Muralu

Preface

This page is a tribute to the artists who worked in our city, and they were perhaps happy about my documentations. But they did not feel comfortable with my comments in German: logically, who of us understands what a friend wants to express in his own, for us a foreign language?

This page is also intended to draw the attention of all people who are interested in art and do not understand German to this extraordinary project in our city!

The project was launched by the Wilhelm-Hack-Museum - funded by BASF SE - in 2018 as street art and is intended to enrich art in Ludwigshafen's public space with extraordinary façade paintings. Invited to these projects are internationally successful artists, but also regional and national greats of this scene, who present their oversized works on bare house walls and thus manifest the art itself in a previously unknown form in Ludwigshafen.

MURALU is an artificial word composed of the English word 'mural' and the license plate of Ludwigshafen 'LU'.

A total of ten such works are planned, which will make an important contribution in 2022 as part of an exhibition of the Wilhelm-Hack-Museum on the importance of street art in the 20th and 21st centuries.

Augustine Kofie

Please have a look at the artist's page!

Art in the harbour

Kick-off of the street art series Muralu, in October 2018.

A building of the Harbour Authority, which houses a branch of the Ludwigshafen police, has been given a new makeover by street artist Augustine Kofie from Los Angeles!

Translation of the Newspaper article

Brand new and rocked out

For seven days and always from early morning until nightfall, Augustine Kofie stood on the cherry picker and turned a house façade in slightly scruffy yellow into a great work of geometric shapes, interlocking circles, numbers and letters in various shades of orange and purple. In the end, he had created a 472.6 square metre surface. It is the American artist's first permanent mural in Germany and one of his largest works. The 45-year-old spoke of a "fantastic experience" when his finished work of art on the corner of Lagerhausstraße and Schwanthaler Allee was presented yesterday.

The design of the façade at Luitpoldhafen is to be followed by many more in the coming months and years. Ten are currently planned. There is no shortage of available space, said René Zechlin, director of the Wilhelm Hack Museum. Next, the back of the Sparkasse building facing the Rhein-Galerie is to be embellished, if it works out, by two Greek artists. Not only internationally known but also street artists from the region are to design the façades. The project, called "Muralu" after the term for contemporary murals, is to culminate in an exhibition on the significance of the street in the context of artistic developments in 2020. Graffiti is to be one aspect of this. "We didn't just want to illustrate this with photos in the museum, but to realise something in advance," Zechlin said. Augustine Kofie hopes to come to Ludwigshafen again for the exhibition opening - a city he described as very inspiring. It was precisely the fact that the project is the responsibility of an official institution that is a municipal museum that convinced him to accept the commission. This had not always been the case with his previous permanent wall designs in Paris, Boston, Marrakech and London.

For the design of the building, Kofie had already prepared drafts at home in Los Angeles in months of preparatory work, which were then heavily modified on site. The fact that it looks brand new in many places and in others as if it has been exposed to wind and weather for years - that is purely intentional. It is "exactly this mixture that I like", Kofie said about his aesthetics. And compared the work to a city in which old and new cars drive around. Kofie only found out after his arrival in Ludwigshafen that the police reside in the building between Depot Lu and Luitpoldhafen, which belongs to the port companies, with a few offices. And took note of it with enthusiasm. If you look at the history of graffiti, which began in the 1980s and often took place illegally, it's great, said the Californian. 

He himself, who in his youth sometimes incurred the displeasure of police officers because of extensive skateboarding ("all harmless"), has been part of the street art scene in West Los Angeles since the mid-1990s. In his works, he repeatedly refers not only to street culture but also to art history. His abstract work is a perfect fit for the Wilhelm Hack Museum, Zechlin said. The "Muralu" project, however, wants to give space to different styles and aesthetic approaches. For Cornelia Reifenberg (CDU), head of the department of culture, the graffiti project also means that the museum is opening up further into the city - as it has done for years with the Hackgarten. These are "extremely positive developments". And Eberhard Weber, the vice-president of the Rhine-Palatinate police headquarters, was pleased about the opportunity to take a different look at the police "than we are usually used to". The police certainly have a great affinity with art. 

