Here’s an interesting look at today’s activist scene in Berlin — especially the work of the group URBAN NATION. It seems to be a collective using space to broadcast the visions of many contemporary artists. It brings art into the hands of the people and arouses responses, hopefully, from those who want to take action. It is bold — to catch attention, bright — ditto as well as boldly stating issues and showing some directions for bringing action and solutions forward.
For me, it is Haight-Ashbury, Haring’s street art, graffiti and the many memories of the 60s/70-s rolled into one. I seized on this translation of the German and found myself moving back through time — it was (possibly) what Detlef wanted us to feel — the meaning and presence of the Urban Nation news was for us all. “You ain’t in it if you ain’t doing something” was what Janis Joplin said to me one evening. “Being is” was the message we often heard back then. There is an art to being and being is also the art.
I find a peculiar joy to such street art — both back then and now, both in Berlin (where else in Germany could there by such life, such art on public spaces, such a sense that the people need art and expression to bring richness into their lives as well as richness into the culture?) and everywhere. Art is alive and that being gives us all more to think about. Some simply see the cacophony, others see the beauty. (Jerrold Atlas, Psychohistorian, NYC and Manchester, VT)
