Urban Nature Combines with Hola Utopia! to Create the Urban Art Week in Hannover

Urban Nature is a graffiti festival that takes place in Hannover. This year it joined forces with Hola Utopia! to create the Hannover Urban Art Week.

We reported from the second edition of the Hola Utopia! Festival a few weeks ago, but what about the other big aerosol event that went down in Hannover this year? Urban Nature has actually been going for a few more years in the German city, and its focus on graffiti art is the perfect complement to the murals produced during Hola Utopia! 2021.
 

MTN News got in touch with Jonas Wömpner, founder and organizer at Urban Nature, as well as a couple of artists who took part in the event, to find out how the two gatherings clicked.

How long has the festival been going? When did you first get involved in it?

JW: After years of fighting for new legal spray spaces in Hannover, in 2018 we inaugurated a new Hall of Fame called the “Ihme Hall”. The opening event was the birth of the first Urban Nature Festival.

What’s the aim of the event? 

JW: We want to connect and support artists - especially from the local scene - and offer them a place to celebrate graffiti culture in Hannover. We also want to show the rest of the world what’s going on in Hannover’s graffiti and street art scene.

What activities made up this year’s edition?

JW: The main event is always the graffiti jam at Ihme Hall. We had around 60 artists this year. We also included two graffiti-related art shows. Thomas Granseuer from the Quintessenzcollective and Rocco and his Brothers exhibited at Gallery Brutal. Zukunftswerkstatt Ihme Zentrum hosted an exhibition by Grumbowski.

During the festival you could buy art from local artists at our “Kunstkiosk,” which is basically a little art fair.

Which were the more notable artists involved in the jam?

JW: Rocco and his brothers, Thomas Granseuer, Grumbowski, Rays, Kskol, Honey, Sister Hood Kollektiv, Feministisches Graffiti Kollektiv Hannover, Wanted, Spuk210, Mone, Thelier, Raw, Novel, Zoom, Rhok and many more writers.

What’s your best memory of the event? And what can you improve on next year?

JW: The best memory was also the worst. We had a lot of rain breaks during the session, but the people used the time to connect with other artists and talk to each other, while drinking a tea or coffee. 

Due to COVID-19, we’ve had to reduce the scale of the event over the last two years. If possible, in the future I’d like to include concerts, talks, film screenings - and a good food area!

Mirea is a graffiti artist based in Hannover who took part in the jam as well as designing the poster for the event.
 

How did your wall come together?

M: We didn’t have a special concept idea for the festival. Everyone painted what they wanted to paint and then we tried to connect all the pieces and characters together so that the whole wall was painted.

How did the rain affect your production?

M: The conditions didn’t affect the end result that much, because we are the lucky ones that painted under the bridge while it was raining.

What was your overall impression of Urban Nature 2021?

M: Every time I paint at UN it’s fun, and I have a good time with some good people there.

Spuk 210 is another Hannover resident, and a veteran of the German graffiti scene.
 

Did you have a plan before starting to produce your wall?

S: The concept i painted was really simple. Just the colors had a theme: the cloudy weather.

And the wind and rain affected the piece a little bit. It ended up a bit more dusty than I wanted, I think.

What was your best memory of the event?

The were a lot of good memories. Some young kids who knew me from instagram came to me and asked me for some tips.
 

Follow @urban_nature_festival for more flicks from 2021 and news of next year’s event in Hannover!