Koutsikos und Kollektiv Blaqk

Art at the Savings Bank

September 2020: the MONEYBOX 

On the rear façade of the Sparkasse Vorderpfalz in Rheinuferstraße, three well-known Greek artists designed a joint project in which they worked together for the first time:

Parisko Koutsikos and the Collective Blaqk with Greg Papagrigoriou and Chris Tzaferos (Simek).

Here's a trip to Moneybox on a great site!

Translation of this newspaper article

Ludwigshafen. The Ludwigshafen street art project Muralu went into the next round with three renowned Greek artists: Paris Koutsikos - also known as Parisko - and the Blaqk collective, consisting of the two artists Greg Papagrigoriou and Chris Tzaferos (Simek) designed the façade at the back of the Sparkasse Vorderpfalz within only five days. The permanent mural on Rheinuferstraße is the second "mural" realised as part of the Muralu street art project.

"After we launched Muralu with the renowned Los Angeles-based artist Augustine Kofie at Luitpoldhafen, we are very pleased that our street art project is now being continued with the mural by Parisko and Blaqk. This is the artists' first joint project in Germany," says curator Dr Astrid Ihle.

In their works, the Athens-born artists Parisko and Blaqk combine calligraphy, typography and geometry, which represents a new and unusual approach in the field of street art. Their collaboration in Ludwigshafen combines Parisko's abstract lettering with Blaqk's minimalist black and white aesthetic.

"Moneybox" is the title of the monumental mural, which can also be read as lettering on the façade. On the one hand, it is based on the box-shaped architecture of the building, on the other hand on its function: a financial institution.

The Sparkasse Vorderpfalz was one of the first supporters of the Muralu street art project who agreed to provide an external wall. The design of the mural was developed in close consultation with the Sparkasse Vorderpfalz and the Wilhelm Hack Museum. Thomas Traue, Chairman of the Board of Sparkasse Vorderpfalz, emphasises: "Energy and inventiveness deserve to be supported. We were very happy to participate in the Muralu street art project from the very beginning and supported it with our Sparkasse Foundation. The results are impressive. Within a very short time, the three Greek street artists Paris Koutsikos, Greg Papagrigoriou and Chris Tzaferos have created an attractive eye-catcher on our wall in Rheinuferstraße."

Limow

A Forest: Das Kind. November 2020

Green, green, green is all I see...

From 5th November 2020

This rhyme from a german children's song is something the artist LIMOW wants to strip off: Namely, he will only leave as much greenery on this house façade in Karlsbader Straße 23, Gartenstadt-Niederfeld, as his sketches envisage! These plans are of a nature that playfully and easily tell of special fantasy creatures, and will be quite unusual and thus fascinating. I am not allowed to reveal more; David's sketches were allowed to be photographed, but only under the condition that they not be shown until the complete work is finished. So I follow his work almost daily and only present his ideas afterwards; I'm sure it will be very interesting!

I can accompany this artist during the creation of his work; this is a unique opportunity to follow thoughts, sketches, hand strokes, colours and so on, which were planned beforehand, as they grow into reality - and thus also necessary corrections! Real life, then...

If you want to know something about the artist, you will hardly find anything on his website: Limow acts extremely publicly, but is equally extremely reticent about private matters. Look here. Nevertheless, he is a very open and pleasant person! Born in Spain in 1972, he has been living in Heidelberg for some time, but he speaks English.

LIMOW: This artist's name is derived from "Living in my own world". LIMOW uses fairy tales and stories in his works, depicting people, animals and mythical creatures in surreal landscapes. 

Title of this work: "A Forest: The Child": Giant creatures look down on the little boy waiting for the bus with his cat: as we will only see clearly at the end! *smile

5th November 2020: Everything is still green, only some auxiliary lines are stretched; and the author of the article as well...

6th: The rough outlines of the figures are created. The areas marked with X are filled in by a young artist who was also involved in the graffiti work in Ebertpark.

