On Friday, May 31, the Konstablerwache plateau was a dynamic place. Young, very young and established street artists and art-savvy talents were scurrying around everywhere. Partly under supervision, but mostly independently, they designed the twelve metal surfaces under the handrails on the Konsti staircases with a total of 24 graffiti motifs. They are thus contributing to the enhancement of public spaces in Frankfurt's city center.
Frankfurt City Marketing, in cooperation with the agencies Real Love Fantasy and offstate, had launched the "Konsti Live Art" campaign day and implemented it on May 31 in the Konstablerwache with great publicity. In addition to the street artists, musicians accompanied the event with live jams throughout the day. Visitors were catered for by the stalls of the "50 Grad/Freitags-Konsti", which takes place every Friday at the Konstablerwache.
"The aim of the campaign was to eliminate and enhance unused areas in the city center and thus make them a tangible experience," says Eduard M. Singer, Head of City Marketing. At the same time, it represents a clear commitment to the integration of subcultures through the design of public spaces. Young people in particular, who want to actively participate in artistic change processes in their immediate environment, should be encouraged to make the urban space their own through creative work and to bring their graffiti to the surface.
In order to appeal to the widest possible circle of Frankfurt street artists and creatives, who have very different experiences in designing surfaces, there was initially a public call for participation in the campaign. The project was advertised with posters and social media posts. With 40,000 clicks and 2,000 hits on the konsti-live-art.de campaign website, the initiators are very satisfied with the response.
Two jury meetings with different focuses took place at the Agentur des städtischen Wandels. 98 design proposals were submitted. These consisted of a total of 53 individual submissions and 45 submissions collected from the Deutschherren School in Sachsenhausen, where two workshops were held.
In addition to the jury chairman Philipp Wegener, graduate designer, art educator, sprayer and artist, the jury members included Eduard M. Singer, Head of City Marketing Frankfurt, Babak Farahani from Real Love Fantasy, Marc Hofmann and Flavio Freudenberger, both from offstate, Alina Heinlein, consultant in the Department of Economics, Law and City Marketing, as well as Björn Fritsch from Four Little Monkeys (Frankfurt-Tipp) and Michael Lorenz from Hafen- und Marktbetriebe.
Stephanie Wüst, Head of the Department of Economic Affairs, Legal Affairs and City Marketing, opened the event at 4.30 pm. "Konsti Live Art shows how much desire young people have to actively shape their city. We must make use of this potential and include it in other areas of urban and social life. Urban design doesn't just take place at desks and in theoretical concepts. It becomes visible when sleeves are rolled up and projects are implemented together. The new design benefits visitors to the Konstablerwache, who can now look forward to more color in the city. It's a real eye-catcher", said Wüst.
Singer is very impressed by the variety of motifs selected: "Today's design of the twelve handrails by a large number of young and established talents from the legal sprayer scene is a real enrichment for the Konstablerwache. I am thrilled that so many responded to our call and that our Konsti is now enriched by 24 colorful motifs. This makes it a real eye-catcher in the city center."
Jury chairman Wegener, an art educator and active sprayer himself, adds: "There is a lack of places and opportunities in Frankfurt's public space where residents can get involved creatively or express themselves. You can count the number of walls where people are legally allowed to spray paint on one hand. By providing such spaces, something artistically challenging could certainly be created that would add value to society. Konsti Live Art offers the people of Frankfurt the opportunity to play an active role in shaping their environment and to realize their own ideas. The offer is aimed at both professional sprayers and amateurs."
