40 Years of graffiti and street art in Dresden – panel discussion

a panel discussion with Mirko Reisser, Benjamin Schandelmeier, Harald Hinz and Dr. Christina Ludwig, moderated by Gerrit Retterath

How can Dresden’s urban art  history be successfully reappraised?

Successful projects have already taken place in Aachen, Hamburg and Munich to reappraise local graffiti and street art history. The exhibition “A City Becomes Colorful” at the Museum of Hamburg History attracted thousands of interested visitors and is already a milestone in the reappraisal of European graffiti history.

A first attempt to reappraise Dresden’s urban art history was made for BRN 2019. The exhibition in the Dresden Neustadt district archive focused on urban art in Dresden Neustadt in the years 1988 – 2000.
However, only a small part of the local scene took part, as Dresden’s urban art history was written throughout the city.

Dresden’s urban art history had many facets. Numerous writer crews (graffiti groups) redesigned Dresden’s urban space in different decades. There were also stencil graffiti by many unknown authors, spray-painted drawings and cut-out posters to discover in the urban space. International graffiti writers and mural artists visited the city. Their works are still visible today.

A comprehensive summary and reappraisal of the local urban art history has not yet taken place.

The LackStreicheKleber – Urban Art Festival Dresden, SPIKE Urban and the Stadtmuseum Dresden are inviting those involved in previously realized projects to a panel discussion. In the discussion, different approaches to the reappraisal of Dresden’s urban art history will be discussed and afterwards we would like to talk about the feasibility with the interested Dresden public.

Taking part in the discussion:

Mirko Reisser aka DAIM – Double-H Archive / Hamburg 

Benjamin Schandelmeier – Munich Graffiti Library / Munich

Dr. Harald Hinz – Graffiti art historian / Lauterbach

Dr. Christina Ludwig – Director of the City Museum / Dresden

The panel will be moderated by Gerrit Retterath from Kassel.

Links to the projects

Eine Stadt wird bunt – shmh.de/ausstellungen/eswb/

Double H Archive  & Publishing double-h.org/

Munich Graffiti Library – instagram.com/munich_graffiti_library

Further actions on the topic as part of the LackStreicheKleber Festival

As part of this year’s RadKunstWurf campaign there is an open call for urban art artists under the title 40 years of urban art in Dresden.

During the Long Night of Museums on June 8, the live painting performance “Dresden Artifacts” by the group MURALS OF THE FUTURE will take place on the theme.

The event is free of charge, donations are welcome.