Berlin has long been a city where art spills into public life, but German artist Monty Richthofen has pushed that idea into unexpected territory. During Berlin Gallery Weekend, his project HARD 2 4GET transformed white vans into moving canvases covered with poetic fragments, military references, and reimagined language. Drawing from his history in graffiti and tattooing, Richthofen used the city itself as his exhibition space, creating a project that challenged ideas of war, memory, and public perception while forcing art out of gallery walls and into everyday life.
From War Archives to Berlin Streets
The origins of HARD 2 4GET can be traced to photographs from the Vietnam War. Richthofen recalled how seeing anti-war messages painted on military helmets deeply affected him.
“It deeply touched me,” he says. “These were works of art. And they completely broke the idea of uniformity, but the military tolerated the freedom of expression in order to boost morale.”
That discovery led him deeper into military visual culture, eventually uncovering archives of aircraft nose art from the Second World War, Vietnam, and Iraq conflicts. Phrases such as “heaven sent,” “problem child,” and “heaven can wait” became source material, later repurposed across Berlin’s streets.
The project also carried a personal dimension. Richthofen is a distant relative of the famed Red Baron fighter pilot, creating a direct connection to aviation history and wartime imagery.
“You don’t get to choose what family you’re born into, but you get to choose how actively you engage with your family history, and how much you challenge it,” he says.
He added:
“As an artist, it’s important to be conscious of this. I want to use my work to promote peace and challenge the political ideals that unfortunately dominate the times we’re living in.”
Reimagining War Symbols Through Art
Richthofen’s original vision was ambitious.
“It would have been amazing to have them on planes,” the artist says. “But where do I get a bomber? It’s impossible.”
Without aircraft, he shifted the idea onto vans moving throughout Berlin with masked drivers behind the wheel. The relocation of military slogans from war machines onto ordinary vehicles dramatically altered how people interpreted the words.
This transformation reflected Richthofen’s fascination with context and perception. The same phrase can carry entirely different meanings depending on where and how it appears.
When Performance Art Meets Police Intervention
Reality quickly interrupted the artistic plan.
Within only twenty minutes of the performance, police reportedly stopped several drivers at gunpoint. German authorities believed the masked individuals inside graffiti-covered vehicles could be preparing for a robbery.
Richthofen reacted with humor:
“I don’t think any person with criminal intentions would be stupid enough to drive in a fully spray-painted van,” says Richthofen. “But maybe this is where me and the police think differently… to say it the diplomatic way.”
The artist later repeated:
“Me and the police think differently… to say it the diplomatic way.”
Ironically, another misunderstanding followed when a truck was stopped after someone reported performers for vandalism while they were actually cleaning the vehicle.
For Richthofen, these incidents reinforced the central themes of his work: perception is unstable, and public space changes how art is interpreted.
A Performance Built Around Vulnerability
The exhibition culminated during May Day celebrations in Berlin through a pair of live performances outside Dittrich & Schlechtriem gallery.
One involved performers Dafni Krazoudi and Muriel Seiquer removing a phrase from one of the vehicles. Another featured Jérémie Bezençon standing atop a Richthofen-painted Tesla, stripping to the waist while repeatedly saying the word “maman.”
For Richthofen, vulnerability stood at the center of these performances.
“There is nothing glorifying in battle, or dying for your country, or returning with PTSD,” he explains.
He continued:
“With all these images of war from Palestine, from Ukraine, we get desensitised to the toll it takes on people. As an artist, I feel that these experiences need to be continuously addressed, in the real world.”
Breaking Free From The White Cube
Richthofen’s artistic identity began long before galleries and exhibitions.
“My practice is rooted in graffiti, which I started when I was like 15 years old, when I painted my first train.”
Eventually he realized graffiti’s appeal was not the finished image itself.
“I realised it’s not the final product, but the whole performative aspect of it.”
For him, sneaking into spaces, wearing masks, and navigating uncertainty became part of the art itself.
“So, leaving the safe space and the white cube is definitely necessary for me. I think that the public space is much more democratic.”
He believes institutions increasingly need to reconsider how art interacts with audiences.
“Certain messages should not be contained within walls. People need to see it, to share it, to engage with it and react to it.”
Tattooing, Language, and The Art of Misunderstanding
Richthofen’s years as a tattoo artist also shaped his relationship with text and communication.
He described a project where conversations with strangers became personalized tattoos:
“Based on the conversation I would tattoo them a text.”
Over time, he discovered how dramatically meaning shifts depending on context.
“I started understanding that there is a huge difference if text is on canvas, or if it’s a tattoo, or if it’s on a truck, or if it’s spoken, or if it’s on a wall.”
His fascination with language also came from struggle.
“I almost failed high school because of German and English.”
Yet that challenge became central to his work:
“What fascinates me about language is that it’s an attempt at communication, but it’s bound to fail. Literally!”
He continued:
“There’s so much room for misunderstanding, for misinterpretation.”
For Richthofen, language remains endlessly unpredictable.
“Maybe language is a little bit like the ocean; you never know how the tide will change.”
With HARD 2 4GET, Monty Richthofen transformed ordinary trucks into moving acts of disruption that blurred the boundaries between poetry, protest, and performance. By taking language out of galleries and placing it directly into city streets, he invited confusion, conversation, and emotional reaction. In a world saturated by images and digital noise, Richthofen’s project suggests that art becomes most powerful when it escapes controlled spaces and collides with everyday life.
