Potsdamer Platz is not your typical art venue. No white walls, no silence, no atmosphere of contemplative observation. Instead: glass façades, concrete columns, through traffic, tourists with suitcases. And that is precisely why art works so well here. It has to hold its own and when it does, it sticks in your mind.

Right in the heart of the neighbourhood, impossible to miss and yet so different from the architecture all around — Carolina Amaya’s Seeds of Light staircase mural. Vibrant colours, expressive forms, a visual language that weaves nature and sensuality together. In her work, Amaya combines cultural identity with a clear commitment to self-love, tolerance and acceptance. Seeds of Light symbolises unity and inner light — and encourages us not to suppress our fears, but to embrace them. A message that might seem surprising on a staircase. But that is precisely the point: you come across it by chance, whilst out and about, as you pass by. And it stays with you.

The distinctive concrete columns of the neighbourhood have long since become more than just load-bearing elements — they are surfaces. Painted, decorated and used by artists who do not ignore the structures of the square, but incorporate them. What would otherwise pass for faceless infrastructure becomes a canvas for colour, writing and figures. To mark this year’s Creative Summer, 26 artists have left their works along Alte Potsdamer Straße: outdoors, free of charge, and accessible round the clock. Anyone passing by late at night will see the same images as at midday — just in a different light. Here, different styles, colours and visual languages come together, united by the same space they all inhabit. Names that have carried weight in the Berlin art scene for years. New additions this year: Lisa Tegtmeier, Nadine Werjant, Mina Mania, SOKAR UNO, MATE, Nensetango, Rommy Gon, Miss Glueniverse, Meltem Bayram, Caro Pepe, Michael Weingart, Caro Amaya, DXTR, Vikunia, Kera.

Here, art isn’t hung. Here, it stands.

Foto Credits: Birk Alisch