Australia, makes mural with embrace between Russian and Ukrainian soldier. Offensive, erases it

In Melbourne, Australia, a local street artist, Peter Seaton, known by his stage name CTO, created a mural depicting a Russian soldier and a Ukrainian soldier embracing: however, it was deemed offensive by Ukrainians, who lobbied for CTO to erase it, and so it eventually was. Seaton had worked on the artwork during the night of Sunday to Monday last week, but what was intended to be a message of peace, in the artist’s intent, ended up provoking outrage from the local Ukrainian community. Local newspaper The Age reports that some compared the mural, titled Peace before Pieces, to a depiction of a rapist and his victim embracing while the crime is still in progress. Others, however, on theartist’s Instagram account, wrote that it is like seeing a Nazi and a Jew depicted embracing.

Harsh words also came from the Ukrainian ambassador to Australia and New Zealand, Vasyl Myroshnychenko, who wrote in a tweet, “A recently unveiled mural in Melbourne showing a Russian and Ukrainian soldier hugging each other is absolutely offensive to all Ukrainians. The artist has no idea that Russia has invaded Ukraine and it is disappointing to see this done without consulting the Ukrainian community in Melbourne.” Myroshnychenko then quoted, in another tweet, an opinion by sociologist Olga Boichak, a professor at the University of Sydney, who also tweeted that “Russia’s war in Ukraine is not a conflict between two nations, it is an invasion.” Boichak further stated that “the mural creates a false sense of equivalence between the victim and the aggressor. This false sense of equivalence is dangerous: it implies that peace can be achieved if both sides agree to lay down their arms. At the moment we all have a clear idea of what would happen if Ukraine stopped fighting, so this ’art’ delegitimizes the lived experiences of resistance.”

The ambassador then concluded by repeating that “the mural creates a false sense of equivalence between victim and aggressor,” adding that the work “must be promptly removed.” Seaton, as a result of this pressure that received thousands of endorsements on social media (the artist was also heavily insulted), decided to remove the work, “sincerely apologizing” (so the artist) to the Ukrainian community, yet claiming the work was intended to be an attempt to shed light on the human costs of war. “There is an element of war that is the dehumanization of the opposite. My opera was just trying to bring in the human element on both sides of the conflict,” CTO said. “I think if we are not challenged in our ideals, then we will never grow as a species.”

The controversy, however, did not stop even after the mural was cancelled. In fact, Seaton sold some NFTs of the mural, donating the proceeds of the sales to the nonviolent organization World Beyond War, and as a result, The Age also reports, the president of the Association of Ukrainians in the State of Victoria (where Melbourne is located), Liana Slipetsky, said that the mural’s deletion “is not really a victory because he removed it after he collected all those donations anyway.” “To consult the Ukrainian community and then go against their wishes,” Slipetsky added, “is something that in my opinion screams ignorance, and also lack of empathy. It almost seems as if he only wanted to promote himself.” In fact, the Melbourne-based Art 4 Ukraine collective made it known that it had been in contact with Seaton before the mural was painted, and warned him that the content of his work might provoke the reactions that were then actually there, but CTO made his work anyway.

Of course, the other side is not of the same opinion: theRussian Embassy in Australia intervened on the work, which wrote on its Telegram channel, “a recently unveiled mural in Melbourne was panned because it does not reflect the idea of fighting Russia to the last Ukrainian. The artist, under pressure, made a public mea culpa and destroyed this work. This is the new normal for freedom of expression in Australia: check with the Ukrainian embassy before you start painting.”

This is not the first time a street artist has painted an embrace between Russians and Ukrainians. Back in March, in Rome the well-known street artist Laika depicted two girls, one Russian and one Ukrainian, caught crying in an embrace, while in Berlin the street artist Eme Freethinker did the same thing, choosing two little girls as the protagonists. However, CTO’s work seems to be the first one where the protagonists are soldiers deployed on opposite sides.

Australia, makes mural with embrace between Russian and Ukrainian soldier. Offensive, erases it

Warning: the translation into English of the original Italian article was created using automatic tools. We undertake to review all articles, but we do not guarantee the total absence of inaccuracies in the translation due to the program. You can find the original by clicking on the ITA button. If you find any mistake,please contact us.