POSITIVE-PROPAGANDA x Mark Jenkins

Despite its still relatively young history, these days most people are familiar with the concept of street art. But most of them still associate it, first and foremost, with stencilling, stickers, paste-ups or spray painting on building façades in public spaces. But for quite some time now another form of artistic expression has been popping up around cities: Tape-Art.



The most expressive works of this still very young genre are the hyperrealistic sculptures painstakingly handmade by the internationally represented artist Mark Jenkins, who lives in Washington D.C. 

Despite his very tight schedule – between the “Brutal” exhibition organised by Steve Lazarides in London and a project forArt Basel Miami Beach shortly afterwards – we managed to bring Mark Jenkins to Munich for a unique project to create what is probably his strongest work in a public space in Germany to date.

After much consideration and several discussions with the artist and his assistant Sandra Fernandes we decided to present his work in a place where people would least expect to see art.



So we set off on a tour through various neighbourhoods around the city for a suitable location and came across the Sozialreferat, the Social Welfare Office in Munich’s Westend, which seemed to be predestined for this kind of artistic intervention. Another reason in favour of the low-income housing was that it is very important to the artist to also make his work accessible to people who, due to their social and economic disadvantages, are not usually able to enjoy the benefits of art and culture.