“Black and White Graffiti” Community

“Black and White Graffiti" is a movement of ultras of Luhansk's football club "Zarya", which involved graffiti and street art. Members of the community were fans and artists from the Luhansk Oblast. In addition to painting, they were doing stencil workshops, competitions, organized graffiti themed quests («BWU Graffiti Game 2011"), graffiti-trips to other cities, filmed its activities and produced symbols, painted banners at the matches. It was about ten to twenty permanent members and about a hundred of those who joined the short-term creation of new works. The mouthpiece of the community was a group by the same name Vkontakte (vk.com / zorya_grafiti). The quality of pictures and graffiti were acknowledged throughout the graffiti community in Ukraine. In 2012 the longest and largest piece of work in the country (2.5 to 120 meters) was created. "It happened so that all of Luhansk painted graffiti dominated those devoted to the subject of ultras. Perhaps among football fans, the majority likes drawing something on the walls. But the fact is that there are really little of conventional "non-football" street artists in Luhansk. And there is hardly anyone who has not seen the ultras-patterns or thematic graffiti. Each Lugansk Oblast area has a wall covered with graffiti and drawings, familiar to any fan of "Zarya." And not only Luhansk - residents of Donetsk, Alchevsk and other cities not soon erase (and even more forgotten) black and white marks. Graffiti and football today is a healthy devotion of active youth in Lugansk. And not just because both movements actively infringed authority and the law, but because they have all that lacks simply everyday life: extreme, trial and protest, the ability to express themselves, express their views,"- from an article in the fan magazine "Black&White №1", 2011. Some guys from the community were directly involved in the drawing Ukrainian flags on the walls of Luhansk in the spring of 2014.