Tel Aviv / Isreal - works in abandoned spots and the streets

out of the series "Murals of the future" simple black drawings on clear white walls take aways from Tel Aviv somewhere near Batsheva Dance Company

Black Circle Festival - Summer 2016 in Ukraine

Last year i went to Ukraine to participate in the autonomous organized festival "Black Circle". After six hours staying in a bus at the polish-ukrainian border I finally arrived in Lviv. There Blazej Rusin picked my up and the whole Black Circle Crew met up at the regional train station of Lviv. It was sunny weather and perfect time for camping in the carpatian mountains. The 2016 edtion of Black Circle was held near the river Stryi somewhere near the town Stryi. For about 6 days we stayed together in a rural area near an unfinished nuclear powerplant. The construction of the powerplant stopped at an early stage but in the whole area we found nice huge walls and hidden spots of all kind. Caves, Large walls, small walls, rooms of empty houses...
During my stay at Black Circle I met a lot of ukrainian artists. Some of them took time to do collaborations. Here s a collabo with eas from Krementschuk. One night we had terrible strong rain. To survive the rain and not just sitting in the tents we started to sing and move like Indians around our fire place. Out of this movement we performed the "Karimata Brigada Dance" - the "Thermal Mat Brigade Dance". As a tribute to that crazy night i painted a mural. For the whole week we stayed offline and we had a lot of talks and a nice time in the outback. In between also some deep thoughts about urban art theory. Thanks a lot to the whole Black Circle Crew !

From Riadh To Jeddah

Around my accomodation in Riadh I found some abandoned old doors and I did some quick oilstick drawings there. The doors were really dusty and the heat of the sun let the oilpaint melt and a nice side effect happend.

During my visit of Janadriyah Festival I saw the new metro for Riadh, unfortunatly it was behind plexiglass, so I couldn't paint it :( But it has a perfect panel surface - like a white canvas.

My last work in Riadh I did in the DQ - short for Diplomatique Quarter. A Diplomat of the german embassy asked me if I like to do a work in his flat. There I did a spray drawing in the corner of the living room. After I finished we had a coffee and he brought me to the airport to continue my trip in direction Jeddah.

I arrived early in the morning in Jeddah and after a nap Deyaa and me went to downtown Jeddah - the best area to visit. I found some of my old works there. This piece I did few hours before I left Jeddah last year. I only had night shots of the work and I did not imagine to see it again in my life. I was really happy to go there again and see as well the result of a workshop we did there last year with street kids. Inside the building are still works of the show "Inner Voices".

Riadh Part II

During the second day of my stay in Riadh i explored the area around the Hotel. I found an abandoned house where it was possible to paint in a hidden alley because of strong shadows. In the building a Saudi lives who decided not to live the normal "Saudi-life". He uses a bicycle to buy the daily newspapers - A "real" Saudi always uses his car. He lives in that house without comfort like air condition. But he was really relaxed and peacefull. He liked the works we did there and said "thanks for the cool stuff " - I was suprised about his good spoken english. That's why my last work at this spot included his bicycle and is called "Feel free". The piece is done with oilstick and smashed sprays.

At the same house I did a second workshop with locals. We painted the ground to connect the walls to a huge piece. It was a crazy action, because we smahsed nearly all the cans which we took to the place and it smelled extremly.

During my exploration i found lots of walls with sprayed mobile phone numbers. All the numbers are written by workers who look out for jobs, such as teachers, construction builders and so on. Sometimes they write detailed descriptions of their skills. In my eyes tagging at its best.

Halle - Dresden - Riadh

Sometimes german winter makes me extremly frustrated. This year’s winter I worked on a muralproposal and murals. I didn’t really recognized that winter was there. In January i worked for a participation of „Kunst am Bau“ for the new build finance office of Halle/Saale - Germany. I was selected to participate in the competition. My proposal was a contemporary sgraffito work on the facade of the building. Finally i won the third prize. From 3rd to 22nd March all proposals are exhibited in the finance office of Halle/Saale - Germany.


After i finished my proposal i came again to Saudi-Arabia. I was invited to participate with a graffiti & street art workshop at Janadriiah Festival / Riadh. The authorities didn’t allow the workshop on the festival area, but we did a workshop in the diplomatique quarter.

Because the workshop didn't happen at the festival area I had enough time to do more stuff together with some locals and i visited again Jeddah.
Here the first impressions from Riadh inculding some works.

