The last two days were all in the name of one very remark­able part of Ber­lin: the BLOCK in Kreuzberg, com­pris­ing of Adalbert-, Oranien– and Skal­itzer­straße and the streets within their prox­im­ity. The Rock the Block exhib­i­tion/kiezfestival was brought to life by Back­jumps, a Kreuzberg loc­ated urban arts ini­ti­at­ive and magazine, in cooper­a­tion with the Kun­straum Kreuzberg/Bethanien. Back­jumps, if you remem­ber, have been host­ing a couple of exhib­i­tions so far that we’ve vis­ited and have now trans­ferred their gal­lery space into “real­ity”, if you will. Instead of using proper artsy can­vas they’ve decided to go with the urban art spirit and dis­play their artists works on walls, build­ings, on the streets and among the pass­ersby. Dozens of artists were part of the block-rocking, provid­ing art and ven­ues for exhib­i­tions and work­shops and parties in and outside.

Our whole crew headed down to the block to see what was going on. Indeed, good times were had. From vari­ous exhib­i­tions to crazy per­form­ances and reg­u­lar known names in the graf­fiti world, we all had our share of fun these two days. One should wish for more of these oppor­tun­it­ies — Kreuzberg tak­ing the chance and prov­ing that it’s more than just another to-be-commercialized part of Ber­lin. Adrian Nabi, co-operator of Back­jumps and “cur­ator” of the Rock The Block fest­ival, says that the Block is sup­posed to be open for all and every­one, no mat­ter if they’re usu­ally inter­ested in art and gal­ler­ies or not. It’s a Kiezfest for every­one in full Kreuzberg spirit.

We’re look­ing for­ward to the next edi­tion. Some of the out­stand­ing works we tried to cap­ture on photographs.

The Mode2 paint­ing “shape and move” at Merkezi.

Thrift­ing at SO36 — another Flohmarkt for your pleasure.

Piginus Cave — “Tauben­höhle” 

Stu­dio Kanta

video by the wa & jérome fino “zapping” — Manipulation of LCD screens in pub­lic spaces

best work! mat­thias wer­mke & mis­cha leinkauf “die neonor­ange kuh”

phos4 exhib­i­tion

res­ults from the graf­fiti research lab berlin’s led throwie s work­shop under the sub­way line

clean up. after ARUNSKI & POET –PENNERGOLD TEIL 2

1up video in an nice backyard

view from west ger­manys ter­race over kotti