‘Street Art’ doesn’t get any more literal than printing direct from manhole covers

This ‘Pirate Printing’ project uses urban structures like utilities covers to create unique graphical patterns on streetwear, fabrics and paper.

Each unique piece is hand printed, mainly on-site in a public space, as a footprint of the city

Berlin-based raubdruckerin is an experimental printmaking project, that uses urban structures like manhole covers, grids, technical objects and other surfaces of the urban landscape, to create unique graphical patterns on streetwear basics, fabrics and paper. Each unique piece is hand printed, mainly on-site in a public space, as a footprint of the city. While raubdruckerin is based in Berlin, the collective also works regularly in other major European cities like Amsterdam, Lisbon and Paris.  

By carrying the image around, people become part of the project themselves

The main focus of the raubdruckerin project, say the art collective, is to explore the surfaces of cities, searching for overlooked, seemingly insignificant details on the pavement, which turn out to be true urban design pieces. They reveal unobserved parts of cities, that are full of history, diversity and creativity.

They say on their website — the process of converting a detail of the city into an image, displayed on somebody’s chest, can be considered as reversed street art. A part of the city is being extracted from its origin and brought to new life in a different context. By carrying the image around, people become part of the project themselves.

raubdruckerin was formed and is still mainly run by Emma-France Raff. Back in 2006, when she was still living in Portugal, she developed the idea together with her father, painter Johannes Kohlrusch, in his studio in rural Alentejo. First experiments took place on a road towards Lisbon and after seeing the results, the journey began. Initially named estampatampa they presented their creations at the Festival "Musicas do Mundo" 2006 in the town of Sines.