The Farbflut festival had its first edition in Lemwerder, a little village in the middle of nowhere but which has a 1000+ m long wall along its dyke. Over 200 local, national and international artists were invited ranging from full-time professional painters to absolute beginners, it really featured art for everyone. Situated along the Weser river, it is now the longest open-air gallery, even longer than the famous East Side Gallery of the Berlin Wall.
As the painting weekend was coincided with the opening of the FIFA World Cup in Russia, I thought this was the perfect setting to paint ‘One Love’ a giant mural featuring Russia’s president Vladimir Putin kissing himself. It was important to paint it large, colourful and on a bright pink background to draw attention from far away and address the government-support homophobia in Russia and Putin’s narcissism.
