GERMANY: Streetart Berlin - Tiergarten - Hotel Berlin, Berlin - Freiluft Kunst Klub Berlin - WILLOW - CHRISTOPH WILDGRUBE

On this page you will find all the works of the pro skateboarder legend, carpenter and artist CHRISTOPH WILDGRUBE aka WILLOW around the Hotel Berlin, Berlin in chronological order, from single pieces to whole collections. He is meanwhile represented with Exhibitions.

Exhibition Artworks – FKKB #30 – „Work Cycle 2026“ – 7th May till 29th June 2026 – Organized by SKATEBOARD MUSEUM

Willow’s Transformative Work on Skate Spots. In the Creative Cycle 2026, Willow noticeably shifts his approach. Instead of working with pre-existing boards, he deliberately uses new skateboards this time. This change is not technical, but rather one of content. It is less about preserving something from the past and more about designing something that does not yet exist in this form. The starting point remains the skate spots he has skated over the years.

Crucially, however, these locations are not simply adopted. Rather, they emerge as memories in the background and are transformed during the creative process. Certain things stick with him. The new boards are not neutral in this process. They bring a tension with them because they are actually made to be used. This potential is shifted. Through sawing, twisting, and reassembling, forms emerge that are reminiscent of ledges, curbs, or transitions. These are not sculptures of existing spots, but rather versions of what makes skating at these locations unique. The size remains close to that of classic skateboard posters. In the past, these were images people hung in their rooms – specific tricks, situations captured photographically. Here, the format functions differently.

It does not depict a finished scene, but rather something that has yet to become a space. This is where the reference to the Japanese kintsugi method comes in. Traditionally, broken objects are not hidden, but rather repaired in plain sight, thereby enhancing their value. Willow applies this concept to his own context. The cracks in the boards are joined together, but not made invisible; they remain visible as traces of stress, time, and experience. Memory is not smoothed over, but consciously preserved. The connections between the parts are left visible. You can see where something was cut, where tension arises, where materials work against each other. This creates the effect of an open construction. As a result, the works exist somewhere between sculpture and design.

They are not rideable objects, but they also do not pretend to have nothing to do with use. You can tell they come from a practice based on movement. There’s a pretty clear idea behind this. Skate spots don’t always have to be improvised or arise from what’s already there. You can also conceive of them differently, so that they’ve accounted for skating from the very beginning. For Willow, this is something like a dream location. Not a specific place, but rather a direction. A public space that doesn’t work against skating, but embraces it. The works don’t provide ready-made solutions for this, but they make visible how architecture could exist in space. The exhibition explores the intersection of skate culture, craftsmanship, and spatial thinking, examining the interplay between movement, memory, and construction. – FKKB

„Die bewegte Skulptur“ – „The moving Sculpture“

A functional object made from recycled skateboard components. The supporting structure consists of interconnected skateboard trucks. The sculpture reacts to shifts in weight. If you don’t sit in the center, you set it in motion. As with a skateboard, stability comes only from balance. Without control, the system loses its equilibrium. An object as a physical experience between movement, instability, and control.