Berlin artists in isolation resort to hanging art from balconies

Take a walk through the unusually empty streets of Berlin these days, and you might see more public art than usual.

The city, already known for its rich population of creatives and the street art on its walls, is one of many around the world to have shuttered its museums in an effort to slow coronavirus infection numbers.

Artists in Berlin, deprived of a means of displaying their work, are now resorting to hanging their art from balconies instead.

A good 50 artists in isolation are hanging out their works on balconies and in windows over the Easter weekend, as all of Germany remains on lockdown.

Unlike most art shows in Berlin however, this will have no official opening and draw no crowds, curators Ovul Durmusoglu and Joanna Warsza said.

The aim of the project, in Berlin’s Prenzlauer Berg district, normally bustling with tourists, is to invite people to take a walk within their own neighbourhood, rather than being tempted to wander too far from home by warm weather and time off work.

The organizers see the art on the balconies as a statement of solidarity against isolation, against the coronavirus and the fear associated with it.

Among the participants are the conceptual artist Olaf Nicolai, known from the Documenta in Kassel and the Venice Biennale, the Serbian video artist Marta Popivoda and the German-Italian filmmaker Rosa Barba, whose works have also been shown several times at the Biennale.

Source: dpa