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Albert Han

Making art in times of protest is nothing new for Kiddy Citny.
Thirty years ago, the German artist was one of several who painted the Berlin Wall, risking the ire of East German guards.
The wall came down in 1989 as Communism collapsed in Eastern Europe, and those murals have gone on to be exhibited and collected in cities around the world.
Citny, now 62 and seeing Hong Kong’s protests become increasingly violent over the past seven months, wanted to do something similar again.
The mural artist travelled to the city this week to paint a wall on a quiet side street off Hollywood Road in Sheung Wan, calling it his gift to the city’s pro-democracy protesters.

His work features what Citny described as a young woman wearing a crown, a figure he dubbed ‘Miss Hong Kong’, emerging from stormy waves against a blue backdrop, holding a globe under her arm.
“She wants to rise. In order to rise, she has to get rid of all of the troubled water,” Citny said of the piece he called, ‘Hong Kong Unconquered’. “She’s like the Joan of Arc of Hong Kong.”
From Manga-inspired front liners, to high school students nearly touching fingers in reference to Michelangelo’s ‘The Creation of Adam’ on the ceiling of the Sistine Chapel, protest art has thrived as Hong Kong’s anti-government movement has grown.
Some have called it an ideological struggle against China’s authoritarian rule, and made comparisons to Berlin during the Cold War, part of which was under the former Soviet Union’s control.
On a visit to the German capital last September, activist Joshua Wong told an audience at the city’s Humboldt University that, “if we are in a new cold war, Hong Kong is the new Berlin”.

As last year marked the 30th anniversary of the fall of the Berlin Wall, Citny met Thomas D’Andrea, a UK-based curator, in a gallery in the city where Citny’s work was displayed.
While the protests went on, D’Andrea suggested to Citny he should paint a mural for the city.
“We worked together at what would be suitable,” said D’Andrea, who has visited Hong Kong several times over the past few months.
This week, the two met in Hong Kong to execute the plan with help from local artists, who identified a patch of wall on Sai Street as a suitable location.
D’Andrea said the work began on Wednesday afternoon, after the bought paint from a local shop.
“I was afraid they didn’t have the colours we wanted,” he said.
By Friday, the mural was largely finished, and two smaller canvases of the same image were taped onto the wall. Citny says they will be given to Hong Kong’s protesters as gifts.
30th anniversary of the fall of the Berlin Wall
Residents of the area, as well as tourists, have stopped to take photographs, and some spoke to Citny about his creation.
“I’m really touched that this artist would come from a place so far just to give us a hint of hope,” said Annie Wong, 30, a Sheung Wan resident who works in the art industry.
“I think it’s a beautiful painting, but I need to understand it more.”
Painting the mural was Citny’s first visit to the city, but he has watched Hong Kong’s protests and compares it to a family feud, with Hong Kong the little daughter, and China the parent.
“She [Hong Kong] is a rebel. She says, ‘no no no, I protest until I have my freedom’,” he said.
Citny and D’Andrea plan on creating more murals in support of the protesters.
The next is expected to be in Brussels, where other artists can take part to support the movement.
“As an artist, the highest form of communication has a unique language that doesn’t need words to describe,” Citny said.


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Hong Kong protests

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Kiddy Citny puts the finishing touches to his latest mural in Sheung Wan. Photo: Dickson Lee

Kiddy Citny's art work in Berlin Wall. Photo: Kiddy Citny

Kiddy Citny, doyen of European street art and the original painter of the Berlin Wall, are painting a wall in Central. 10JAN20 SCMP/Dickson Lee

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Kiddy Citny is no stranger to challenging authority and his murals from the fall of Communism can be seen all over the world
His most recent work, ‘Hong Kong Unconquered’, adorns a wall in Sheung Wan



Kiddy Citny is no stranger to challenging authority and his murals from the fall of Communism can be seen all over the world, now his most recent work, ‘Hong Kong Unconquered’, adorns a wall in Sheung Wan.
