Pandemic-themed street art pops up in Berlin
By Elena Garuz
Berlin, May 11 (efe-epa).- Although the coronavirus pandemic has ground practically everything to a halt, its impact has fuelled creativity and become a source of inspiration for many like Berlin-based graffiti artist Eme Freethinker.
The Caribbean artist’s coronavirus-themed graffiti packs a punch.
One day the Lord of the Rings’ Gollum grasping his treasure, a roll of toilet paper, appears on a wall and the next Chinese President Xi Jinping and US counterpart Donald Trump emerge on another mural locked in a passionate kiss while sporting masks.
This last graffiti is a nod to Dmitri Vrubel’s My God, Help Me to Survive This Fatal Attraction depicting Leonid Brezhnev and Erich Honecker, one of Berlin’s most famous pieces of street art on a section of the Berlin Wall East Side Gallery.
Freethinker’s kiss represents “two great nations that have already been in an economic battle for a long time,” the artist tells Efe.
“That’s why I thought of it that way, Xi Jinping and Trump kissing with masks included, a little irreverent, but good,” the Dominican adds.
It is a sunny and hot day in Mauerpark in the German capital although in a few hours rain has been forecast.
The popular park in the Prenzlauerberg district owes its name to the vast wall that separated Berlin for 28 years and was home to the so-called death strip, a wide area with trenches and beds of nails to designed to deter people from crossing.
Today the space is a green area and hive of activity.
