“In solidarity with the Ukrainian people. The famous street-artist Banksy is talking about him again. The Briton posted this Thursday on his Instagram account a video lifting the veil on six of his works, painted with stencils in Ukraine. We discover in this extract of about 1′30mn his journey through a Ukraine at war. The images are presented as having been shot in this month of November 2022.
There is this village of Horenka, located in the Boutcha district. A village scarred by the bombardments. And, on the facade of a ruined building, suddenly appears a bearded man, lying in a bathtub, visibly rubbing his back with a long brush. On other facades of devastated buildings, we then see a woman, curlers in her hair, equipped with a gas mask and a fire extinguisher. Then two young gymnasts, children strewn on an anti-tank obstacle installed in kyiv, transformed for the occasion into a playground. Or even a child causing a valiant judoka to fall heavily.
Banksy also gives voice in his video to a mother, accompanied by her son, who evokes the hell of everyday life since Vladimir Putin, one day in February 2022, declared war on his country. We’ve cried so much already that we don’t have enough tears left,” she says.
On November 12, Banksy had already posted images of a stencil work painted on a bombed building in Borodianka, near kyiv, thus confirming to be the author. The work painted in a locality that has become a symbol of Ukrainian resistance to Russian bombardments, represents a gymnast balancing on the rubble. “Borodianka, Ukraine”, simply wrote the famous street artist working under a pseudonym, in caption of the images on his Instagram account.