7th: Oha! Are there already halfway clear figures to be seen? I mean, I can see some ears around some faces...
David sets more guide lines at the bottom.

8th: Limow jokingly said today that he had acquired another slave artist! Two days ago it was a young man, today a young lady.

9th: Progress is being made bit by bit!

11th: The details are beginning to emerge!

13th.: Today's article has become a bit more extensive, because Limow invited me onto the lift truck! So I managed to take some extraordinary pictures; despite my fear of heights...

17th: Very tedious work: designing the details!

19th: The elaboration becomes finer and finer, and thus the overall work more and more fascinating.

21st: You might think that not much has happened! Firstly, however, small things move slowly, and to make matters worse, Limow had to repair areas washed out by the light rain that had not yet dried after his work.

23rd: Unbelievable! Limow actually wanted to be finished on 12th November, after one week after beginning: "This was my plan", says Limow.

But as it is in life, things rarely work out as perfectly as planned! Today, however, the very last work has been completed: the last mistakes have been corrected, a few nice details have been added... Done, one would think. Only: Limow has to come again, because his signature is still missing at the foot of the work!

Now I may insert the sketch that Limow showed me on the first day. If you look closely, you will see small deviations: these are the freedoms an artist needs during work!

ACKNOWLEDGEMENT BY LIMOW

Dear Norbert,

Thank you very much for your fantastic article. Very fresh and real, I wouldn't change anything :).
It was very nice to have you for documentation, you are very committed with your work and clearly you love and respect art, it's been a pleasure to work with you.
I wish you all the best Norbert, we keep in contact!

David

Artist Duo Video.Sckre

At Hochfeldstraße 155, Ludwigshafen's Gartenstadt, a building belonging to the housing company GAG is being decorated again; apparently GAG has taken a mighty liking to the previous project?

This German-Austrian artist duo consists of Julia Heinisch (*1990, Linz) and Frederic Sontag (*1988, Ludwigsburg). The two have combined their creative energies and are constantly working together on art projects and commissions.

A central theme in their artistic works are the various forms and facets of nature. Their tools are paint rollers, brushes and spray cans.

The duo has deliberately refrained from giving the mural a name; titles would always imply something specific, but viewers should think about it for themselves

When I asked Julia how far they stick to their sketches: "Only roughly! The overall work is clearly given, but the intuition during the work is an important, artistic point of view; without this freedom it would just be painting off..." And who is 'responsible' for which work on such a piece? "Frederic usually does the parts with graffiti elements, I take care of nature with all its facets." "Yes," Frederic adds, "in my youth I was addicted to graffiti. Like many others, I often had to atone for it because we simply didn't have any approved areas to let our art run wild. Nowadays, fortunately, things are different: graffiti, like façade painting, has become a recognised art form that gets attention all over the world." He goes on to point out that he was even invited to Kyrgyzstan once to show a piece of work: "Without payment, but also without any expenses..." and winks happily.

Somehow I have to smile at his statement "in my youth": with his almost 23 years, he still belongs to the youth for me... And he is already really successful: the next project will soon take place in Vienna, where the two of them will be allowed to design a concrete wall three metres high and 18 metres long.

I ask Julia how it is possible to paint such clear contours on such a rough surface with a brush or even a paint roller, and then you both come with a spray can and fill in these contours without touching them even once; unbelievable to me! Julia smiles charmingly: "Well, practice! Like everything in life!"

At the end of the work, I am still interested in how Frederic feels about such a work: does he feel pride? After a long look at this wonderful house wall, he says: "Pride, I guess not; that was certainly the case with the first works. Now it's just satisfaction!" And he adds after another long look: "I can see some flaws here and there where I didn't do a perfect job; so it's still a long step to real satisfaction.

Oh yes: they both ask me for one more shot. "Can you take another shot in the late evening sun? It looks really good when the last rays fall through the trees in the background and paint wonderful light/shadow effects on the house wall..."

For a few days I was not able to do that: there was no more evening sun.... It was only on 7th June that I was able to fulfil my promise!

