From the messages on the walls of a school in Daraa to the drawings and graffiti that have covered walls all over the country, street art has been at the core of the Syrian uprising since its beginning in March 2011. In a context in which every form of expression is repressed, both the physical spaces and the young artists conveying messages of freedom and justice have become a target of the regime.

In a continuation of the street art work that has come to characterize the revolution, artist Ram Hasan collaborated with a group known as The Syrian People Know Their Way, and a few other artists and activists. Together, they came up with an idea: to create the biggest ever graffiti painting on a Syrian wall. Their art work, which was developed under extremely difficult circumstances, was completed on October 12.

Choosing the city was the first step. Activists considered Ghouta, one of the first places to join the uprising and an area internationally known for having suffered the chemical weapons attacks that cost the lives of hundreds, many children among them. Duma, a city at the outskirts of Damascus known for its demonstrations and restless opposition to the regime, was another candidate. Finally, activists decided to do the graffiti in Yalda, a town located on the southern outskirts of Damacus. "We chose Yalda because of the role of its youth, which was at the forefront of peaceful demonstrations and the civil disobedience movement in Damascus," one of the activists said to Syria Untold. 

The next challenge the artists faced was the fact that in most of places that have become symbols of Syrian resistance most walls have been brought down. Such is the case of Yalda, which has been under siege and the target of constant shelling and armed clashes that have left the majority of the city walls destroyed. Activists had to change their initial plan of a five-meter high graffiti to four meters in order to adjust to the highest wall they could find in the city. They worked on it for ten days.

The result is a huge painting that shows a kid from behind. Above his head, a war plane drops a rain of missiles, which the kid faces with his own paper plane.

The artists are committed to continuing their work and paint similar drawings in other cities. In their own words, “this is our way to scream that we are still standing, and to remind the world and other Syrians that we continue to live under siege.”