miss wiesbaden by dan ferrer.
there's a place here in the wiesbaden area that's pretty well known for its graffiti. it's the brückenkopf mainz-kastel, a train bridge-head that's used for an annual graffiti happening where lots of sprayers are invited to create new murals & street art ( meeting of styles ). up until that late january day i had rarely visited this part of wiesbaden ( mainz-kastel is an official wiesbaden district - despite its obvious use of another city's name - mainz - it's a complicated thing and best described here ). after this visit though i'm definitely going to make it a constant visit, because goddamn, the art displayed here is just too good! and since it gets renewed every year with new exciting works from artists around the world it should definitely be a no-brainer for me! right? damn right. the closer surroundings are also really nice for a walk, especially along the rhine river to the peninsula maaraue.
this walk is imprinted in my mind, because i was so enchanted by all the art & the landscape, especially since the very gloomy weather opened up for some serious sun action later. i'd definitely recommend this part of the city, just for the epic graffiti & for the really nice views along the rhine river over to the city of mainz. it also sparked a curiousity in me to explore more of the so-called AKK districts of wiesbaden - the others being mainz-kostheim & mainz-amöneburg. there are definitely more trips coming up on my schedule!
a closer look at miss wiesbaden. dan ferrer is a pretty interesting graffiti sprayer, his art is very distinctive & unique. please check out more of his art - his piece for last year's graffiti event was definitely one of my favourites.
right next to the miss wiesbaden mural was this bright-coloured gem: a collective work by several swiss artists ( cédric kesa, inso mundo, les uns & the little brother ).
there's a huge underbridge that leads from the inner part of mainz-kastel towards the river and there you can find the most prominent graffiti of the whole area. they seem to be the most political ones, too, they all had something to do with happenings in the world, more or less. it's definitely a canvas where more than one artist is showcasing their work, so basically a huge collaboration. i am really not able to name all the artists here, only a few: the middle piece with trump & other politicians was created by leandro raios. the cole spray can roboter on the left ( blue/pink ) was created in a collab with others by cole blaq. there's at least 3 more, but i couldn't find any infos about them.
this mural was my absolute favourite. it's a creation of dan kitchener, an artist from england.
it fit perfectly to the surroundings as the area is full of car traffic all the time.
i left the bridge-head and walked along the shores of the rhine river for a while. this is the theodor heuss bridge, probably the most beautiful of all the bridges in the area of mainz/wiesbaden. it connects the city of mainz with wiesbaden's district mainz-kastel. if it still confuses you, three of wiesbaden's districts were once part of mainz, but after world war 2 the river parted the french & the american sections and the AKK districts counted as american since they were situated on the right side of the river. this situation was never cleared and to this day, these 3 districts still belong to the wiesbaden city landscape. it still creates a lot of tension between the cities of mainz & wiesbaden. most of the inhabitants see themselves as mainz citizens, but i don't know, i guess it's an authority game or something. i don't think there will ever be a solution for a re-integration to mainz, but you never know... it's still a status quo that a lot of people kinda accepted.
the ship in front of the bridge is the strandschiff - beach ship. it's an event location you can only book privately.
mainz skyline.
a little bit more silhouetted.
passed by this cute concrete dwelling. the statue in front is called the raftsman memorial, dedicated to an old occupation that once existed when there were no motorized ships running up & down the river.
another look onto the other side and the taunus mountains in the back.
a closer look at the area where the electoral palace is situated & also the deutschhaus ( state parliament of rhineland-palatinate ) and christuskirche.
the church spires of mainz cathedral - THE landmark of mainz city.
the rhine still had a high tide situation going on, so a lot of normally dry patches were underwater.
nearing the main/rhine estuary. not far away from here the river main flows into the rhine.
basically in this area.
i soon started to make my way back to my initial point of origin and passed by these abandoned factory buildings. back then i didn't know much about this structure, but after having visited it a second time in june i discovered that it once was a factory that produced cooling agents. it's currently torn down to make way for possible residential areas.
the structure is/was quite massive and i'm pretty sure there was a path leading to it for further exploration, but i'm a wuss, so i missed another chance of having a closer look at an abandoned site. well... to my defense, it was still fenced in with warnings everywhere, so better safe than sorry 😅
a distributary of the rhine river flows right next to the factory, which gave the place a perfect setting.
the corrugated metal facade was kind of cool and gave the place a modern industrial touch.
couldn't get enough of this tower.
there were cryptic graffiti everywhere, a lot really hidden behind trees.
dove line-up.
i moved on to a pier not far away from the factory grounds.
the kanu club mainz-kostheim runs this particular pier. the entrance to that was under water due to the high tides of the rhine river in january.
ms fritz at the ready!
the pier from further away.
the distributary had a strong industrial vibe.
here, the distributary arm of the rhine went back into the main river bed. there's a bridge crossing it and you can really have a nice view onto the bridge and mainz.
i returned back to the bridge-head and looked at some more graffiti! these are from a crew called tzl from italy. i really like the owl woman in the middle. so much symbolism to her! also, salvador dali would be proud of his depiction.
stairs leading down to more underbridges. so colourful!
emerging on the other side.
this one was really cool as well, alas it's missing two big ass wolves. this was a collaborative project as well, but i cannot assign any artists to their respective work.
all in all, i can't wait for my next flying visit to the bridge-head... to document another round of fantastic murals ❤
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