Prague's Lennon Wall to tour Europe as a symbol of Czech EU presidency

The Czech Republic will assume the Presidency of the Council of the European Union next week, and Prague's Lennon Wall will become a symbol of the leadership. A total of 27 artists from 27 European countries will visit Prague to add their own unique motif to the wall later this summer.

Afterwards, the wall will be photographed in detail and re-created as an inflatable object to tour Europe during the Czech Republic's EU presidency as part of a cultural project called Wall of Freedom and Energy (Zeď svobody a energie).

The European artists will descend upon Prague on September 7 to add their own unique design to the Lennon Wall, and the following day it will be documented in preparation for its transformation into a piece of artwork to travel Europe.

A photograph of the wall will be printed in its actual size and transported to Paris, where it will be turned into an inflatable wall stretching 35 meters wide, five meters tall, and two meters thick under the watch of French curator and artist Yann Toma.

"The main theme is freedom and energy, the artists will create their designs based on these themes," Pavel Šťastný, the Czech curator behind the project, states in a press release.

"All artists will first make sketches and then paint directly on the wall in a location of their choice. The work will be created in a single day when everyone comes to Prague."

"And because we are presiding over the European Union, we thought it would be great if we could somehow show our wall around Europe, for example, to those who cannot come here. So the next day we'll take a picture of it, print it out 1:1, and make an inflatable out of it."

In collaboration with the Autoclub of the Czech Republic, the inflatable wall will then tour Europe by car, travelling on a route that will bring it from Prague to Strasbourg, Paris, Brussels, and back to Prague. Along the journey, it will be exhibited in cities along the route.

The project and its titular "energy" originated before the war in Ukraine and surging gas prices across Europe, an unfortunate but topical coincidence.

"In the case of energy, I believe that we should give the European Union new energy during our presidency," Šťastný added.

Artists participating in the project include those from all EU countries along with Norway and Ukraine, who have been invited to take part in the project as special guests.

Czech Senate deputy chairman Jan Horník and Czech Ambassador to France Michal Fleischmann have also collaborated in the project.