1UP (One United Power) is a

graffiti Graffiti (singular ''graffiti'', or ''graffito'' only in graffiti archeology) is writing or drawings made on a wall or other surface, usually without permission and within public view. Graffiti ranges from simple written "monikers" to elabor ...

crew from

Berlin Berlin ( ; ) is the Capital of Germany, capital and largest city of Germany, by both area and List of cities in Germany by population, population. With 3.7 million inhabitants, it has the List of cities in the European Union by population withi ...

Kreuzberg Kreuzberg () is a district of Berlin, Germany. It is part of the Friedrichshain-Kreuzberg borough located south of Berlin-Mitte, Mitte. During the Cold War era, it was one of the poorest areas of West Berlin, but since German reunification in ...

. They have been active since 2003. 1UP have been described as "one of the most well-known graffiti crews in the world" and are known for their bombing (large amount of tags put up in one night), rooftop paintings, and wholecar, wholetrains .

Members

There are between 10 and 50 members, of different genders, with ages ranging from 20-40. The members are not all German, they come from various European countries. All of the members are

anonymous Anonymous may refer to: * Anonymity, the state of an individual's identity, or personally identifiable information, being publicly unknown ** Anonymous work, a work of art or literature that has an unnamed or unknown creator or author * Anonym ...

, and some do not do solo graffiti, preferring only to tag as 1UP. The group has had over 300

criminal charge A criminal charge is a formal accusation made by a governmental authority (usually a public prosecutor or the police) asserting that somebody has committed a crime. A charging document, which contains one or more criminal charges or counts, can t ...

s filed against them, but none of the members have been caught so far. 1UP Berlin Ullsteinstrasse

Publications

Their film ''One United Power'' was released in 2011 on DVD, and their book ''I Am 1UP'' published in 2014. In 2018 1UP collaborated with graffiti photographer Martha Cooper as part of their ''One Week With 1UP'' tour. A book about the tour was published by Cooper under the same name.

Projects

Their tags are prolific in

and

Athens Athens ( ) is the Capital city, capital and List of cities and towns in Greece, largest city of Greece. A significant coastal urban area in the Mediterranean, Athens is also the capital of the Attica (region), Attica region and is the southe ...

, where part of the ''A Week With 1UP'' tour took place. Their work has appeared around the world including an underwater graffiti piece out of live

coral Corals are colonial marine invertebrates within the subphylum Anthozoa of the phylum Cnidaria. They typically form compact Colony (biology), colonies of many identical individual polyp (zoology), polyps. Coral species include the important Coral ...

at Nusa Penida and a 2017 piece on the Mediterranean Sky shipwreck which was large enough to be visible from satellites. In collaboration with fellow German crew Berlin Kidz and artist Good Guy Boris, the group produced a

performance A performance is an act or process of staging or presenting a play, concert, or other form of entertainment. It is also defined as the action or process of carrying out or accomplishing an action, task, or function. Performance has evolved glo ...

and

video art Video art is an art form which relies on using video technology as a visual and audio medium. Video art emerged during the late 1960s as new consumer video technology such as video tape recorders became available outside corporate broadcasting. V ...

piece titled ''Graffiti Olympics'' using drone footage, which was released on 2 March 2018. Because of the anonymity of the group, it can be difficult to know if some graffiti is done by real members of the crew or by copycats. The group releases videos documentating some of their pieces, which can be used to authenticate them. A 1UP piece is visible in the video game Counter-Strike: Global Offensive, in the Overpass map which is set in Berlin.

References

{{reflist German graffiti artists Graffiti crews

Members

Publications

Projects

See also

References