If you love art, it’s hard not to love Berlin. There are numerous museums, but there’s art beyond them, too, from the streets to a cemetery. Here are three amazing art experiences I had outside a museum’s walls:
Alternative Berlin Street Art Workshop and Tour
This was perhaps my favorite Berlin activity. Our guide, Kurtis, led us around the streets of Kreuzberg, showing us graffiti and street art, explaining various styles and techniques, and teaching us about the different artists and their works. Kurtis is a graffiti artist himself, and I appreciated getting an insider’s perspective into the culture. I learned more than I thought there was to know about this kind of art, from the three types of graffiti to the unwritten rules between artists.
After a few hours of walking (and bussing and subwaying; Alternative Berlin keeps it local), we headed to the artists’ warehouse in far East Berlin to create our own works. They had hundreds of stencils for us to choose from, which we cut out, and then they showed us a few different spray paint techniques to use on our canvases. My mom and I both had so much fun designing our pieces.
East Side Gallery
Sitting right out on the street and free of charge is the East Side Gallery, a 1.3 km section of the Berlin Wall covered in over 100 paintings. It officially opened in 1990, less than a year after the Wall came down, and the works were restored in 2009. I went twice during my month in Berlin, captivated each time by the provocative works of art, each unique and powerful.
James Turrell Light Installation
American artist James Turrell created an ethereal light installation for the burial chapel in Dorotheenstädtischer cemetery. During the summer months, it’s only possible to view the installation with a ticket for the accompanying lecture, which takes place in English once a week.
The talk, which features background about the artist, the installation, and the cemetery, begins during what’s known as the blue hour. As the lecture finishes, so does the lighting program, and for 30 minutes, you sit (or stand, if you wish) and observe as the light—on the walls, the altar, the alcove behind the altar—cycles through different combinations of colors. I found it meditative and beautiful.
