You’re on the U2 in Berlin heading east from Zoo Station into the city’s Mitte. You happen to look out at the window, and ask yourself: “what in the … did I just see that?!”
The second time you’re through this way, you’ll rubberneck a little more out the side window to confirm what you saw the last time. The third time through, you make sure to get off the train at the station, head down to street level, turn the corner, and …
Whoa.
There she is.
Steps from a U-Bahn train station, you’re staring at the back wall of a five-storey hotel. In its full glory covering the entire back wall of the Mercure Hotel Berlin Mitte is a mural drawn by a group of artists called Interbrigadas. Though there is some minor tagging along the lower portion of the mural, your eyes are drawn to the eyes of the young woman at the upper right. For physical scale, the collection bin at the lower right stands about a metre (3 feet) high. An adjacent panel provides a description:
In 2006 young political adolescents founded the association Interbrigadas e.V. Following the International Brigades (e.g., in the Spanish Civil War or Nicaragua) we want to revive this particular form of international solidarity. We organise brigades of dominantly European adolescents to Latin America and carry out social work in shanty towns and rural regions.
In the course of the exchange project, ‘Insurrection of Colours’ Interbrigadas e.V. invited four Latin American artists from Columbia (sic) and Venezuela to Berlin.
In summer 2009 and in conjunction with the Hotel MERCURE Berlin Mitte we realised Berlin’s largest mural (wall painting). The basic idea was to merge various elements from Latin America and Berlin that would represent the cultural diversity of both of them.
Snippets:
The young black girl represents Latin America’s Afro-American population. Particularly in the Caribbean regions almost the entire population has mingled with African slaves and their descendents (sic). Their life is still very much connected to the rythms (sic) and laws of nature.
Typical animals like the jaguar, boa and an iguana skirt the Aztec calendar. The Aztecs’ calculations of seasons had been much more advanced than those of the Europeans.
Artists:
Wildemar Liendo Blanco (Venezuela), Edisson Reina Torres (Kolumbien), Ivan Nicolai Monroy Bustos (Kolumbien), Nadia Michelle Granados Delgado (Kolumbien).
The Interbrigadas mural is located at Luckenwalder Strasse 11 in Berlin Kreuzberg, which you can reach with the U1, U2, or U3 U-Bahn train to Gleisdreieck station.
I made the photo above on 19 December 2012 with the Canon EOS450D (XSi) camera, EF-S 18-55 II zoom-lens, and the following settings: 1/30s, f/5, ISO800, and 21mm focal length (34mm full-frame equivalent). This post appears on Fotoeins Fotografie at fotoeins.com as http://wp.me/p1BIdT-79p.
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