More facades for art wanted
10.05.2022 – The traffic sometimes comes to a standstill at the traffic lights in front of the junction to the Hafenschule, even if the light has been green for some time: That's when the drivers in front start to daydream about the woman who has been painted on the façade of Nordring 34 for a few days.
The picture is a reinterpretation of the 1896 painting "Sogni" (Dreams) by Vittorio Matteo Corcos by the artist Case Maclaim and has been attracting everyone's attention and cell phone cameras since the work began. Many passers-by stop and look at it, most of them have a much friendlier expression on their faces as they walk on.
The mural, as this large-scale façade art is called, is part of the "Walls of Vision" project series launched by the Dr. Hans Riegel Foundation in 2019 and was created in cooperation between the foundation and Stadtwerke subsidiary GBO Gemeinnützige Baugesellschaft Offenbach mbH. The finished work has now been viewed by City Councillor Martin Wilhelm, who is also Chairman of the GBO Supervisory Board, the initiator and Offenbach cultural manager Kai Schmidt, Alexander Kukla, Walls of Vision project manager from the Dr. Hans Riegel Foundation, which paid for the painting, and Fee Kison, team leader of the building with the façade art in GBO's tenant service, together with the artist and they were delighted. "It's great to see that so many young people here are interested in museum art in a new context," said Martin Wilhelm.
Case Maclaim, whose real name is Andreas von Chrzanowski, experienced the interest of the people of Offenbach at close quarters during the week or so he spent working on the portrait. "Many people came by every day and watched me paint," he reports. In the house opposite, neighbors would sit on the balcony and watch as he painted the dreaming woman on two sides of the building from a cherry picker. "From the diagonally opposite side in front of house number 11 on the Nordring, the portrait appears to be on one level," says the artist. On closer inspection, you can also see the current interpretations compared to the original, such as the graffiti on the Offenbacher Bank.
Kai Schmidt now hopes to make the project permanent. "There is interest in a long-term cooperation between the Dr. Hans Riegel Foundation and the GBO. Interested private homeowners are also welcome to contact me. By 2023 at the latest, a second house wall in Offenbach will be decorated with a work of art," says Schmidt. The Dr. Hans Riegel Foundation will cover the costs for the artist's paint and fee. With this urban art project, the foundation aims to give young people in particular an innovative approach to the visual arts. House owners who would like to make their façade, which is clearly visible from the public space, available for a mural can contact Kai Schmidt at kai.schmidtgruene-offenbachde. The project will now be accompanied by workshops at Offenbach schools. "The Dr. Hans Riegel Foundation is currently contacting schools for this," says Schmidt.