Spiderman and Black Widow playing football: Where to see World Cup street art

2018 FIFA World Cup related street art wall murals can be seen on the facades of two buildings in the heart of Moscow: superheroes from the Avengers film series on the office building at 1/5 Alexandra Solzhenitsyna Street – Iron Man, Spiderman, Captain America, Wonder Woman and other characters – are playing football. The eight-metre-high mural is located on the wall that faces Taganskaya Square. The side wall of the five-storey residential building (21 Marshala Zhukova Prospekt) shows a teenager who is about to strike at the ball on a pitch.

“The bright reddish street images are painted with spray-paint by artist Martin Ron from Argentina, whose work is widely known abroad, and in his country as well,” said Ivan Panteleyev, who organised this project.

Martin Ron is a street artist from Argentina and is known as one of top-ten world street artists.

The World Cup wall murals are being painted as part of the MOST Street Art Festival, which will be held in Moscow until mid-June. During this time, artists will create two more images. One will be painted in southwestern Konkovo District and the other, in the southeast of Moscow (the district has not yet been chosen).

“The sportive murals will remind Muscovites about the upcoming tournament as well as the benefits of sports for school students and youth. This is why the art includes superheroes and teens playing football, which, it is hoped, young people will look up to,” said a spokesperson for Moscows Public Relations Committee.

The first World Cup mural was painted in Moscow in 2016 at a railway substation near Spartak Stadium.

The 2018 World Cup will take place from 14 June through 15 July in 11 cities: Moscow, St Petersburg, Kazan, Sochi, Nizhny Novgorod, Samara, Volgograd, Rostov-on-Don, Kaliningrad, Yekaterinburg, and Saransk. Moscow will host 12 matches.