THE WALL: Murals Across Europe and the Middle East! Street artists from Ukraine and the world co-create murals in Vienna, Berlin, Geneva, Marseille, and Ankara to show resistance and unity

Ukrainian Institute and cultural agency Port. agency in collaboration with Hotel Continental to launch The Wall, a street art project in five cities: Vienna, Berlin, Geneva, Marseille, and Ankara from November 1 to December 25, 2022. The Wall / Berlin – second of 5 murals-symbols named  “Flower of Democracy» to be opened in Berlin on November 6.

Where: Elsenstrasse 87, 12435 Berlin
When: November, 6 /  15:00 PM
Project initiator Ukrainian Institute
Project management: Port.agency
Artists: Andriy Kalkov and Dennis Schuster

🇺🇦 Mural opening as a powerful symbol of freedom and unity by Ukrainian and European artists

The Wall is a symbol of resistance, stability, and armour that fences off Europe from the war. At the same time, the title refers to the Pink Floyd cult album, a rock opera that tells about a hero who is fenced off from the whole world by a wall behind which he copes with his inner demons.

“Ukraine is dealing with an external demon. The Wall project allows us to start a dialogue about the world’s attitude towards Ukraine as “us and them”. We wish to rethink this idea and look at the mental and historical wall that still separates us. And which must be eliminated so that we feel like a single community.,” – Katya Taylor, Port. CEO and founder, and curator of The Wall says.

The project aims to show that Ukraine is part of the European Union community. Ukraine and the EU have a lot in common, the same values, goals, and rights. In order to emphasize their similarity, while maintaining the individuality of every side, Port. attracted 10 well-known Ukrainian and European street artists who’ve created projects in order to show that the idea of interaction and synergy exists not only in theory but is also embodied in this project, where it goes through about co-creation, alliance and mutual benefit same way as wanting it in a bigger scale – in the cooperation between countries.

“The murals are our response to Russian barbaric aggression on the cultural front in the civilizational war which Putin has launched. The policy of destruction and elimination of Ukrainian identity is one of Russia’s key elements in the war against Ukraine. In our temporarily occupied territories, Russian invaders close Ukrainian schools and impose their language and history. Thus, since February 24 Russian invaders damaged 514 cultural sites – at least 174 religious sites, 38 museums, 38 historic buildings, 38 buildings dedicated to cultural activities, 18 monuments, 10 libraries and 2660 educational institutions. The list is growing every day. Today Ukraine is fighting not only for the right to exist but defends its right to be a family member of Europe”, – says Emine Dzhaparova, Deputy Minister for Foreign Affairs of Ukraine.

In Berlin, Ukrainian artist Andriy Kalkov in collaboration with German illustrator Dennis Schuster (DXTR) will create the mural with the main focus on an abstract sunflower to represent Europe’s fundamental rights and rights of democracy in general. “I wanted to create something positive and beautiful, that’s why I chose to use a flower as the main focus of the artwork. A flower is a symbol of the beauty of life in general. At the same time, the flower is something precious and fragile and needs to be protected.”, – Dennis comment.

“The Wall” is a visionary and meaningful project in a time when Europe faces a period of erecting new borders – physically as well as mentally. „The Wall“ sets a bright sign for cooperation and solidarity between Ukraine and Germany and our common values of democracy and freedom. We are happy and proud to host this project at „Hotel Continental – Art Space in Exile“ in Berlin. May the „Flower of Democracy“ bloom in our countries.” – says Christine Dissmann, Director of „Hotel Continental – Art Space in Exile“

Ukrainian Institute was founded by the Cabinet of Ministers of Ukraine in 2017 and is affiliated with the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Ukraine. Ukrainian Institute disseminates knowledge about Ukraine in foreign societies, involves a wide range of citizens of other countries in discussion and dialogue, provides visibility of the country in the media space, and offers Ukrainian narratives about Ukraine.

Hotel Continental – Art Space in Exile is a project to support refuge-seeking artists from Ukraine and other countries where people suffer from war and prosecution. Hotel Continental offers spaces to create and show an artist’s work, a platform to connect to the Berlin audience and a network for artistic cooperation and exchange.

This project is implemented with the support of the MFA of Ukraine, the Ministry of Culture of Ukraine and The State Agency of Ukraine for Arts and Art Education