Up-to-the-moment street art today from Polish artist M-City (Mariusz Waras), who converts the façade of a Gdansk warehouse into a social media primer on how to support the people of Ukraine. Sharing a border with this post-Soviet state which has just been invaded by Russian forces, Poland is acutely affected by the implications of possible further aggression – as are the Baltic states and the rest of Europe.

The short list asserts that many social media users may not be fully cognizant of the implications of their posting actions – especially during wartime. M-City took to the walls today to instruct some best practices in these painted advisory messages on how to create your digital ones.

In additional acts of irony, he posts these street art messages on his social media channels – and we publish them for the BSA audience as well.

BSA: Where is this located?
M-City: It’s located in a very well-known building which part of Stocznia Gdańska, now Stocznia Cesarska. It is part of the Imperial Shipyard where the workers’ movement, Soliderność (Solidarity), was born.

BSA: What would you like people to understand?
M-City: Our Social media landscape is full of fakes and is full of superficial messages. Because of this, many people have a bigger challenge to make their messages visible when they try to organize something and help the Ukrainians. 

BSA: Did you create this for a local audience, or specifically an international audience.
M-City: It’s in English because now this is a global problem. I wanted to create simple sentences so everyone can understand. 

BSA: Are you personally affected by the invasion?
M-City: No, it’s still far from us. But I have a lot of friends in Ukraine and I painted there a few times. Russia, Ukraine, and Belarus are next to our border. Many Ukrainian people are working here now. They arrived here mostly after the beginning of this conflict years ago. 

How to Support Ukraine on Social:

• Double check sources before post
• Post only important information
• Do not use pin location
• HELP DIRECTLY

238

138

45