the beginning - this is a rare example of deep research in the field of street art and that's why it's "nachhaltig" ;)

Untitled Work in Zittau

I painted this one last Sunday during "Tag des offenen Denkmals - Stadt.Als.Leinwand " at FreiraumZittau. I had a nice evening in a small town near two borders with a lots of friendly people - Thanks a lot Steffen for the invitation. Unfortunatly i didn't figure out a name. Even I don't like untitled works.

Kalkomat for Sichtbetong 2013

During this years edition of Sichtbetong I installed a slot machine to sell chalk ( 10ct each ) to people. The Machine is installed at the " Weisseritzgrünzug" - a path along the former way of a small river ( already changed in the beginning of the 20th century). Today you can find a small skatepark and a lot empty space along the path. The machine welcomes everbody to draw along the path - old and young people.

First results made by local art activsts :

Path & Traveller

Path&Traveller is a mural painted in the yard of motorcycle - travellers near the river Weisseritz in Dresden. Thanks a lot to Jens F. for the invitation. To see the whole mural in good resolution check this photo A Video of the development of the work you can see here: watch the video in high resolution here

Mural @ Mystique Magdeburg

Last week i finished a mural for Mystique. Within 4 days i covered the building in dark blue and sprayed all the details. It was hard work but I'm happy with the final result! Thanx a lot to the team of Mystique especially Karsten an Alex. Mystique is an huge artfestival in Magedburg by Kulturanker e.V..If you pass by the area of Sachsen-Anhalt or go to Berlin you should not miss this Festival it's an amazing huge area with lots of stuff !!!! More pictures of the working process you can find on my flickr stream.

Back in Dresden ...

Back in Dresden .... I've been painting in one of my favorite abandoned spots ...

TRAIN of INFINITY mural in Mannheim

Right before the opening of my solo show "TRAIN of INFINITY" I finished the mural "TRAIN of INFINITY". Thanx a lot to Petra of stoffwechsel gallery! I had a nice time in Mannheim ( and a succesful opening of the show.)

exhibition opening - TRAIN of INFINITY

This Thursday my solo show " TRAIN of INFINTY" opens @ stoffwechsel gallery in Mannheim. I show some new screenprints, i did during my last month in Bulgaria & some photos of bulgarian trains&walls. During the week i paint a mural at stoffwechselSPIRAL - an outdoor spot of the gallery in Mannheim University area. For all those who like to join the faccbook event - click here

trash TRAINs of INFINITY

My last days in Sofia i went to a beautiful trash yard in the north of this city. A great place to explore, take pictures and paint. I continued my "TRAIN of INFINITY" series there with drawings on steal done in different techniques. One is made with oilstick and spray, another done with dripmarker and roller and the third done with brush, dripmarker and roller. If you're in Sofia you should definatly check out this place... crazy urban decay. Thanx a lot for taking pictures and video footages to K.K.

Bucarest - abandoned playground

This work was recently done during a one-day trip to Bucarest. Another "TRAIN of INFINITY" drawing on a wall. Thanx to Duno for showing us this nice place.

Solo Show - TRAIN of INFINITY

TRAIN of INFINITY is a solo show at stoffwechselgallery in Mannheim/Germany. Besides some of my "Diaries of Interrails"- works I show some new screenprints. Screenprints i made in Bulgaria during my travel with "the rolling screenprint studio". During my stay in Mannheim I paint a mural at the "spiral" of stoffwechselgallery.The show opens on 20th of June and runs till 3rd of August. More updated Infos about the show here. Another poster of the infinite train pasted in Ruse/Bulgaria .... more pictures about the "TRAIN of INFINITY"-series coming soon

Train of Infinity

This is the first screen print i did during the tour of the " rolling screenprint studio" in Bulgaria. This infinite train is made of international types of Trains. RVR (Eastern Europe) , dutch Doubledecker, German S-train and German Double Decker. "Train of Infinity" is a 3 layer print limited on 30 prints. It's available on our tour through Bulgaria - check out the schedule .

Double Jaga - Sofia

While Babajaga stays in a House with a single leg, my characters have more then just one leg - that's why i called the work DoubleJaga. Done during a nice weekend day on a relaxed sunny spot near Sofia Slavia Stadium ... thanx a lot Xpome & Ster !