Street Messages - page 61

Oldie but Goldie - the "No Name No Fame" - roller tag series is recently published in the book "Street Messages " by Nicholas Ganz. It's a really nice collection of messages, slogans and poems found in the streets by various artists from all over the world. Including Laser 3.14, Samo (Basquiat & Al Diaz), Jenny Holzer or Banksy. Besides short artistic explanations you find three texts about street messages, political slogans and street poems. The book has a well balance in text and photo. Street Messages is published at Dokument Press . Hopefully you will find it in your favorite library or book shop - for sure in the internet.

Fractals - New Stickers and prints

I started to do new prints on paper and during the printing process i thought: „ Why don’t you print some unique stickers again - like in 2003. Unique pieces for the public - not just digital shit, like advertisment.“ In this way my new silk screen printed series „Fractals“ worked out. „Traditional German“ Street Art style on postal sticker - I still love these postal stickers. Some are already spread over the world - pictures you can find on my photostream Some more examples Fractals series

Entrance to Utopia

My second work was inside a sculpture. „The accident“ is a sculpture at corniche road along the coastside of Jeddah. „The accident“ by Julio La Fuente is part of a public art program, or better urban beautification program,  in Jeddah done in the 70s. Jeddah claims to be the biggest urban art museum in the world. You can find on all roundabounds another strange sculpture - a huge carpet with car on top, a big tap, big cisterns or a huge fist. This city is full of big weird sculptures.

And Everybody knows „the accident“. It’s extremly visible and in a city without public transport - cars are a special theme. 

When we first passed by this sculpture i told the driver to stop. This work had such a strange and strong impact on me, that a needed to look closer. I realized that it was possible to enter inside. I climbed through the broken car window and discovered a hidden place - perfect for drawing and right in the central public view. I found a lot of waste inside. It reminded me on a typical abandoned factory where you could find needls or beer bottles . I discovered writings from 2000. I decided to do an drawing piece inside.

The next day i went for working inside. A friend of mine was checking outside, if police comes, or something else happens. During my drawing session outside a lot cars, even police and some workers passed by. The workers cleaned the streets around the sculpture. If policemen had asked me what i did i would carefully explain them my work, because i did nothing illegal in my eyes. But nobody discovered me during my daytime work inside.

Being inside i remembered some drawing sessions in abandoned places in Dresden and Milan. I thought about a work i did in end of 2013 which was called „Welcome 2 Utopia“. These hidden places are full of Freedom and Anarchy - utopian places. This is where i started my drawing. First i primed the wall at some spaces in black, later i continued drawing over the black spots with spontanous ideas. I did a drawing of the sculpture, another one of the real Kaba , some coffeemaker - these works dealed with circles. Then - Because of being thirsty i drew a bottle of water. I continued a house, Birds flyig outside the sculpture. I added some connections, a hidden room and comments. A sign „back to public reality".  Finally i called the work „Entrance to Utopia“. 



After leaving the sculpture i went straight to the car where the driver waited outside - for 2 hours in heavy sunlight. Just thirty minutes later we passed by again. Local artists and me did a tour through Jeddah about art and Street Art in Jeddah. They where extremly amazed about my story and the idea of the work inside the sculpture.

Jeddah days & nights

In February i was invited by Goethe Institut Kairo to give workshops in Jeddah/Saudi Arabia. Saudia-Arabia is a country you can only enter with an official Visa. As a non - muslim there is the only opportunity to enter Saudi-Arabia with an invitation. I thought i should use this rare opportunity to see a country where people have really bad thoughts about. It finally turned out as a really good decision.

Originally it was planned to partcipate in Janadriyah Festvial in Riadh - but the festival was canceled. So I ended up in giving a workshop for street kids and another workshop for young designers and street artists from Jeddah. These workshops happend at a „Street Art“-show organized by Athrart gallery in a former garage in Al-Balad - the most beautifull area of Jeddah. Al-Balad has a high population of foreign people - it’s much more livley then other parts of the city, because of it’s narrow streets and old beautiful houses.

Before I gave the workshops i met up with local writers and we went out drawing in public space.



This is the biggest work i did there. 4-5 meters high, around 10 meters wide, done with stick and spray. It shows a former King from Saudi Arabia. You should know this King from Saudi Arabia let build a trainline used for public transport between Riad and the northern coast of Saudi Arabia which is still in use. You can imagine how angry the oil companies went out when they heart about these plans. A train in the country of oil&cars ? But take care - it’s only a tribute to the trainline in the City of missing public transport called Jeddah ;) More works follow soon !