For the Places _ VR Festival, the urbanana-Areal was created in the Bochumer Straße quarter with five augmented reality artworks, which took up existing street art works (graffiti, murals, picture panels, etc.) in the quarter and expanded them by a new form of art. For at least one year, the AR-Artwalk will be accessible to visitors who will be able to bring the real works to life virtually via a smartphone app. Suddenly, artistic 3D animations, videos or images will complement and superimpose reality.

urbanana is an invitation to experience urban spaces in a different way. The project of Tourismus NRW e.V. brings together creative people and discoverers* and, together with urbanana-AReal, creates a city tour that expands reality even under conditions of social distance.

Visit the urbanana AReal yourself and bring works of art to life!

Download the Artivive App for this.

The five Augmented Reality artworks were opened during the Places _ VR Festival and marked as Art Walk. After the Places _ VR Festival, the artworks can still be experienced by the public.

To view the AR artwork you simply have to download the app “Artivive” from the playstore or the appstore and scan the corresponding artwork with the app. After a short loading time the artwork comes to life.

The artists

Mayuko Kudo

Mayuko Kudo, born in 1988 in Oita (Japan), works on the theme of the relationship between virtual space and real space, using mediums such as AR, VR, 3DCG, and 3D scanners, and how they intervene. Diplom of fine art in University of the Arts Bremen, and since 2018 studies exMedia in postgraduate course at the Academy of Media Arts in Cologne.

Jæn

Jæn is a French artist creating all sorts of visuals, from 3D printed street art to surreal paintings, to colorful illustrations, branding and virtual paintings. Usually dealing with a dreamy, sometimes psychedelic vibe, his commercial clients include Disney, Diesel, PayPal and Google For Startups, and group shows at Pictoplasma and Urban Spree in Berlin.

Tamlyn Youung

Tamlyn Youung is an illustrator and visual artist from South Africa. She is particularly interested in urban spaces: the stories they contain and the way they influence human interaction. Most of her works are inspired by everyday encounters in the city. She currently lives in Limerick, Ireland. During the day she works as a tutor at the Limerick School of Art and Design, and at night she focuses on her personal illustration projects.

Maksim Finogeev

Maksim Finogeev (Odesa, Ukraine) is a visual artist who often uses photography in different combinations with video, installation, object or performance. In his works, he addresses the theme of how art functions outside the wall of cultural institutions. The author believes it is important to promote the diversity of art in an urban environment, as it reflects the state of relations in society.

Joe Crystal

Joe Crystal is a multidisciplinary artist, that works from pixels to paint based in New York City. With projects ranging from large-scale interactive murals to graphic design and animation, he attempts to bridge the gap between the ever-expanding digital world and traditional analog roots. Current themes of his work are concerned with internet culture and the way social media shape our identity.

Here you can watch the presentation about the project urbanana AReal by Jan Paul Laarman, project manager urbanana / Tourismus NRW ev:

Jury

Christiane Wanken

Christiane Wanken is head of the collection at the Kunstmuseum Gelsenkirchen. After working in Cologne and Berlin, she now lives and works in the Ruhr area. At the Kunstmuseum Gelsenkirchen, she is currently working intensively on the possibilities of the digital mediation of art. Otherwise, her work focuses on modern and contemporary art.

Jan-Paul Laarmann

For Tourismus NRW e.V., Jan-Paul Laarmann drives cultural and urban tourism projects forward, currently as overall project manager of FLOW.NRW. After his first state examination (social sciences and German studies), he was drawn to the Ruhrtriennale and the Berlin start-up world.

Roman Pilgrim
Roman Pilgrim is a freelance artist and creator of the Places VR _ Festival, the first freely accessible VR festival in Germany. As founder and 1st chairman of the Insane Urban Cowboys e.V. he has built up a network around him that attracts attention nationwide. For his activities the association was awarded this year as Creative Space by Creative.NRW.