The spray gallery #

The spray gallery is the open, loud side of the West Side Gallery: street art on concrete walls along the railway tracks — visible from every passing S-Bahn, and the public votes on which works stay.

The concept #

Along the tracks stand 20 concrete L-elements two metres high, with an avenue of 10 fruit trees between them — over a stretch of roughly 60 metres. The L-elements are the canvas: paintable, changing, open to all. Unlike the curated works in the art house, here the public decides by vote which works endure.

Visible at speed #

Towards the railway stands a classic iron fence — 25 mm round bars in deep black RAL 9005, with deliberately wider spacing than on the street side. At train speed the vertical bars vanish from the viewer’s eye, and the artworks appear almost frameless. The train window becomes a panoramic window.

An avenue that carries through the year #

Between the art walls grows an avenue of ten half-standard fruit trees — deliberately mixed so that blossom and harvest are spread across the year:

So it blossoms continuously from March to June and bears fruit from June to November — alongside the art, the gallery has a second, seasonal exhibition.

Art against art #

The appeal lies in the contrast with the art house: there the curation chooses, here the public chooses. Showing both procedures side by side makes visible how different — and how valid — the paths are by which art comes to recognition.

Taking part is expressly welcome. How to paint a wall and how the voting works is described under Get involved.