I’m a sucker for street art and when I learned there was a big mural by Belgian artist ROA in Cologne, Germany, I made sure to visit on my recent trip. The mural was created during the 2011 CityLeaks Festival—an urban art festival each year. The organization behind the arts festival also runs weekly tours each Sunday—most of which are in the Ehrenfeld neighborhood. Though their schedule is sporadic (and doesn’t seem to be on during winter), so make sure you check their website for details.
Ehrenfeld was probably my favorite discovery in Cologne. The eclectic neighborhood has everything from international/ethnic restaurants to free book depositories (just make sure you leave something in return). There are numerous cafes and bars as well, so the area just on the outskirts of central Cologne remains lively as much during the day as in the evening. To explore the street art in Ehrenfeld, just take the S-bahn to Köln-Ehrenfeld station. Along the walls you’ll find plenty of murals and this piece by ROA is just a short 5-minute walk away (at Senefelderstrasse 5). There’s also a pretty awesome live music venue their at the bahnhof: appropriately called Club Bahnhof Ehrenfeld.
More photos from my trip to Cologne can be found on Flickr. But really: I’m just curious what you think or ROA’s rabbit. It’s a strange looking thing, isn’t it?
View my photo archives of street art around the world or follow my Pinterest board on the same subject.
WOOT! Glad you got to see Ehrenfeld: it is one of my, if not the, favourite areas in Cologne! That and the fact that I always stay in this hood …
Did you notice if construction on the mosque been competed?
Thanks Henry – The mosque looked pretty boring to me, to be honest – there was a bit of construction in the area but no big scaffolding from what I saw
That artwork is very stunning! I showed to my daughter and all she said was “what happened with that?”
Definitely agree that this piece is stunning and certainly striking. Interesting to hear how your daughter reacted – I don’t often remember to think how children would react to images like this — and ones so public too. Very thought-provoking!
I’m not too sure what to make of it … a skinned rabbit with a human body?
Lol – I grew up in Germany and have been to Cologne a number of times but never discovered that. Looks very SF Mission like! Btw just followed you on Twitter as well – great travel blog you have. Looking forward to connect!
Thanks MightyTravels! And yep… Ehrenfeld is what I found to be the most hipstery area of Cologne
Hey, do you know are these murals still in Ehrenfert?
I took these photos just a few weeks ago so… yes? :)
impressive but surely the street art in Cologne does not beat that of Berlin
Wow! I’m a sucker for street art too and one of my favorite ROA artworks is a mural of an armadillo in Miami but this one is pretty cool too. I wonder if there’s any Dal East mural around Cologne?
I visited Roa’s first exhibition at a gallery in Brussels. He claims his influences are Rubens and anatomy textbooks. The exhibition had animal paintings on doors which revealed internal musculature and organs when the door was opened. He has many pieces showing the internal organs of animals. He always paints the internal organs in reds, blues, greens etc but otherwise paints in black and white.