Provocative street-art against German far-right

A Danish art group has put up old Nazi propaganda posters in Berlin — sort of. The posters are altered to suggest Germany get rid of the states where support for neo-Nazis is strongest. The Danish art group „Surrend“ has launched a new campaign to protest against the election success of the far-right National Democratic Party (NPD) in parts of eastern Germany. The group launched its latest provocative project on Tuesday by sticking up its own “crazy” versions of old Nazi propaganda posters in central Berlin. These should make people think about the connection between today’s extremists and the former Nazi regime.
The group began their poster campaign a few years ago, when they put up neo-Nazi election posters with misspellings and other errors to try to make the Danish extremists look stupid. He says the action was pretty effective — people who thought they were neo-Nazi propaganda tore them down, and far-right chatrooms were annoyed at the attempt to cast a slur on their intelligence.They have also cast their tactics further afield, making „crazy art“ in hotspots and to poke fun at the world’s most powerful men. Surrend has had sticker and poster campaigns in Poland, Belarus, Turkey and Sri Lanka. Jan Egesborg, a group member, insists that art can make a difference: „It is very important that art is part of politics,“ he says. He criticizes much contemporary art as too introspective and only concerned with the artist’s inner feelings. „In this age of globalization, it is important for art to be expressive and to take a risk.“