ALL OF US ARE STAYING This is the clear and unmistakable writing on the wall on a house in Berlin's Kreuzberg district, if I remember right in the Waldemar Straße. As much as the neighborhood is supposedly becoming gentrified, it's great to see that certain pockets are making a stance and refusing to bow down to the pressures that be, as this building apparently is. The squatting scene of the German capital is legendary, as I discussed a bit in this post, especially in the last quarter of the twentieth century. Since then it may have been gradually bought out, but apparently not completely destroyed, as we can see here. A bit of the Old Berlin that just refuses to leave.
The front facade of the building is covered with the mural of a large tree, which the place apparently identifies itself with. On its branches you can see its many residents, in form of various kinds of critters, such as birds, rabbits, insects, squirrels, worms, frogs, slugs, and snails. Clearly, this raises the notion of nature with its huge diversity of species, and that no matter whether they are a mammal or a mollusk, none of them pays any rent to anyone, or have a home ownership deed, or any such thing. They just move in and live in an available niche on the tree, interacting and cooperating according to their given characteristics.
So why is this such an outlandish idea when applied to our species? To further emphasize their point, the artist(s) - who I presume are folks living in this house - added messages in various languages. There may be slight variations, but the idea is always the same: Houses should belong to those who live in them. After all, having a home is a basic human right, while speculation, that is investing in the same property with the objective of monetary gain, is not.
Though I don't know the exact story of this specific building, I like the fact that it resembles a piece of what Kreuzberg stood for traditionally. The fact that the animals are drawn a bit wonky, sometimes strangely anthropomorphic, and may in fact not even inhabit a tree, is completely besides the point. If anything, it just adds to this creative chaos I remember thriving seemingly everywhere back when I was a kid, and today... well, it has been reduced to a few places like this. And all that makes it worth sharing it.
As always, this post is my entry for this week's CCC's Street Art Contest, and to see more Berlin murals, visit my Walls of Berlin collection.