On Saturday, 19 October 2024, employees of the Media Center Directorate organised an interesting walking tour, ‘Kyiv Murals’, which was joined by representatives of the Embassies of Canada, Denmark, Finland, Germany, Switzerland, the United States, and international organisations: the European Union and Mercy Corps.

Art is a dynamic phenomenon: new artistic trends emerge and develop as a direct consequence of existing social, political, and cultural influences. In contrast to the classic art museum environments, the 21st century sees the lively development of street art as the most popular method of expressing social sentiment using strong emotional messages, allowing the artists to capture a wider like-minded audience. During the tour, foreign guests learned about the development of street art and its attributes, including the thematic diversity observed in the murals by Ukrainian artists, and listened to the stories behind each of the wall art pieces they saw. The participants travelled through a genuine open-air exhibition with an experienced guide, who showed them the most interesting works of Ukrainian, Argentinian, Belgian, Australian, Polish, Spanish, Canadian, and Portuguese muralists, as well as the works of Kostiantyn Skrytutskyi, a famous Ukrainian sculptor and designer and renowned master of street sculpture.

Out of everything they saw, the participants were most impressed by a mural painting by England-based artist Banksy on 13 Velyka Zhytomyrska St. The street artist’s style is so unique that his graffiti, referencing various sensitive issues of today’s society, can be recognised at a glance.

Another thing that struck a chord with the foreign guests was the mural on Reitarska St, recently created by well-known Kyiv-based artist Vitalii Hidevan to honour the fallen soldiers of the ‘Da Vinci Wolves’ battalion. The mural depicts late warriors Oleksii ‘Tykhyi’ Naida and Yevhen ‘Zheka’ Svitlychnyi, who also starred in Oleh Sentsov’s film Rhino. Both heroes served in the ‘Honor’ company of the ‘Da Vinci Wolves’ battalion.

The tour participants were impressed with the thematic diversity and narrative intensity of modern street art in Kyiv, which allows others to enhance their understanding of Ukraine’s current history and see the wealth of national culture in the creative expression of Ukrainian artists and the concerns and pain of Ukrainians through the eyes of foreign artists.