Lennon's Wall is a fence of the Maltese Garden in Prague's Mala Strana district. Since the 1970s, there has been a tradition of painting and painting the wall with pictures in honor of musician John Lennon. The wall is considered one of the symbols of the struggle for freedom and against the communist regime. The cultural building and popular tourist attraction is owned by the Sovereign Order of Maltese Hospitallers. City officials do not consider the graffiti on Lennon Wall to be vandalism; on the contrary, the cultural value and symbolic significance of the object are emphasized.
In mid-November 1980, an unknown person placed a stone panel from the sewer, wrote in chalk "Za Johna Lennona" and painted a cross. Soon there were candles and photos. In 1981, the inscription was made according to a pattern and the main dates of the musician's work were given.
In April 1981, in preparation for the XVI Congress of the HRC, the wall was repainted green; after that, less and less poetic and more politicized lines began to appear on it. The Jazz Section, a forum and gathering of Prague jazz musicians, wrote about the Lennon Wall; publications in samizdat and emigrant texts soon appeared.
Gatherings of small groups of people gradually turned into mass protests against the communist regime, which collected signatures for the restriction of nuclear weapons in all countries, as well as for the freedom of political prisoners. These were the largest protests since the 1970s, which escalated into street demonstrations in the 1980s. Meetings of the Communist Party of Czechoslovakia were convened to protest. The tradition of expressing one's views with drawings on the wall has not disappeared since 1989.
On the morning of November 17.2014 (on the Day of Struggle for Freedom and Democracy), the wall was repainted in white with the inscription "wall is over".
- "The wall is closed") with reference to the words from Lennon's popular song "Happy Xmas (War Is Over)".
The Praaska sluba art group, consisting of art school students, claimed responsibility for the act. Participants said that in honor of the 25th anniversary of the Velvet Revolution, they wanted to make room for the younger generation to express their views.
This is not the first time the paintings on the wall have been erased. In addition to the fact that the graffiti was painted by the city authorities as a result of vandalism until 1989, in 2000 the entire surface of the fence was painted green by members of the art group.
In mid-November 1980, an unknown person placed a stone panel from the sewer, wrote in chalk "Za Johna Lennona" and painted a cross. Soon there were candles and photos. In 1981, the inscription was made according to a pattern and the main dates of the musician's work were given.
In April 1981, in preparation for the XVI Congress of the HRC, the wall was repainted green; after that, less and less poetic and more politicized lines began to appear on it. The Jazz Section, a forum and gathering of Prague jazz musicians, wrote about the Lennon Wall; publications in samizdat and emigrant texts soon appeared.
Gatherings of small groups of people gradually turned into mass protests against the communist regime, which collected signatures for the restriction of nuclear weapons in all countries, as well as for the freedom of political prisoners. These were the largest protests since the 1970s, which escalated into street demonstrations in the 1980s. Meetings of the Communist Party of Czechoslovakia were convened to protest. The tradition of expressing one's views with drawings on the wall has not disappeared since 1989.
On the morning of November 17.2014 (on the Day of Struggle for Freedom and Democracy), the wall was repainted in white with the inscription "wall is over".
- "The wall is closed") with reference to the words from Lennon's popular song "Happy Xmas (War Is Over)".
The Praaska sluba art group, consisting of art school students, claimed responsibility for the act. Participants said that in honor of the 25th anniversary of the Velvet Revolution, they wanted to make room for the younger generation to express their views.
This is not the first time the paintings on the wall have been erased. In addition to the fact that the graffiti was painted by the city authorities as a result of vandalism until 1989, in 2000 the entire surface of the fence was painted green by members of the art group.
Translated automatically from Ukrainian. View original
Comments (0)
leave a comment
Show other comments …
