El Bocho

Frankfurt-born illustrator and typographer El Bocho has been spraying, painting and sticking his works of art to Berlin’s walls since 2006. He connects city life with communication – taking a sometimes ironic, sometimes romantic perspective. His works include images of two surveillance cameras chatting about their everyday worries and the character Tina Berlina spouting cheeky remarks to the city’s tourists. The bright portraits of women and girls from El Bocho’s Citizens series have been changing the face of the city for over a decade – and our new mural in Friedrichshain is the latest addition.

The mural at Lasdehner Strasse 7, near Frankfurter Tor, took six days to create. Warm and cool colours combine with dark lines and stencil art to create the portrait of a woman gazing wide-eyed across the city. The artist was inspired by Kurt Tucholsky’s poem ‘Eyes in the City’, which links the hustle and bustle of city life with the beauty of a brief encounter: ‘Two strange eyes, one fleeting glimpse, the brows, pupils and lids – what was that? Your happiness, perhaps … gone, lost, no more.’