The pressure was building. As the world stood on the sidelines at the height of the Cold War, both superpowers battled for ideological supremacy, each backed by their growing arsenal of nuclear weapons. Tensions kept rising.
Art was an important means of spreading the ideological message of communism. The walls of factories, schools, and bus stations were a cheap and ubiquitous blank canvas through which propagandist ideas pervaded. Mosaics took political messages to people where they lived, worked and played. Their legacy is intertwined with the rise and fall of the Soviet Union.
The 1980 Moscow Olympics were a chance for the Soviet Union to outshine their Cold War rival. Just a few months earlier, the U.S had hosted the Winter Olympics. The Soviet Union ice hockey team was beaten by the U.S in a stunning 4-3 upset. The USSR was humiliated. The stage was set for a rematch.