Civilization

On the tall side wall of a building on Stalowa Street, Civilisation unfolds as a monumental mural by Welsh artist Phlegm. Executed entirely in black, white and shades of grey, the drawing depicts two elongated, interconnected figures. Their bodies are filled with an intricate world of fantastical architecture and machinery: stairways, towers, pipes, wheels, houses, boats, trees and numerous tiny figures form a dense network of interconnected scenes.

The work was created in 2022 as part of the Street Art Doping festival. Fundacja Do Dzieła!, the organisation behind the festival, announced Phlegm's new work at Stalowa 47 in October 2022. Contemporary reports state that the execution on the wall took more than 120 hours, while Phlegm had previously spent around three months developing the design.

The extraordinary density of detail is one of the mural's defining characteristics. Its numerous miniature scenes can be viewed almost like individual episodes within a fantastical world, without a single clearly defined narrative. Contemporary accounts likewise describe the work as a complex composition containing numerous interconnected stories and motifs. Civilisation is Phlegm's second major mural in Warsaw. His earlier 2013 work on Mińska Street, locally known as “Zamek”, disappeared in 2016 when the building was demolished.