GERMANY: Streetart Bad Vilbel - Heilsberg - Alte Frankfurter 28 - CASE MACLAIM & MILLO

75 Years Heilsberg – Two Gable Walls – One Grand Total Work of Art

The Italian artist FRANCESCO CAMILLO GIORGINO, known as MILLO, and world-renowned artist ANDREAS VON CHRZANOWSKI, known as CASE and for his photorealistic style, redesigned two building facades on Heilsberg and combined them into a single work of art.

While a photorealistically rendered boy in an illustrative-architectural setting can be seen at Alte Frankfurter Straße 28, the building at Alte Frankfurter Straße 44 is adorned with an illustratively rendered boy against a photorealistic background featuring images of our city. The challenge was to create a stylistic fusion that forms a cohesive whole.

The initiative for a graffiti art project on the Heilsberg came from local council chairman Peter Schenk, who had approached Kurt Liebermeister, chairman of Bad Vilbel’s city marketing department. The project was made possible by the GWH housing association, which made the two gables available for the project.

The project was supported and sponsored by the Sparkasse Oberhessen Foundation, the City of Bad Vilbel, and the “75 Years of Heilsberg” organizing team. Supported and sponsored by the Sparkasse Oberhessen Foundation and the City of Bad Vilbel. Project made possible by the GWH Housing Association. Coordinated by Stadtmarketing Bad Vilbel e.V.

CASE from the legendary MACLAIM CREW, is a graffiti artist who relies on his highly developed talent to create pieces that combine brilliant hotorealism with a strong touch of surrealism. He primarily uses spray paint, as this street art technique allows him to bring out the best in his images and achieve the level of perfection that characterizes his incredibly lifelike graffiti. CASE has been one of Germany’s most innovative street artists for years. Today, he is rightly regarded as one of the world’s best creators of photorealistic spray art. He has left his mark in over 20 countries around the world.

MILLO paints large-scale murals depicting friendly residents exploring their urban surroundings. He uses simple black and white lines with splashes of color when necessary and often incorporates architectural elements into his multi-story building murals. He participates in street art festivals around the world. He has painted in the U.S., Russia, China, Australia, Thailand, Argentina, Chile, Morocco, Spain, Portugal, the United Kingdom, the Netherlands, Poland, Lithuania, Belarus, Ukraine, and, of course, Italy. In 2014, he won a competition that allowed him to paint 13 multi-story murals in the city of Turin.

Just how positively the new graffiti on the Heilsberg was received became clear as early as the week it was created. Numerous people stopped to marvel and watch the artists at work, took photos, and applauded the newly designed murals—and even today, they continue to delight many passersby.

CASE said: „A great team dynamic has developed between the artists and the city’s marketing department. As a result, there are now about 30 graffiti pieces on display in a wide variety of locations throughout Bad Vilbel – many of them by me – and now also on the Heilsberg“. He adds: “There is a deep appreciation for graffiti art in Bad Vilbel”. This appreciation, combined with Liebermeister’s expertise, is why international artists from the scene enjoy expressing their love for art in Bad Vilbel.

Information about the Heilsberg

Leisure Time on the Heilsberg – About Spa Guests, Movie Trips, and Rock Music. Long before residential buildings were constructed on the Vilbeler Höhe—now the Heilsberg neighborhood – the area had a turbulent history. Even before World War I, the site was used for military purposes. But it also had another, civilian side. In 1897, Mr. Westenberger opened a hotel and restaurant on the edge of the Vilbeler Höhe. When Carl Brod opened his highly carbonated mineral spring in Vilbel to the public in 1900 and began offering the first spa treatments in his own bathhouse, the hotel became the lodging for the first spa guests. These guests were transported by carriage to and from the bathhouse – thus making the hotel Vilbel’s first spa hotel.

When Bad Vilbel’s first spa hotel, the “Kurhotel,” was built in 1897 on the edge of the Vilbeler Höhe, spa guests stayed and relaxed in this rural idyll.

After the spa hotel was demolished, the Zur Sonne inn was built on the same site. It remained a popular gathering place and became the center of what would later become a neighborhood. The first houses of the Sudetenland settlement sprang up around the inn. Another significant leisure destination opened in 1956 right next to the Zur Sonne: The Heilsberg Movie Theater—HeLi for short. For many years, it screened the most popular postwar films and became an integral part of cultural life for many Heilsberg residents. A curious and typical example of the improvised early days: even before the Catholic church was built, the parish’s devotions were held at the HeLi.

Unassuming on the outside, iconic on the inside: The Fillwood nightclub attracted visitors from all over the Rhine-Main region and became a legend.

In 1970, the cinema closed – but the building was by no means abandoned. Instead, the legendary rock nightclub “Fillwood” moved in. It quickly gained a reputation beyond the region, not least thanks to rousing live performances by well-known bands. Heilsberg thus also developed into a musical hub – young, loud, and lively. Whether as a spa hotel, an inn, a movie theater, or a “beat club”: From the very beginning, Heilsberg had a knack for community, conviviality, and cultural life.