Mural by Tamir Shefer in Kassel city center
As part of a cooperation between the Kunsthochschule Kassel (class Illustration and Comic), KolorCubes e. V. and AKGG GmbH, the artist Tamir Shefer from Tel Aviv-Jaffa (Israel) donated a mural to the city of Kassel, which can be seen since May 9, 2023 in the city center at Treppenstr. 4 / corner Wolfsschlucht.
Shefer was invited by Professor Hendrik Dorgathen to participate in a workshop for students. The workshop took place from May 3 - 9 in collaboration with the KolorCubes association and was supported by the Department of Culture of the City of Kassel. During the workshop, Shefer spoke about his working practice. He encouraged the students to rethink ideas in the field of urban art forms and to help shape urban life artistically in order to make art accessible to the diverse urban society. Out of this impulse, Shefer donated a street art work to the city of Kassel. With his large-scale mural in downtown Kassel, the artist captivates viewers. He integrates familiar symbols into his work, which provoke by raising questions about their meaning: A running large figure stands in the center of the picture. Several whimsical-looking masked creatures are scattered throughout the painting, looking ahead. Recurring, asynchronous, but at the same time coexistently arranged symbols - like bones - have a hypnotic effect.
Shefer was born in 1963 in San Francisco, California, and studied at the Bezalel Academy of Art and Design in Jerusalem. From 1992 to 1997, he ran an art studio in California, USA. During this time he worked as an art director, developing and designing a variety of interactive products for different commercial platforms. At the same time, he published illustrations in newspapers such as "Village Voice" (New York), "The San Diego Union-Tribune" (San Diego) and "The San Francisco Bay Guardian". In 1998, Shefer founded a studio for art and design in Tel Aviv-Jaffa. Since 2002, he has also been a professor in the Faculty of Design at the Holon Institute of Technology (HIT) in Israel.
Together with the artist Shefer, the students conceived and designed a mural as part of the workshop. KolorCubes enabled the students to install the artwork in their premises. The mural will be displayed there temporarily. KolorCubes is an association for international graffiti and art education and creates platforms for art, builds bridges to business and makes art cultural projects visible regionally and internationally.
(Text in German: Çiğdem Özdemir)