The Museum of Graffiti is excited to announce a new exhibit curated by the German art duo know as Layer Cake (Patrick Hartl and Christian “C100” Hundertmark). In the group exhibition, The Versus Project 3, all the canvases on display began in their studio until they were then sent unfinished to other artists scattered around the world. The other artists completed the unfinished paintings without discussing the details of the work with Hartl and Hundertmark, thus breaking one of the most important rules of graffiti: Never paint over the work of other writers.
In some cases, this process was repeated several times, and occasionally the development could take up to two years. In this creative, non-verbal dialogue, painterly mosaics of different ideas, styles and working methods were thus created in an associative manner. While the paintings crossed national borders and oceans, the artists were confronted with their own inner boundaries.
The project involves artists with different styles and techniques who changed the original painting, layer by layer, until a joint artwork was created. The unique style of each artist can be seen in each of the artworks. The result is a fascinating collective experiment that spurs an artistic dialogue and examines the exploration of the intersection between graffiti and contemporary art.
All participants in this project are united by their passion and strong connection to style writing, street art and graffiti. Some of the artists include Akue, Raws, Flying Förtress, Various & Gould, Bond Truluv, Mad C and Hera, each of whom are from various generations, countries, and continents.
Hartl and Hundertmark have been experimenting with the fusion of their styles since 2015. Patrick’s writing elements are infused and overlaid with Christian’s hard-edged floating fields. This creates deep spatial variations on type and line, color field and occlusion. The images are not planned, they happen. Sweet, crunchy and layered fittingly, the collaborators called themselves Layer Cake: a cake with a rich filling.
“Working on The Versus Project represents a broadening of our artistic horizons for us as well as for the guest artists. Normally, as an artist, you start with a pristine white surface and not with another artist’s work which is sometimes very colorful and expressive. One faces the challenge of painting over parts of another’s work or incorporating them into one‘s own work. The certainty that we, as Layer Cake, will finally intervene in the painting and again cover over parts of what the guest artist has painted forces the guest artist to relinquish final and sole control. The project and the collaboration open new horizons and shows new ways to interpret the piece. Through the project, works have been created that would never have existed otherwise, whether by an artist collective or as a solo artist.”
– Patrick Hartl & Christian “C100” Hundertmark
