“Backjumps: The Live Issue”

The graffiti-covered hallways of the Künstlerhaus Bethanien—where many artists have participated, uninvited, in “Backjumps”—illustrate critical issues brought up by this multivenue undertaking: the claiming of public space, and the sense, or non-sense, of the institutionalization of “street art.” Instead of merely dragging graffiti into the museum, the show, which was conceived as a “live” extension of Backjumps magazine, postulates the city as gallery. It offers a hybrid array of contemporary artistic practices, in- and outdoors, that reach beyond spray-can “writing.” Over forty local and international artists and activists demonstrate the interdisciplinary interfaces of street art, aerosol culture, and hip-hop. Ambitious presentations—like Ignacio Aronowich and Louise Chin’s documentation of found creativity in the streets of São Paulo, Banksy’s gently subversive stencil assaults, Machine’s beautiful, insidious wallpaper design, and an engaging artwork-exchange project by Brooklyn-based collective Swoon:Toyshop—strike with subtlety and style. Bottom line: It’s mostly fresh and serious stuff, made by people who, anonymous by choice, don’t desperately wait for a gallery show. As Adrian Nabi, one of the show’s organizers, put it, “Now, in our thirties, we have finally learned that we no longer have to waste our time defending the value of our artmaking.”