The Museum of Urban and Contemporary Art (MUCA) opened in 2016 as Germany's first museum for urban art.
In 2019, the MUCA added a former air raid shelter to its premises. After years of vacancy, it has since been used as an art bunker.
The bunker is directly adjacent to the MUCA main building. In the former air raid shelter from the Second World War, the MUCA usually shows special exhibitions or special formats, which can be staged particularly impressively in this characteristic building.
The history of the bunker in Hotterstraße in Munich dates back to 1941. Since the end of the war, the space of the former air raid shelter has been used in a variety of ways, as a shelter for the homeless, a hotel and, from 2012, even briefly as the „Herr Hotter“ discotheque.
Our Giant Wall awaits you on the outdoor areas of the MUCA with changing, large-scale outdoor art projects, most recently designed as a huge spot painting by Damien Hirst.
In addition, the green space in front of the MUCA Bunker is home to changing installations and sculptures. Until December 2024, for example, the large „Pegasus“ sculpture by Damien Hirst was on display there.
The term calligraffiti was coined from the fusion of graffiti and calligraphy. Stohead, as a representative of this style, designed the façade of the MUCA for the opening and thus built a bridge to one of the first exhibitions at the MUCA - „The Art of Writing“.
The MUCA is dedicated to integrating urban art into contemporary art discourse and exhibiting the most celebrated women artists of the 20th and 21st centuries. Since its inception, the MUCA has become a leading authority in collection building, with a focus on significant works by women artists known for utilising the urban landscape as part of their practice.
The MUCA's permanent collection began in 1998.
In 2014, the MUCA curated the design of the „Bridge Gallery“ on Candidplatz. Almost 20 national and international artists designed the pillars of the Candidbrücke. The „Bridge Gallery“ is also a stop on the MUCA Street Art Bike Tour, which always takes place from May to September.
In 2015, the MUCA took over the disused substation in Hotterstraße and converted it into today's MUCA Museum, which opened in 2016.
In 2018/19, the MUCA realised the first KUNSTLABOR as an interim use of the vacant Tengelmann complex. 50 artists transformed the building into a walk-in work of art. The continuation of this project opened in Dachauer Straße in 2021: KUNSTLABOR 2, an art and cultural centre with 60 art spaces, workshops and studios.