graffito-a-day #2

Another of my graffiti photos from Berlin (click on the photo for the full size image). This one is from an empty lot next to a huge artists' complex, called Kunsthaus Tacheles, that started as a squat and is now full of workshops and galleries.

Part of the building is torn away, and the story goes that about 15 years ago, when wrecking crews came to tear down the building, they started ripping into it and the squatters stood on the tattered edge of the building, refusing to leave. After a while of this resistance, miraculously the government let the squatters stay, and they've been there ever since—although it's no longer quite what it was before.