Ministry -El Bocho – I miss my Plattenbau (Blue, Pink)

El Bocho – I miss my Plattenbau (Blue, Pink)

El Bocho is without a doubt one of the most prominent urban artists in Germany. He is an anonymous street artist who made the city of Berlin his huge personal canvas. He mainly uses pastes that is recognized for their size and quality, but which is also known for working with stencils and standard graffiti. Over the years, El Bocho has created many unique figures and symbols that make his work instantly recognizable. The artist’s work can be traced back to 1997 and this year often serves as the beginning of El Bocho’s career.

He began small, mainly by marking walls and bombing random surfaces on Frankfurt’s streets. Since then, El Bocho has developed and improved what will soon become his trademark. The giant cut-outs and installations, which are up to 20 feet high. While he created and studied on the road, El Bocho worked during the day as an illustrator and typographer. When he decided to focus entirely on street art and interventions, El Bocho stopped creating traditional graffiti. He took a major step to Berlin, where his art could reach impressive heights. El Bocho wants to reach people who do not visit art-specific places such as galleries or museums. He is also known for never printing, as El Bocho personally draws every scene he glues to the streets of Berlin.

His main characters:

In 2003, El Bocho invented his own symbol, the famous Little Lucy doll. The enchanting figure was based on a Czech television series from the 1970s, which the artist liked to see when he was still a child. El Bocho had named her Little Lucy – Fear of the Streets. Although El Bocho admittedly found the original character rather boring, he still went with her and gave her a twist. The artist chose a strong touch of dark humor and gave his little Lucy an habit of killing her cat! You can find the unhappy kitty cat painted in washing machines, cooked as a kebab or just grilled in the microwave.

However, El Bocho also has a softer touch, which actually led him on his way to some interesting series like his famous citizens. This series is based on portraits with small popup clouds filled with text, similar to the concepts of communication in comics. Depending on what kind of presentation and feeling he chooses, the artist uses different types of paper. El Bocho works mainly with large format cut-outs, but he also uses stencils and has recently started creating on tiles. In addition to El Bocho’s brilliant style and skill, this artist can also boast an impressive record. In July 2019, he produced the world’s largest tape art work in the German capital. Fifteen thousand metres of adhesive tape were used to create an 1100m² piece in front of the Stattbad in Wedding. El Bocho has appeared in national and international books, magazines, newspapers and exhibitions.