And we’re back for the grand finale of Vienna! In this installment, we’re going to be exploring the wonderful world of Viennese street art. I will note here that, Vienna on the whole—or, central Vienna at least—is not a great place to hunt for murals. As is true with many of the truly beautiful European cities, there is simply not enough empty space for street art find much oxygen. That’s why North America has so much street art; the cities have lots of big, empty, ugly wall space! Vienna… not so much.
Perhaps I would have found more murals if I’d be on the outskirts of the city. There is actually an entire website devoted to Viennese street are called spraycity.at—plus I also found this Instagram account (@mural.guide.vienna) with some incredible pieces of art—so I am inclined to think there is more here… but in the more central regions of Vienna, the city itself is the work of art.
HOWEVER, there is a an urban offshoot of the nearby Danube River that snakes its way through urban Vienna where street artists have had a field day. This offshoot is called Donaukanal and you can actually walk along its banks for almost its entire 17 km length. I didn’t walk the entire length because, when you start to exit its super urban stretches, the murals start to be replaced with greenery (which is arguably much nicer than endless concrete and paint), but the stretches that I did cover were an absolute treasure trove of street art.
Here’s Donaukanal on the map for you, along with a few snapshots from the walk to set the scene…
These people from Oberbank posing for a photo down here like they are about to drop a new mixtape cracks me up. Like, this has to be a joke right? Writing “PRIVATE BANKING” on the wall down here and doing a corporate photo shoot… somebody please tell me this is a joke 🫠
While I take a good hard look in the mirror, please enjoy this collection of murals from the banks of Donaukanal. There’s some cool stuff down here. Hint: it’s got nothing to do with private banking.
As always, I have tried my best to track down the artists responsible for all of this cool stuff and credit them here. If I’ve missed anybody, please do reach out and let me know so I can add their name & links to this list!
RUIN (@r_u_i_n_)
Simian (@simian_switch)
Sümbül Sümbültepe (@sumbulsumbultepe.art)
Ravel Salim
jan1cka (@jan1cka)
Yoongloyal (@yoongloyal)
Don Deus
George Bugler (@george_bugler_arts)
NORO ART (@noro.art)
REWO (@rewo.graff)
That does it for this series on Austria! I’m sure I will be back to Vienna soon, and hopefully next time I can also travel west to see the Austrian Alps as well. This is supposed to be an incredibly beautiful country. Oh, and I will absolutely be coming back to Austria for Krampus at some point. That is a big bucket list item!
Until then, it’s back to France. ✌️
Similar to my sentiments about the street art I found in Naples, I think the street art of Paris feels quite unique in the context of the murals I’ve seen overall. Indeed, these pieces of art like there were directly inspired by and connected to the city around them—which is not always the case! In North America—where there are some incredible works of art tucked away down alleyways in cities like Toronto or San Francisco—the artistry can weirdly begin to blend together after a few cities. Perhaps this is a symptom of the cultural homogeneity of the continent at large, or maybe I’m just looking for meaning in a place where this none to be found… but the murals I saw in Paris definitely felt like they belonged here.