Urban Nation

When Urban Nation opened in Berlin on 16 September 2017, it gave urban contemporary art a dedicated institutional address at Bülowstrasse 7 in Schöneberg. The inaugural exhibition brought together an international community of artists whose practices had developed across streets, studios and independent exhibition spaces.

Rom Levy curated a selection within the opening programme and coordinated participating artists including Invader, RETNA, Hyuro, Stinkfish, Ludo and Fintan Magee. Their work represented markedly different approaches to image-making, from mosaic and calligraphic systems to figurative painting and the altered iconography of the natural world.

The contribution also extended outside the exhibition rooms. Levy arranged Invader’s large mosaic installation, realised with the artist before the museum opened. That intervention connected the new institution with the city around it: an artwork could be encountered in public before visitors entered the museum itself.

The project marked an important point in the movement of urban art into institutions, bringing artist relationships and experience of working in public space into the formation of a museum programme.