Friends of Fine Vandalism

With the slightly ironic title „Friends of Fine Vandalism“ the Colab Gallery aims at polarizing and targeting serious questions such as:
To whom does public space belong? How is it organized? What kind of art is promoted and which statues are chosen to be erected in front of banks or in parks, and if so, why? Which are not? Is it possible to influence such decisions?

The advertising industry has found a simple and quick way to occupy public space. By buying or renting areas next to central public spaces, it participates and influences us daily, consciously and unconsciously, with its advertisements and posters. Citizens are degraded to consumers.

Ideally, by participating in councils and committees,or through attending discussions with political representatives, you can make requests and suggestions for the design of public spaces and hope they will find some form or support.

If you act independently, be it by covering up political signs or deliberately recreating a public area, artistically, you risk breaking the law through trespassing, willful damage to property or vandalism.
Quickly labeled as delinquent disobedience of socially weak youngsters and their nihilistic doings, is, in actual fact, more an attempt at trying to participate in the overregulated creation of public areas, thus gaining a mouthpiece.

This creative intervention is called Street Art or Graffiti Writing and is currently being discussed in a differentiated and controversial way by art historians and sociologists. Precisely because artists bring up the question: Who owns the city?

Urban Art has rebellious characteristics, that appear to be ambivalent. Without any doubt, the energetic youth culture strongly influences art history, design, fashion and advertising. But principally, it produced a multitude of great artists. The Colab Gallery has made it its business to find these artists and exhibit their works.

We have invited nine internationally active artists to Weil am Rhein, whose works can be seen in public areas and also in galleries or exhibitions.
We look forward to presenting to you 1Opium from Italy, 2SHY and Eliote from France, the artistic duo Arsek and Erase from Bulgaria, Fafa from Spain, N.O.Madski and Roman Klonek from Germany, Sobekcis from Serbia, as well as Wais from Russia.