     Please note the art presentations of this duo on this page.

Unfortunately, I was indisposed during the first days of the creation, but I may fall back on photos by Andreas Heinrich: Thank you very much, Andy! 

25th May 2021

26th

28th
From here on I was personally in action....

29th

In this article I not only show the general progress, but focus your attention on the details: it is almost unbelievable how filigree the work is! On a big sheet of paper, yes, you can imagine that; but on a surface that is so incredibly rough, the true skills of these artists show... Look and marvel!

30th: Final day...

I just asked the two artists for a simple portrait; the pre-last picture in the article above is a snapshot before the session started.

Unfortunately, I couldn't decide on a 'real' portrait, which is why I'm showing you the short series of pictures in one piece: You'll see why I can't shortchange any of the pictures of this friendly couple....

Please be patient, this picture show runs automatically! But you can always have a look at a photo in its original size: just click on it.

Addendum of my personal observations:

The reactions of walkers were enormously positive, praise was anything but sparing! Many car drivers also stopped spontaneously and expressed their enthusiasm with signs or words. Julia said that once there was actually a rear-end collision at one of their works...

Agostino Iacurci

Palm tree near the Rhine River, Ludwigshafen, Germany

In Ludwigshafen's Gartenstadt, Hochfeldstraße 135, a colourful façade painting is being created almost at the same time as the previous project, Video.Sckre.

Agostino Iacurci (1986) was born in Italy and lives in Berlin as of 2017. Since 2009, the artist has painted a lot of murals around the globe. He also devotes himself to plastic art, classical painting and installations in public spaces.

Please also have a look at his art presentations on this page!

The motif is meant to be a 'discreet' hint that due to global warming palm trees will soon grow in Ludwigshafen too *smile*

Natalia Rak

Let Forever Be, Juli 2021

From 3rd to 9th July

Despite her young age, the Polish artist Natalia Rak has already had a remarkable artistic career. In 2011, she began with her first large-scale paintings; since then, she has been booked worldwide and has also participated in various noteworthy street art festivals. You can read about her career here. 

Let yourself be carried away into the world of Natalia Rak's murals! 

To the work at Hochfeldstraße 137, Ludwigshafen-Gartenstadt:

The artwork is created on the other side of the façade of the same building where the palm tree is already emblazoned: please look at the previous article Agostino Iacurci.

Natalia started her work in the darkness of the evening of 3rd July 2021: a projection on the wall of the building allowed her to sketch the entire future work. Unfortunately, I was not able to document this, I only captured the result on Saturday, 4th July.

The next day I was able to talk to Natalia for the first time. When I asked her if her work had a name, she shook her head with a smile: "No! Not even a working title". Spontaneously I thought of: "Lady in Bath", because this central motif caught my eye first. "Why not?" laughed Natalia.

A few days later, the work became much clearer and I renamed it "TeaTime'" for myself.

Additions by other photographers:

My heartfelt thanks to Murat Bilir and Andy Heinrich! :-)

Udane Juaristi (Udatxo)

1 - Alte Straßenbahn, Juli 2021
2 - Valentin-Bauer-Straße, Juli 2021

This young Spanish artist began her work at Franz-Josef-Erhart-Straße no. 5 on July 7. Udane brought her cousin Olaia Ibañez with her as reinforcements.

These two extremely nice and cheerful young women painted not only this façade, but also that of house no. 7.

In response to my question, I was allowed to see a kind of sketches: photomontages with one main shareholder each, behind them historical photographs of Ludwigshafen. My understandable request for the sketches to be made available was - understandably - not answered... ;-)

Later Udane told me: "The museum sent me some old photos of the city, specifically the Valentin-Bauer neighborhood. I made some montages with the old photographs and some of my own current photos on Photoshop, mounting my idea, the final sketch. I am painting on the wall based on this sketch.
The museum also sent me photos of the walls to get an idea of what they were like."

What I had seen on these sketches bleed me away! I was very curious to see how the artist would implement this. In any case, the two facades will become an absolute eye-catcher, although the street is a little hidden. Maybe this article will change that!

