The reconquest of the city by the artists by Thomas Baumgärtel and Captain Borderline

To coincide with the first City Leaks Festival 2011, the Cologne artists' collective 'Captain Borderline', together with artist Thomas Baumgärtel, prominently staged the mural
'The reconquest of the city by the artists'. In the direction of the railway tracks leading to the main station, people travelling from the west are made aware of the artists' struggle for art locations. With a banana, the trademark of the artist Baumgärtel, as a battering ram, the artists try together to push open the city gate of Cologne, which is dominated by faceless investors. We also see places of art that have already been lost or are in the process of being destroyed in the piles of rubble and demolition work depicted.

The mural thus addresses a central question posed by street art and the City Leaks Festival: Who owns the city and who has the right to shape it?