Into all networks / Bernhard Wolf
Ten large-format motifs as murals and wall posters in urban space in Graz
Dirck Möllmann

A blogger recently wrote on Public Art (Now)1 that art is now truly established in the public realm, but that work still needs to be done to elevate its content within public consciousness. Perhaps Bernhard Wolf is working on precisely this consciousness with his series of wall posters on occupied public terrain. His art highlights the essence of signs, and that which is simplest is often most difficult. Wolf knows exactly how to simplify universally understandable or well-known motifs in a concise manner. His formats are hand-painted in plain black and white on oversized canvas or directly applied on the wall. This manual production allows us to interpret the signal effect of signs aesthetically in new ways – they stand alone as painting and are as understandable as advertising. The stencil symbol of the Apple operating system is positioned eye-catchingly beneath the canopy of a disused petrol station in Liebenau, the word TRAUM (dream) written above it. On the brick wall of a house in Zweiglgasse hangs a hand-made wall poster with the op art motif of the Italian artist Marina Appolonio from the 1960s, the word ZEIT (time) written below in large letters. The wall poster SPIRITUELLE EXTRAVAGANZ (spiritual extravagance) adorns another exposed party wall in Lendplatz. BROT WURST PETERSILIE (bread, sausage, parsley) in Griesplatz above the papered-up window of a grocer’s shop causes brief head-scratching. The combination of writing and symbols is not complicated, but nor is it banal. It simply interrupts the flow of public images for a moment, the eye dwells, the mind kicks in, considers, and on you go with food for thought.

Unlike advertising, Wolf’s wall posters don’t go touting for customers, and unlike street art they are not about social codes, political messages, coolness or hooliganism. The skilful blend of reduction and pop is not clearly defined. In Wolf’s work it thrives not on the image alone, but equally on the location. He prefers cracks in the urban fabric, fuzzy spots not fully defined in terms of architecture and a bit nostalgic. Suddenly one becomes aware of the ideology of present times. One looks at a motif and recognises the condition of an urban situation based on a party wall, in a vacant lot, above a closed shop, in moving traffic. Art has different rhythms in everyday life and it can interrupt patterns of perception, that’s something one learns from Bernhard Wolf. However, the murals won’t be able to protect us from real-world cost-of-living increases as a result of gentrification. The ten large-format works were hung in urban space as of July 2013 and will stay up for a while.

Dirck Möllmann, curator at the Institute for Art in Public Space Styria,
Universalmuseum Joanneum, Graz, Austria