Murals, stencils, graffiti or paste-ups mark the face of entire urban districts and have long since entered the cultural mainstream. As opposed to ubiquitous advertisement, they have the power to provide public space with a sense of individuality, identity and sometimes even controversy. But Urban Art even goes beyond that, as it invites us to experience the city not only as a site for architecture, but, above all, as a social space.
The movement is about to change the way we see and think about our urban environment and its creative power has propelled it to the attention of both politics and the art scene. As a regional cooperation project, TRANSURBAN is the result of these developments and takes up the challenge of Urban Art in North Rhine-Westphalia. The temporary platform brings together most diverse actors from the cities of Dortmund, Essen, Düsseldorf, Cologne, Hagen and Bochum, bundling their actvities in a joint five-month art and cultural programme. This publication collects comprehensive information on all projects in the form of texts and images. Transcribed city talks and essays engage with central questions of “Urban Art on its way to become an institution.
Artists
ao. Elian Chali, AEC Interesni Kazki, Claudio Ethos, MOST, Tymon, Lea Carla Diestelhorst
