Work from the series “Upgrade” in which the author complements other people’s decorating and commission painting his small upgrades, either partially or completely changes the meaning of the original works are legitimate «street art ads» there by turning it into a product of «guerrilla» and true street art.
This specific drawing was made in Minsk by one of the Moscow companies working in advertising industry and painted ads in August of 2016. A piece called “Moscow-Minsk” and was intended to symbolise the friendship between Russia and Belarus, and was done by Moscow artist’s based on the sketch of the unknown designer. The figure has caused an ambiguous reaction from the Belarusian public.
Extremely low quality, as well as deliberately rude and straightforward propaganda message implicit in the figure, provoked me to come in October in Minsk and change it to something more meaningful and relevant, giving the new message and context for this “monumental propaganda”. Upgrade was done illegally and anonymously, and caused a wide discussion in Belarussian media space
