Nick Cocozza

Hochbunker Pallas — a WWII bunker so strong that engineers tried to blow it up after the war… and it didn’t move 😳 So Berlin did the most Berlin thing ever: it built housing around it 🤯 A relic of the past, hiding in plain sight in Schöneberg. Which Berlin spot should I cover next? 👇✨ . . . #Berlin #Hochbunker #Brutalism #UrbanExploration #BerlinArchitecture

They call it a comfort zone for a reason, because it’s comfortable. It’s easy to blame the clubs, nightlife and the Berlin lifestyle for not moving forward. Climbing out of that isn’t easy, It’s slow, challenging and sometimes pretty lonely. And actually building something good takes more than talking about it at 4am.

Berlin has been my home for almost 16 years now, and somehow this city still finds new ways to surprise me. ✨ It’s changed a lot — some things for the better, some things we’ve lost — but that mix of creativity, chaos, and character is exactly why I’m still proud to call it home. 🖤 This project is my way of celebrating the Berlin I know and love: the well-known landmarks, the hidden corners, the brutalist giants, the legendary clubs, and all the places that make this city so unique. 🏙️✨ It’s also a reminder of why these cultural spaces matter — and why they need to be protected. Without them, Berlin wouldn’t be Berlin. 🫶 Here are the first 11 illustrations in the series. I’d love to keep expanding it — what places do you love, and which spots should I draw next? 🎨 And a big thank you to everyone who’s supported my work along the way — friends, collaborators such as @berlintechno_ofc , the Berlin art community, and the city itself for the endless amount of inspiration 🐻❤️‍🔥 . . . . #BerlinArt #AlternativeBerlin #visitberlin #brutalism #sisyphos #berghain #tresor #nickcocozza

Berlin isn’t a fairytale. But sometimes it can feel like one written by the Brothers Grimm after a three day bender at Berghain. I’ve always loved fairytales. The dark ones especially. The ones about temptation, transformation, getting lost, becoming someone else. Living in Berlin can feel a bit like that sometimes. A city full of mirrors, masks, fantasy and escapism. A place where people come to reinvent themselves, lose themselves or disappear into the version of themselves they always wanted to be.

It’s time to confess in full… 1. I have shamelessly appropriated the work of several other artists (scroll through this post’s slides for evidence). 2. These pirated works are currently on view in my exhibition — ‘Candice Breitz: Hot Potato’ — at KOW in Berlin, where they can be seen hanging, along several other recent works, until 27 June 2026. 3. And finally, my full and dirty truth — I want you to buy one or more of these ‘Appropriated Posters’ and take them home with you. So that I can donate all income generated through poster sales to Medico International’s campaign “Nothilfe für Palästina” / “Emergency Funding for Palestine”, which raises aid in support of communities facing devastation in Gaza and the West Bank. WHAT THEY COST: Each poster costs: €10,00 The set of five posters costs: €40,00 All posters measure 594 x 841mm If you can’t settle on one, buy them all. How often do you get the opportunity to purchase the work of seven artists in the form of five posters for a total amount of €40? WHERE TO GET YOUR POSTERS: Pick up your posters directly at @kowberlin +++ ABOUT THE POSTERS: In order of appearance in the slides: GENOCIDE IS OVER! ‘Appropriated Poster (After John Lennon + Yoko Ono),’ 1969-2026 MERZ LECK EIER ‘Appropriated Poster (After an anonymous teenage protestor),’ 2026 DIE TRENDFARBE BRAUN ‘Appropriated Poster (After Sereina Steinemann),’ 2026 BERLIN IS A TRAP ‘Appropriated Poster (After Nick Cocozza),’ 2026 BOYCOTT GERMAN GOODS ‘Appropriated Poster (After Christoph Schlingensief),’ 1999-2026 +++ Label me as you wish. I’ve lost track of all the derogatory terms that have been thrown at me in recent times — Krawalnudel, streitlustig, angry, aggressive, disrespectful, antisemitic, provokant, activist (yup, within Berlin art community, the word ‘activist’ is often doled out as a slur) — but at the end of the day, surely there is no human behaviour more shameful than keeping one’s mouth shut as a genocide that one is actively funding as a tax payer, unfolds day after day before one’s eyes. + More about Medico International: @medicointernational + 📸 Ladislav Zajac (posters) 📸 Armin Marewski (portraits)

