1MM: Berlin, In (Graf) Writing

[Photos by Andrew Parks]

If you ever stumble upon self-titled‘s archive, you’ll notice an apparent lack of posts from early February. The reason was not laziness; truth be told, we were on vacation. But not just any vacation–we were over in Europe, trying to uncover just why Berlin’s  been considered the world’s up-and-coming art/music epicenter for the past decade.

On the music side, we found one truth to be self-evident: that Berlin is still the sunset-to-sunrise capital of techno. As for the art, well, we’ve NEVER seen the caliber and sheer volume of graffiti that we captured in Germany. Whether you’re slipping through a slum undetected or soaking in the sights of an upper-crust street, Berlin is coated with spraypaint and artful, brick-splattering portraits.

The following are some of our favorite pieces from the trip, including a number of state-sanctioned paintings–since graffiti’d over themselves in some cases–on the Berlin Wall itself. Please let us know if you dig the detour, content wise, as we’d love to cover more street-and-gallery-level art in the near future …