Minsk Graffiti Maker: I Felt Great Art Satisfaction

Belarusian artist explained why he had done changes in his graffiti dedicated to the "friendship" between Minsk and Moscow.

Street artist who added the barbed wire to the graffiti calls himself "the author-to-improve."

"I was ashamed of the gift of my Moscow colleagues and decided to give at least some sense", he said in an interview to BelaPAN .

And this is how he came up with such idea: "I like to add something new to works, breath something new into them. Barbed wire is a good, multi-layered symbol and quite appropriate when it comes to Russia's relations with other countries".

According to an anonymous author, it was easy to find equipment to paint on a multi-storey building, but other details are kept in secret.

The painter also said that it took about three hours and he did not mention any aggression on the part of passers-by. "It is hard to see something from the height. I guess people were sleeping and that was right," he said. "Barbed wire or chamomile - it does not make sense what is painted. But when I did, I felt a great satisfaction from the work done and the new picture", the graffiti maker added.

His answer whether he is afraid of persecution is as follows: "No, but I know what to say, anyway. According to him, the barbed wire means that "everything has its dark side", in this case it is "ugly and even dangerous".

He also noted that he tried not to think over current Belarusian-Russian relations and people in power, because he immediately started to "get nervous."

The graffiti maker also says that he knows the project manager and a graffiti maker.

The graffiti maker - Artur Kashak from Yaroslavl - did not comment on it. "You'd better ask project managers for comments. I'm just graffiti maker, this is all," he stated to BelaPAN.

Graffiti symbolizing the Belarusian-Russian friendship has been made on two buildings on Mahilyeuskaya Street in Minsk on the initiative of the Russian side and was dedicated to the Days of Moscow in Minsk, which took place this June. A boy in the picture symbolizes Minsk, a girl - Moscow (coats of arms of cities are painted on their T-shirts).

Graffiti raised a wave of criticism and became an object of ridicule on social networks, they were called "the revival of monumental propaganda."

On October 24 street-art group Signal on Facebook informed about the barbed wire on the graffiti. An anonymous painter worked on Sunday with special lifting equipment. It was also informed that as soon as the work was over he left Minsk.