This Time German

Mal zur Abwechslung ein deutscher Post - Übersetzungsvorschläge zum Text sind natürlich willkommen. Dieser Text erschien im Katalog zu " jetzt hier. Gegenwartskunst. Aus dem Kunstfonds " "Jens Besser ist ein international vernetzter Street-Art-Künstler. Sein Atelier ist der öffentliche Raum und sein erklärtes Ziel, mehr Freiraum zu schaffen für die Kunst jenseits der Leinwände und Ausstellungsräume. Er leistet künstlerischen Widerstand gegen den Trend zunehmender Privatisierung, Bürokratisierung und Überwachung und hinterfragt das Kunst-Markt-System ebenso wie das Konsumverhalten. Regelmäßig lädt Besser zu Projekten und Workshops ein, die – nicht selten auch am Rande der Legalität – im Stadtraum, an offiziellen Kunst- und inoffiziell angeeigneten Orten stattfinden und die In- und Outsider des Kunstbetriebs zusammenführen. Die Serie „thoughts between stations and superstores“ umreißt den Bewegungsradius eines Street-Art-Künstlers in Einsatz: zwischen Bahnhöfen und Supermärkten. (Silke Wagler, 2013)"

Interrail Chemistry

"Interrail Chemistry" is a mural for my solo show "Diaries of Interrail" in Berlin. The work is located in the gallery idrawalot . The show runs till 30.3.2013. After the show the work will be painted over.

Interview & Video for Ilovegraffiti.de

Just recently i gave an interview to ilovegraffiti for their series 5 minutes on arte creative. The Video shows videofootages that people send me & which I took in recent years in Dresden and Berlin. I talk about the show conceptual vandalism and my work of collecting non-writing stuff on trains on my trainworks-blog The written interview on ilovegraffiti.de is a bit more detailed but only in German.
A Big Thanks goes out to Rene of ilovegraffiti.de !

"Diaries of Interrail" in Berlin

The official Press release...
"Diaries of Interrail" by Jens Besser in Berlin

On Thursday March 7th, the exhibition " Diaries of Interrail" by Jens Besser opens. It's the first official solo-show in Berlin by the artist. Besser is well know for his urban art projects Muralismo Morte ( 2009/2010), Lak Aan Braak ( 2011) , City Bilder ( 2011/12) or Conceptual Vandalism (2012) this time exhibits his own works.

He shows a series of drawings on tickets and silk screen prints. Besser started this series in 2010 when he received a stipend by the cultural fund of Saxony for his project "Trainwork(er)s - tracing shadows of the night". For the project Besser traveled thorugh south Europa via interrail. He met international train painters and made portrait drawings of them in his own style. On his travel he wrote texts, made sketches and painted walls about the topic of painting trains.

In 2010 he moved mainly through the Balkan area and met artists like "Slow from Beograd" , "Kareem of Sofia" or "Ranzlow". Later he traveled to Italy to meet Aris and continued to Spain to meet Kenor & H101. He visited as well Austria and Czech Republic. The Czech artist Sense Jens Besser met severel times. Portraits of "Sense" been used for silk screen prints "Sense from Otrokovice" in different varieties.

After parts of the show been exhibited in group shows in Montreal, Sofia, Amsterdam, Düsseldorf, Hamburg and Dresden now the series is shown for the first time completly in Berlin.

About the artist

Jens Besser finished his studies at the academy of fine arts Dresden in 2008. Since then is an active freelance artist. Official murals by Besser can be found in Santiago de Chile , Oaxaca (MEX) , Sofia (BG), Heerlen (NL) , Hamburg , Leipzig or Dresden e.g. Jens Besser lives in Dresden and works all over Europe.
In 2010 he got a stipend by the cultiural fund of Saxony.
In 2012 the fund of art Saxony bought a series of works by Besser. The works are exhibited till 30th of may in the show " jetzt hier. Gegenwartskunst. aus dem Kunstfonds".

dates of the exhibition

opening: Thursday 7.3.2013 - 7 p.m.
exhibitions runs from 8. till 30. of march 2013
opening times of the gallery: tuesday - Friday 12 a.m.- 6 p.m.,  Wednesday 12a.m. - 9p.m. , Saturday 1p.m. - 6p.m.

adress: Idrawalot - Boddinstrasse 60, 12053 Berlin-Neukölln

"jetzt hier" opening & guided tour

click on the pictures to enlarge
As the youngest participant of the show "jetzt hier. Gegenwartskunst. aus dem Kunstfonds" I'm happy to announce as well the publishing of a well done small catalogue for the show. It's more like a booklet that reminds me on another nice catalogue i had years ago in my hands. Maybe the aim was to make a booklet that fit's into a bag of art collectors and world travelling curators instead of producing another heavy weight book. I really like the idea and the price is fair, too. Only 5€. But the catalogue is not the only thing i like to promote. Today i offer a guided tour in Dresden - Friedrichstadt - to Murals and public interventions in Dresden-Friedrichstadt - feel free to come around - start 4 p.m. - Adlergasse 14 / riesa efau entrance - there is no fee - donations are always welcome ;)

