French street artist brings sketches of hope to Ukraine war zones

Seeing himself as a spray painter with a cause, Christian Guémy uses his street art to spread a message of solidarity from France to the people of Ukraine. His stencil works, first painted in the streets of war-damaged cities, are now on display at the French parliament as part of his mission to represent democratic values in public spaces.

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"Liberty guiding the people" (Liberté guidant le peuple") after a painting by Eugène Delacroix. The street artist C215 painted it onto the wall at the French embassy in Kyiv, Ukraine, 15 May 2022. This work was acquired by the French parliament for its permanent collection. © C215

Christian Guémy, alias C215, is a French street artist who admits he doesn’t quite cut the typical "punk" figure, suggesting his humble working-class origins haven’t prepared him to be "ironic" enough about the world.

At nearly 50, with a round, boyish face, Guémy has been in the street art business for a long time and says he has "nothing to hide".

He earnestly believes he has a mission to be a better citizen and raise awareness in others. He openly encourages young people to have ideals, and to get involved in a cause.

Although Guémy had visited sensitive, conflict-affected zones such as Haiti, Rwanda, a Syrian refugee camp in Lebanon and the Palestinian territories, the war in Ukraine allowed his work to take on a deeper dimension.

An image for solidarity

With the Russian invasion of Ukraine in February 2022 he felt, like many, "shocked" by the advance of what he describes as a "regime which symbolises the worst of force and violence and colonial domination", so close to the frontiers of Europe.

Horrified in particular by the flow of Ukrainian refugees, mostly women and children, Guémy very quickly conceived his first major fresco to show his support for Ukraine.

Guémy enlisted the help of the town hall from the 12^th district of Paris to make what became the icon of a different kind of battle – one of communication.

The result was the face of a young girl, with flowers in her hair in blue and yellow, filling four floors of an apartment building. A twin of this fresco was produced on a wall in the Ukrainian city of Lviv in May 2022.

In partnership with the town hall of the 12th arrondissement in Paris, C215 painted this fresco four floors in height, rue de Patay, in support of Ukraine, March 10, 2022. Credit C215 © C215

Guémy says his message was primarily for the French audience at the beginning, urging them to pay attention and welcome the refugees.

The fresco in Paris caught the eye of Ukrainian embassy representatives and the spokesperson of the Ukrainian organisation "I Stand for Ukraine". An arrangement was made for him to travel to Ukraine and produce portraits in situ.

It was very important for him to have the support of the embassy and the authorities, he explains to RFI.

"When an artist goes over there, it’s important to feel accepted and this includes our subject matter and what we paint – so we don’t offend anyone," he says. "My work needs to be dignified and of use to Ukrainian people without giving in to frivolous or overly easy themes."

French street artist C215 (Christian Guémy) in action in Kyiv, Ukraine, 1 April, 2022. © C215

Citizen with a spray can

He insists he is not a rogue artist, randomly feasting on people’s misery and misfortune. Nor is he "profiting from tragedy" to create "pacifist" works that would only provide "fodder" for the Russian propaganda machine, which he says is always quick to accuse Western artists of focusing on one conflict more than another.

For him, he is expressing a form of civic solidarity through art, helping the Ukrainians in their quest for "justice".

Everything Guémy undertakes is with a sense of "community" in mind and being a citizen with a spray can is when he feels happiest.

"My works are part of an engagement, I believe in altruism. I try to be coherent in my work."

On March 26, 2022 at 6 p.m., a missile hit the city of Lviv, Ukraine, a few hundred meters from where the artist C215 painted this first work representing a Ukrainian child, based on a photo by Mark Neville. © C215

Life among the ruins

The "Slava Ukraini" exhibition is made up of large photographs of the works he painted in Ukraine from March to May 2022. It is on display in the spacious Galérie des Fêtes inside the French parliament buildings in Paris until 25 February.

Guémy says this is his way of bringing art into the city, a way of getting the "people to appropriate the halls of democracy and shape them to reflect their values".

One of his works, inspired by Eugène Delacroix’s "Liberty leading the people" (1830), was made for the terrace of the French Embassy in Kyiv in May 2022. It has now been acquired by the French parliament as part of its permanent collection.

As for the original stencils in Ukraine, his blue, yellow and white portraits of men, women and children on bus shelters, suitcases, bombed tanks and buses will continue to mingle with the odd bird, butterfly or cat peeping out from a bullet-ridden wall.

Guémy knows they will "disappear" with time as things get rebuilt. It is in fact his greatest hope because that means that "life will have come back" to the cities ruined by bombs.

Painting of a cat on bombed wall in Bucha, Ukraine, May 2022, by French street artist C215. © C215

He is aware his approach could be seen as flippant but to him it’s the exact opposite. Street art, unlike graffiti, he says, is not a form of vandalism but rather an embellishment of a public space, a "dialogue" with the local inhabitants.

It’s designed not as a fleeting, rebellious trend but a form of civic expression, and a "wake-up call" for other citizens.

Portrait of poet Taras Chevtchenko, painted in Kyiv Ukraine, May 2022 by French street artist Christian Guémy (alias C215). © C215