I wish to redirect you to the homepage; but even there you won't find a biography: Udane seems to be hiding...

Udane works only with brushes, and in a very special technique: There are no clear contours, much is only hinted at and only from a certain distance results in an overall picture, which is  in its slightly amorphous form particularly fascinating.

Equally fascinating are the mass details, some of which have been incorporated as tiny brushstrokes and hint at a kind of impressionalism that runs over the entire oeuvre anyway. My close-ups certainly illustrate this.

First project: Starts 7th July 2021 - Ends: 14th July 

Second project: Starts 14th July 2021 - Ends: 20th July

The last mural project this year was created from 26th up to 31th July 2021 in the Hemshof (district of the City), on an old façade next to the venerable Maffenbeyer, the oldest pub in Ludwigshafen. The brick façade was preserved; a novelty among the previous murals in Ludwigshafen!
A woman as if from a fairy tale, in harmonious unity with aviation animals from dream and reality.

Let's take a look at the fantastic world of Lula, on two wonderful pages: Lula's homepage and on a street art page

About the person:
Lula Goce is a Spanish urban artist who lives by the sea in Galicia, where she was born.

Technique:
Lula creates certain imaginations, powerful, huge photorealistic scenes that are characterized by bright colors and a strong expressiveness. She fuses people with nature, adding fresh inspiration and "poetry" to her creations.

Short career:
Lula lived in Barcelona for a long time, where she obtained a Ph.D. (highest academic degree in the field of philosophical faculties) as well as a master's degree in artistic creation at the Fine Art University of Barcelona. Her spectacular works can be seen all over the world on walls, at art festivals and in prominent art centers.

26th

27th

28th

29th

30th

31th July

1st August

DALeast

Juli 2022

On 13.7.2022 began preparations for a new mural, at the bunker of BASF in Brunckstraße. The artist began work on 15.7: Actually, the underground of the bunker should remain unchanged. But since the photo sent to him, on which he based his color designs, differed from the brightness of the concrete color on location, he discarded his original plans and decided on a primer in a wonderful blue; he also had to adjust his sketched colors for the spray work.

Since 2010, the incredibly intricate works can be admired all over the world, please check out the artist's website, your eyes will pop! 

DALeast showed me a sketch in advance, which impressed me enormously: In his delicate way of spraying, he will raise two sides of the bunker into a work of art that stylistically reflects the clouds of the surrounding sky.

13. - 16.7.

17.7.

18.7.

21.7.

22.7.

24.7.

25.7.

Cinta Vidal

From 20.7.2022, a new mural was created in Saarlandstraße, the sketch of which I could not see beforehand, but only discovered during the work.  These extraordinary paintings, which describe impossible realities, are somewhat reminiscent of the Dutch artist M.C. Escher.

The two façades are accessible to a wide public, as the buildings are located on a main road near the city centre; accordingly, the attention is great!

Please take note of the homepage!

From starting 19.7.2022 up to 26.7. 2022

28.7.2022

A documentary, which shows especially how concentrated work has to be done on such a great work. The other photos are just very beautiful....

30.7.2022: Finished!

Thank you for getting the chance to know both of you!

Ebertpark

Walls and steles in the Ebertpark, Ludwigshafen, Germany

October 2020: 

In the context of the Muralu project, an idea was suddenly born after a long period of stagnation: In the former "rose garden" of the Ebertpark, walls and steles formerly covered with roses were lying dormant: this was crying out for "street art": paint us!

Several regional and national artists answered this call and set to work with joy, as the results prove.

A pleasant and surprising fact: two of the artists from the previously shown project 'Moneybox' still had some time left and spontaneously joined this joint action: you will certainly recognise their 'handwriting' in the following pictures.

They were also joined by Limow, who unintentionally took longer with his project and was therefore still in the area.

So here we go into the realms of Ebertpark, looking not only at the individual works but also at the environment in which they are placed.

Under their works you will find links to their respective pages: one can only be speechlessly amazed there...

Overview