Graffiti in Berlin

I’ll be watching you…
It’s literally everywhere. On every wall, street, lamppost, brick, door… no where is safe. And so it was high time that L&A went to find out more about the art form that is covering the streets of Berlin.
Our tour guide was Liam from Australia. Like us, he travelled to Berlin, fell in love with the city and is still here five years later.
What we learnt:
Street art is illegal. You can get fined and very occasionally put into prison. However, to get around this, many local artists have found clever new ways of stopping themselves getting caught. For example, instead of spraying directly onto the wall, the artists put up posters which not only make the process much faster, if they are caught, they can often just peel the poster off the wall or pay a fine of about €15.
Here are some of the gems we found on our walk:
El Bocho draws Little Lucy. She looks all innocent and cute, but watch out – she kills cats!

Alias is the German Banksy. Both artists use similar colours and stencils and often portray children as the subject of their work. He is one to watch out for…
The most famous image we saw was Victor Ash’s astronaut.

Mr Number 6 is an interesting one. Apparently he hates graffiti and travels around Berlin on a bicycle painting the number SIX on anything he comes across. It is said he has drawn over 650,000 number sixes. No one knows why he has chosen this number, but maybe it’s because it is a quick number to draw, giving him ample time to run off?

This huge wall painting of Anne Frank literally took two days to complete. If you look really closely, you can see the squiggles that make up her appearance.
  And here are a few of my favourites:

The tour was four hours long and of course also outdoors, so comfortable shoes and a jacket are a must. You pay what you like, so bring some change. Also, bring a camera, as it was a great chance for me to practice taking photos. Since the tour, I have noticed my eyes wandering to look at the art around me. Sometimes, I can even recognise some of the artists! It’s also worth mentioning that each tour is different, as art gets taken down, destroyed or simply drawn over. Berlin is one big building site, so areas in which graffiti used to be are being pulled down. The city is slowly changing from a crazy art scene to a normal business capital city. It’s hard to imagine Berlin without all the street-art covering every space.
What do you think: is it art or is it a load of rubbish?
Join the tour: http://alternativeberlin.com/berlin-graffiti-workshop-and-street-art-tour