Poznań is full of large-scale public murals and even home to several well-known street artists. Read on for our guide to street art in Poznań, or skip to the end for an interactive map of the city's best urban art sites.

An Emerging Artform

For a long time, the height of Polish street art amounted to scrawling less-print-friendly versions of “All Cops Are Bastards” and “Lech Poznań 4ever” on residential buildings and/or historical monuments in the dead of night, while the 'artist's' accomplices kept watch on the street corner. Older Poles will also remember the occasional party-sanctioned propaganda murals - not the best connotation either. It was only around 2009-2010 that quality outdoor art started rapidly gaining ground in PL, spawning mural artists and street art festivals throughout the country.

Like many Polish cities wishing to shake off the lingering greyness left behind by communism and its lacklustre “one million and one” blocks of flats, Poznań has taken to professional street art with great enthusiasm. The local scene took off in 2011 with the first edition of the Outer Spaces Festival, which saw renowned muralists from Italy, The Netherlands, Spain, and France invited to spice up the drab exteriors of five carefully-chosen buildings. The project was a hit, and a second edition was organised a year later, adding a pop of optimism to Wilda - the grey, impoverished district south of the Old Town that local punk rock band Pidżama Porno (Pyjama Porno) once deemed “Satan's lair” in a 1997 song called Ezoteryczny Poznań (“Esoteric Poznań”). The third edition of Outer Spaces put the spotlight on Jeżyce, the increasingly hipster district west of the centre which is now known for its proliferation of murals and street art.

Although it only lasted for three years, you could argue that the Outer Spaces Festival was so successful in promoting murals as a way to brighten the center of Poznań, that it made itself unnecessary. Encouraged by the positive responses of locals and visitors to murals around the city, Poznań authorities began sponsoring more large-scale works, and private businesses also continue to fund murals on properties across the city. An initiative called 'Poznań promotes street art, not vandalism' has created specific legal graffiti zones in the city centre, while another city initiative has seen poems by Polish greats Zbigniew Herbert, Tadeusz Różewicz, Wisława Szymborska, and Stanisław Barańczak incribed upon the city's walls. Notably, the district of Śródka, almost singlehandedly revitalised its market square in 2015 with the beloved 'Śródka Tale' mural, which has become a bona fide tourist attraction. Another iconic work is Italian artist Maupal's 2017 work portraying a woman attempting to sew together two parts of the Polish flag.

Poznań Street Artists

'Noriaki'

While large-scale murals have exploded across Poznań, underground, street-level DIY graffiti has remained strong. So strong that the stigma against this sort of illegal art has been weakened and certain local Banksy-esque artists have gone mainstream. The most notable example is the artist operating under the pseudonym 'Noriaki,' whose highly-recognisable character Pan Peryskop (Mr. Periscope) AKA The Watcher has appeared across the city in hundreds of different permutations, integrating itself into Poznań's urban fabric. Keep an eye out, and you’ll realise this lovable rascal is ubiquitous - peering from walls, walking his dog, playing b-ball, and passing out drunk depending on the circumstances. For several years there was a dive bar called Peryskop Garden directly inspired by Poznań's favourite graffiti character (since closed), and in 2023 the The Watcher even got its own monument on Plac Bernardyński.

Someart

Another well-known Poznań meddler is iamsomeart (aka just 'Someart'), who does mostly slap-tags and larger illegally-placed posters portraying distorted black-and-white faces and figures. Recently, both artists have started exploring commercial routes, with Noriaki taking commissions to decorate hipster spots like kontenerART and the Social Night Market, and iamsomeart selling prints on his website, with the prices proudly displayed in euro. 

If you fancy a walking tour of Poznań’s best street art, we've pinned all the not-to-be-missed specimens with GPS coordinates so that your smartphone can do the work of finding them for you. We encourage you to do just that, and check out some of Poz's alternative artistic visions.