BERLIN BEAR – symbol of a city

where would you go if you were really into bears? forget alaska or norway. just go to berlin. bears will just keep coming at you…

 

 

 

 

you kaputt, reads this irreverent t-shirt in which berlin’s bear is smaching the other main symbol of the city: brandenburg gate.

 

 

 

 

this is the official version of the bear, on a plaque outside a building.

 

 

 

 

as photographed on an unusually grubby u-bahn train car.

 

 

 

 

street art. something to do with the right to arm bears, perhaps?

 

 

 

 

these huge bears are all over the city of berlin, and you’ll be hard pressed to find any two exactly alike.

 

 

 

 

head shot of one of the huge plastic statues.

 

 

 

 

small one on a bicycle pannier.

 

 

 

 

street art. this piece is probably dedicated to knut, a polar bear born in a berlin zoo a few years ago that the whole country fell in love with. then he died while still very young. as far as i’m concerned, no zoos is good zoos.

 

 

 

 

rough-cut wooden sculpture.

 

 

 

 

this one doesn’t look like the sharpest tool in the shed. the handpainted colors add a little brightness.

 

 

 

superbear, as he appears on a column in one of berlin’s local daily newspapers.

 

 

 

 

this one outside a bank has been painted with the bank’s logo colors. coincidence?

 

 

 

 

blindfolded bear in a stencil. there is no end to street art in berlin. or to bears.

 

 

 

 

if rome uses a she-wolf as the symbol of the eternal city, berlin uses a bear.

 

photographs taken in june 2012. except for the first one, which i took in rome in july.

alessandro ciapanna