Triple Impact in March

first
At the moment I prepare my upcoming show "Diaries of interrail" in Berlin at idrawalot . The show opens on 7th of march. It's my first official solo show in Berlin. It's the first exhibition where I show the complete series of 19 drawings on international Tickets plus 15 different silkscreen prints. The drawings are portraits of international train painters who i met between 2010 and 2012. Some works of the series i did during of my stipend of cultural fund of saxony in 2010 called "trainwork(er)s - auf den Spuren nächtlicher Schatten". Some drawings of this series were already exhibited in shows in Amsterdam, Sofia, Montreal, Hamburg, Düsseldorf and Dresden.
3 portaits of the series shown at "Diaries of interrail".
"Burnrout by Bureaucracy"picture via SKD
second
Some of my works that have been bought by Kunstfonds Sachsen last year are exhibited in the show "jetzt hier.Gegenwartskunst aus dem Kunstfonds" at Kunsthalle im Lipsiusbau in Dresden. This show runs from 1st of March till 20th of May.

third
And because in general my works are in the street I offer during the show "jetzt hier.Gegenwartskunds aus dem Kunstfonds" an "urban art walk". The walk happens on 2nd of March. Start 4p.m. at Adlergasse 14 - Dresden Friedrichstadt See you In Dresden & Berlin ;)

"Question your consumerism" at "artists fair dresden" for galerie module & IKEA

Last Time i went to galerie module for a talk I was asked by Galerist Verena Andreas ( galerie module Dresden ) If my work " Question your consumerism", done at artists fair dresden for galerie module & IKEA Dresden , is against Ikea. The answer was "No" - but i had to explain the content , even you see it ! The message is directed to the people who don't think about stuff they buy. A company , like IKEA, deuter ( german back packs), lichtblick ( german eco power supply) or whatever is always responsible to their clients. If the clients don't buy stuff of the company, the company is forced to change the startegy. That means, as long as I don' t think about the fact that a backpack of deuter is produced in Vietnam ( written on their website) and I buy a backpack of deuter - i support the strategy of this company. For the work "Question your consumerism" I made some research about the product we painted on. The product is produced in Brazil at a company that has an professional looking website. The pictures i saw, did not show me any anything that i should question. When i visited Brazil , i saw places like this factory, but in general i can say Brazil is a crazy developing country and young people and companies think a lot about ecosystem. The only problem is - they often don't act like they think about - something they have in common with a lot of alternative freaks around the world ;)The only thing people most probably should think about is the long way, the product is delivered. All over the world big ships transport a crazy amount of goods from Place A to B. And we can read where the prodcts come from ( at least in 90% of all cases - some firms don't leave the country of production on the products, wehn they customize a bit at the product and then write instead the own country ). But IKEA wrote the origin of the product "Made in Brazil". On of the big problems around the world is the stupid transportation of products. Every year ships cause desasters in oceans and coastal ecosystems. That's why painted a ship that loses oil in the ocean. But The people want cheap stuff. You can buy stuff produced in Europe , but it costs more. But people don't want to spent more money to something that is ecological. People buy even "eco"-apples from italy or south africa even they have some around the corner in their german home-town.So my message as you can see is not against some big company - it's a message to the people. The final aim of this action for Ikea was to install the works in their store in Dresden. I hope this will happen , because i want the shoppers to think about the stuff they buy everywhere. Not only at IKEA ! That's why to start this discussion at a fair was the best place to promote this Idea. Fairs are places where clients are asked about new products and ne developments. back of the product detail - open source detail - we love trainz , we hate cars

"travelling without moving" - Winter in Friedrichstadt

"travelling without moving" - City Bilder continues ! This work is connected to the work boiling ideas. Both works are painted in passages that connect noisy main streets with a calm backyards. They are kind of a passages where you feel like in a world of between, of nowhere , of another space. The roof is painted , too. I can get the best impressions of these works if you check it out in real - Go there ! The third passage to this backyard is painted by - JBAK. Both are part of City Bilder - an ongoing mural project in Dresden-Friedrichstadt.