Perishable Street Art
On my way to work I pass by my old life. Like today, it was my first tour with the new job.
The U.S. Army Europe USAREUR and NATO HQ FCHD had a long history in Heidelberg, Germany and I had the pleasure to be part of it. I lived on post and used the installations frequently. All the different barracks were spread out through Heidelberg.
The forces have left and Heidelberg changed completely. I haven't been in this part of the city in 2 years and boy it changed. All over the city the barracks are torn down, memories and history destroyed. It is hard for me to recognize where I'm at as of now because the entire city appearance changed.
New city quarters where the military used to be.
So while looking at the old hospital site I dwelled in memories and sadness. Everything's gone. Just a few buildings left.
I will do a small post about the site soon for those who might be interested.
While rushing around to get the last pictures, before everything of this chapter has been removed, I couldn't pass by this #streetart.
It is a project by the District Association Rohrbach and District management Hasenleiser. They are part of the city of Heidelberg. Citizens can participate, create and take part in decisions regarding their quarters.
This street art is perishable because in the not too distant future the excavators will have removed these last remnants as well.
You can see that it's a sentence sprayed on the wall with little doodles in between.
The more you look the more you find.
Also great colors in the Winter time.
There is an invitation written on the wall in this speaking bubble.
"Write a message or just something nice! =)"
Explains the doodles and how neat they left little spaces open for people to express themselves.
Even the trash can is decorated!
The sentence reads:
ROHRBACH STICKS TOGETHER
ROHRBACH HAELT ZUSAMMEN
They stick together so as not to get lost in the urban development.
The district was strongly influenced by the military with great living space and a good infrastructure. The demolition of the barracks means space for speculators.
The smaller citizen has to unite in order to be able to participate in the development of their quarters.
Street art with a message.
All images and text are created by @bulldog-joy unless stated. Banner created with Canva. Support your favorite communities and love the Hive.
Cool selection of letterings. Perfect canvas these old buildings. Thanks for sharing these pics on The StreetArt Community.
nice..in my small town almost no mural
Thanks. It's a metropolitan area here, so you can find street art quite often. They can make places more colorful for sure, no matter where. Maybe you can share the ones you find as well :)
Ok.I'll try next time
Sounds like you could write a book about your experiences and time in this place. Your title got me. I was thinking it was this made out of vegetables or meat or something like that… I couldn’t of been more wrong but I totally understand the concept now. That was a beautiful way to write the title. The perfect way really.
Awwww such nice words, thanks Brad. Hope you guys are feeling better. I'm stupid because I haven't captured the process of tearing everything down. Or at least took pics of everything before it is gone. You just don't think that the city is tearing its history down completely. When I get back from work I'll start with the post about these sad left overs.
It's a shame that those (with all the money) that are developing these areas, never consider repurposing. Yeah it cost more, but it's the right thing to do sometimes. Community moral depends on such things. People get excited about refurbishing old buildings. Oh well.. Shmucks! hehe.
Everything was fixed to the latest standards before the troops left. The housing was class A and brand new if you will so. Just too much green space in between and big apartments. Nothing for investors because you can squeeze two more buildings where the playground used to be. And a complete functioning infrastructure. Just switch tenants. Sad indeed.
Investment minds think differently than our save and preserve minds. Those bums.
Hi @bulldog-joy, greetings, happy new year. Your post is very interesting, because you address the levity of human life and its creations. Something that I guess was in a past, a great construction, a great urbanism, now lies in ruins, which must be very sad to contemplate, especially if you lived or worked there before. Likewise, just as human life is perishable, so is street art, it is temporary, but no less valuable than the rest of the arts.
I really liked these graffiti, they are so colorful and expressive, that for sure, they bring a drop of joy to these spaces. I hope the new constructions will be beautiful and well built. Greetings.
Thanks :). It is sad but life. It keeps haunting me lol. My hometown has changed so I don't recognize it anymore. They tore the part of the city down where I grew up completely. 20.000 people lived there, now it is woods lol.
Heidelberg is kinda similar to Kharkiv, though nowadays we hardly see barracks or any military actions around except the border areas. Before the Covid situation, a lot of events had taken place in Kharkiv and almond them, showcasing street arts was one of them. There are still some iconic ones left, many destroyed... Hopefully next time I will find some new murals here and there in Kharkiv...
Danke für's Teilen! Eine Freundin hat selbst lange bei den Amerikanern in Heidelberg als Store Manager gearbeitet. Habe bisher noch nie gefragt, wie es dort inzwischen aussieht, aber nun weiß ich es :)
Is nich mehr viel übrig. Das wenige in der Nachrichtenkaserne kommt bald weg. Die Mauer im Post haben sie schon angefangen abzutragen. Campell, Mark Twain, PX, Patton, alles weg. Da steht ein komplett neuer Stadtteil. Erkennt man nix mehr lol. In der PHV haben sie ein Flüchtlingslager eingerichtet und in der Commissary das Impfizentrum. Jetzt biste up to date 😄.
der lauf der dinge. wobei ich finde, dass es auch etwas positives hat, wenn das militär verschwindet. passiert auch an anderen orten in ganz deutschland und lässt hoffen eines tages in einer welt ohne militärische und paramilitärische einheiten zu leben. doch leider wird an manchen orten expandiert. ich hätte nichts dagegen, wenn mit rammstein gleiches passieren würde. ist nicht böse gemeint. die kriege die seit dem zweiten weltkrieg wieder von deutschem boden ausgeführt wurden stehen in ziemlich direkter verbindung mit diesen ganzen us-kasernen in deutschland und wären ohne diese so nicht möglich gewesen.
besser wäre es jedoch meiner meinung nach zu versuchen die gebäude zu erhalten und umzugestalten als alles direkt anzureißen. das hat mich auch ein wenig geschockt.
In der Tat. Die meisten der wunderschönen Wohnungen waren neu saniert. Und eine komplette Infrastruktur mit Familienfreundlichen Wohnen wurde mal eben so in Zeiten der Wohnungsnot eingestampft. Die Liegenschaften wurden 1a übergeben aber greedy greedy city ;).
Danke für's Update! Sie hat in den/der/dem (?) PX gearbeitet und ich durfte auch mal mit, aber das ist lange lange her.