In Moscow, the verse chart “AY” by Dmitry Prigov was painted over

On June 10 in Moscow, near the Belyaevo metro station, a mural with the verse poem “AY” by the poet Dmitry Prigov, painted on the end of a residential building 102/47 on Profsoyuznaya Street, was painted over.

According to the Gorky publication, the image was destroyed on the initiative of the Zhilischnik State Budgetary Institution of the Konkovo ​​district during a major renovation of the house.

Local municipal authorities claim that the decision to paint over the mural was made “directly by a general meeting of the owners of the house,” although one of the residents of the house said that they had not heard anything about it.

The graffiti was painted in 2014 by artist Sergei Ovseikin as part of the “Best City on Earth” festival, held with the support of the Moscow Department of Cultural Heritage. Since then, it has become one of the symbols of the area in which Dmitry Prigov lived from 1965 until his death in 2007. The poet dedicated several dozen poems to this area, led excursions around it and called himself “the Duke of Belyaevsky.”

The “AYA” mural, not officially legalized by the Moscow authorities, was wanted to be painted over back in 2020, but then local residents managed to defend it.

Stichograms are a genre of visual poetry invented by Prigov, which grew out of the design features of collections of his poems, published in Soviet times through samizdat.