Lennon Wall
The Lennon Wall, or John Lennon Wall, is a wall in Prague, Czech Republic. Once a normal wall, since the 1980s it has been filled with John Lennon-inspired graffiti and pieces of lyrics from Beatles' songs.
In 1988, the wall was a source of irritation for the communist regime of Gustáv Husák. Young Czechs would write grievances on the wall and in a report of the time this led to a clash between hundreds of students and security police on the nearby Charles Bridge. The movement these students followed was described ironically as "Lennonism" and Czech authorities described these people variously as alcoholics, mentally deranged, sociopathic, and agents of Western capitalism.
The wall continuously undergoes change and the original portrait of Lennon is long lost under layers of new paint. Even when the wall was repainted by some authorities, on the second day it was again full of poems and flowers. Today, the wall represents a symbol of global ideals such as love and peace.
The wall is owned by the Knights of Malta, who allowed the graffiti to continue on the wall, and is located at Velkopřevorské náměstí (Grand Priory Square), Malá Strana.
Lennon Wall (Hong Kong)
Lennon Wall refers to the artistic form of expressions in the protest. Lennon Wall Hong Kong literally refers to the democratic mosaic wall created during the Umbrella Movement, located at Central Government Complex, Harcourt Road, Admiralty, which is one of the main landmarks in the occupation area of Admiralty and one of the major arts of the Umbrella Movement as collective artistic works demanding democracy in the election of the territory’s top leader.
It was a wall full of colourful post-it notes (more than ten thousands pieces) with people’s written messages on democracy and universal suffrage. Post types included epigrams, lyrics, foreign words and graphics. It was a wall of encouragement and solidarity.
Following the end of the occupation, most of the arts were removed from its original positions while many protesters and citizens had been trying to re-create some of the arts, especially the Lennon Wall Hong Kong, which aroused further issues such as the dispute in which a fourteen-year-old girl being arrested for drawing flowers on the wall with a chalk.