Really happy to have Berlin Is a Trap included in HOT POTATO, the current solo exhibition by Candice Breitz at KOW Berlin. The exhibition reflects on Berlin as a political and cultural space, exploring protest, censorship, artistic freedom and the growing tensions surrounding public expression in Germany today. Throughout the exhibition, the figure of the bear appears repeatedly as symbol, performance, warning and survivor. I was very proud to see my poster exist within that wider visual conversation. What originally began as a response to the contradictions of Berlin unexpectedly found a deeper resonance inside the show. A city that still attracts artists from everywhere, while increasingly leaving many questioning what can still be said openly within cultural spaces. The bear performance especially stayed with me as a highlight of the show, moving through the space like a restless symbol of Berlin itself, vulnerable, trapped, confrontational and impossible to ignore. The posters are also available for sale as part of the exhibition, and I just wanted to say thank you to everyone who has bought one so far and supported the project. Massive respect and huge thank you to Candice and the team at KOW for including the work. On view until June 27 🐻🖤

I moved to Berlin when I was 24. It doesn’t feel that long ago, but I’m 40 now and a lot’s changed. Not just the city, but the version of me living in it. A lot of life just seems to happen while you’re busy figuring things out. Through experiences, mistakes, people, loss, growth, and all the other stuff that happens in between. I don’t think any of us ever really “figure things out”. We’re all just learning on the job and understanding ourselves a little better over time. Here’s a few things I’ve learned along the way.

I’m building a deck of 52 illustrated cards based on cool places in Berlin. Yeah, I know, this one’s a bit touristy. But I’m not drawing it because of that. I’m drawing it because it genuinely has a strange (and quite funny) story behind it… involving the Pope 😂 I’m over halfway through the deck now and hoping to release it later this year. Out of curiosity, is this something you’d want to own? 52 places means 52 interesting stories and I’ll be telling them all ✍🏻

My son turns one next month. Watching him experience everything in the world for the first time has been so crazy and really special. Touching a piece of tree bark. Squishing fruit between his fingers. Staring at the trippy carpet at home. Things I don’t even notice anymore just completely blow his mind. And it made me realise… We’re all born curious. But somewhere along the way, we just stop paying attention to things. So yeah, this is just a little reminder to stay curious ❤️

I’ve lived in a lot of different parts of Berlin over the years, and at least 4 of these U-Bahn stops used to be my local ones. They’re tied to our everyday routines, going out, coming home after a messy night out, heading to work on a Monday morning. As part of this Berlin project I’m building, I’m not just drawn to the weird and obscure parts is the city, but also places like these everyday U-Bahn stations. The everyday stuff we pass and move through without even thinking, which we’re all connected by, whether we realise it or not.

One of the projects I’m really excited to be building this year and have been developing for a while is a personal series documenting the more obscure and often overlooked places of Berlin. Not the usual landmarks, but the brutalist buildings, the legendary clubs, the beloved local spots and the places built on ideas and ideologies that don’t even exist anymore. I’m selecting 52 of these unique places and creating a fully illustrated deck of playing cards, like an alternative set of Berlin landmarks. Haus des Lehrers will be one of them ✍🏻❤️

The older I get, the stranger time feels. When I first came to Berlin, it felt like time didn’t really exist. Probably because I was in my twenties and everything was chaotic and exciting. But the older I get, the more I realise how fast it actually goes. Even this past year, after having a baby, which I totally didn’t expect. I find it interesting how many different versions of yourself can exist in one place. A lot of people pass through Berlin without ever really settling down. And now I’m here, getting older in it. Becoming a version of myself I never really associated with this city. And in a strange way, it just feels right.