Better Broken (10 Photos)

Ten walls, streets and sidewalks that got better after they broke

A gatepost in Madrid lost a chunk of brick and got a plastic one back. In France, Oakoak drew a tiny angry worker next to a broken slab of concrete, and now the damage looks like his doing. In all ten photos here, the broken part is the best part.

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🧱 The Toy Brick Gatepost — Dispatchwork in Madrid, Spain 🇪🇸

Half of this gatepost crumbled away, and someone rebuilt it in toy bricks, following the old corner and slope of the cap. The iron bars run straight through the patch, so the plastic now holds its place in the fence like the bricks around it.

💡 Nerd Fact: Dispatchwork was started by German artist Jan Vormann, who began patching walls with plastic bricks in Bocchignano, Italy, in 2007. Anyone can join in, and more than 200 patches have been made worldwide, often by locals. Vormann has turned down sponsorship from the toy maker.

More: What If LEGO Could Repair the World? (12 Photos)

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🪡 Stitching the Wall — By ENDER in Paris, France 🇫🇷

A small creature leans back with a needle almost as long as itself and sews up a crack with real red thread. The stitches run neatly along the break on Rue Villiers-de-L’Isle-Adam. ENDER wrote with the original post: “Some wounds are difficult to sew up… But over time they can make pretty scars.”

💡 Artist Fact: ENDER, born in France in 1973, studied acting at the Cours Florent and holds a degree in psychology. His influences range from Caravaggio and Vermeer to Banksy and Jef Aérosol.

More: Repair Cracks with Art

🔗 Follow ENDER on Instagram

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📚 Intensification of Contrast — By Andrey Syaylev in Samara, Russia 🇷🇺

A corner of the old library wall had crumbled away down to the sidewalk. In 2013, Samara artist Andrey Syaylev filled the gap with real books set in cement like bricks, so the building seems to rest on them. The Samara Public Library stands at Kuybysheva Street 95.

💡 Library Fact: Syaylev titled the work Intensification of Contrast; online it went around as “Only knowledge can save the fallen society.” According to the artist, the attention helped get the facade repaired, and the building has since been restored.

📂 Artwork File · Sourced factsIntensification of ContrastAndrey Syaylev · 2013 · Samara Public LibraryBooks cemented as bricksLeft unsignedBeside the library door1It went up on a Saturday evening and was removed by Monday morning, exactly as the artist had planned.Volga News2Drugoi Gorod says a lookalike ‘Banksy’ Twitter account shared the photo to about a million followers; later Samara articles credit Banksy himself.Drugoi Gorod20131 JunPhoto taken (artist)20133 JunBooks removed20146 NovLookalike ‘Banksy’ post201514 SepPhoto taken: pier rebuilt20166 JunLibrary reopens202422 JulPhoto taken (Commons)202621 SepLibrary still in useRead the full file →

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🕯️ A Candle for the Missing Brick — By Zoom in Moscow, Russia 🇷🇺

One brick is missing from the wall, and a real candle burns in the gap. Around it, Zoom painted a man in a long coat who seems to shield the flame with his hands. The mural went up in October 2018 in 1st Shchipovsky Lane in Moscow, near the spot where Andrei Tarkovsky’s old wooden house once stood.

💡 Film Fact: The man is Gorchakov, the writer played by Oleg Yankovsky in Tarkovsky’s 1983 film Nostalghia. Zoom took him from the scene where he tries to carry a lit candle across an empty pool.

📂 Artwork File · Sourced factsNostalghia tributeZoom · 2018 · Shchipok, Zamoskvorechye, MoscowStencil with a real candleYankovsky as GorchakovNear Tarkovsky’s lot1The candle in the painted hand is real, set in a small niche, and passers-by kept relighting it and hiding matches in the wall.Metro2On Oleg Yankovsky’s birthday in 2023 his son shared a photo of the wall, with the candle apparently lit again.Sarnovosti20188 OctIn Metro: three days old201822 OctBlog photos: wax, candle stash201920 SepPassers-by light it20203 AugPhoto taken: peeling, fenced202211 OctListed in a mural guide202323 FebLit on Yankovsky’s birthday202310 JunAfter Zoom’s death: “still intact”Read the full file →

More: Missing Brick Creates Space for a Candle: Nostalghia Tribute in Moscow

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💪 The Wall Breakers

A crack runs from the top of this block wall to the ground, and two giants have got their fingers into it. They lean back and pull in opposite directions, and the crack looks like proof that it is working. The mural has spread widely online, but we have not found who painted it.

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⛏️ Who Did This? — By Oakoak in France 🇫🇷

A slab has fallen off the bottom of the wall and left a dark hole. Oakoak adds one small figure with a pickaxe, mid-swing and furious, and the damage has a culprit. The rest is real: the hole, the broken slab and the gravel below.

More: 14 photos of Street Art by Oakoak – Collection 3

🔗 Visit Oakoak’s website

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🕊️ Peace Dove — By Pappas Pärlor in Motala, Sweden 🇸🇪

The peeled patch on this white pillar already had the shape of a bird in flight. All it needed was a small green olive branch made of beads. It went up in March 2022, in reaction to Russia’s war on Ukraine.

💡 Bead Fact: Behind Pappas Pärlor (Swedish for “Dad’s Beads”) is Johan Karlgren. He told SVT that his daughter got him into bead plates. He lays the beads on a pegboard and irons them together through parchment paper so they can go up outdoors.

🔗 Follow Pappas Pärlor on Instagram

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🔭 The Little Man in the Wall — By Ivan Sery in Nizhny Novgorod, Russia 🇷🇺

Where the pink plaster has fallen off, the old brick shows through, and Ivan Sery has set a tiny furnished room into it behind glass. Look closer and there is a small man inside with a telescope, as if the wall had always had a tenant.

📂 Artwork File · Sourced factsThe Stargazer (Звездочет)Ivan Sery & Tatiana Konstantinova · 2017 · Nizhny NovgorodRoom in a missing brickFirst of the Little WorldsPlastic & found bits1When it hit +25°C the tiny astronomer softened in the sun and toppled over, and Sery had to rebuild him.Komsomolskaya Pravda2On Paratroopers’ Day, 2 August 2017, someone ripped it out, leaving only an empty niche.Pikabu2017Late JulInstalled; day not published20172 AugAfisha reports it, 12:0620172 AugEmpty niche on Pikabu, 14:3320173 AugKP prints the empty niche20187 JanSery to KP: both pieces stolen202118 AugAiF: lost20229 AprKP: destroyed by vandalsRead the full file →

More: A Tiny Universe: Meet Ivan Sery’s Little man in the brick wall

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🐘 Elephant Friend — By Golsa Golchini in Milan, Italy 🇮🇹

A little girl in a striped dress stands on the ledge and reaches up to pat an elephant. The elephant is nothing but a patch of broken plaster; Golsa Golchini painted only the girl. Her small pieces in Milan often start with a crack or a peeling patch like this one.

🔗 Follow Golsa Golchini on Instagram

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🧶 A Colorful Pothole — By Juliana Santacruz Herrera in Paris, France 🇫🇷

The only bright thing on this gray street is the hole in it. Juliana Santacruz Herrera braids long lengths of dyed fabric and coils them into potholes and breaks in the Paris pavement.

More: Street Art by Juliana Santacruz Herrera