Lawrence City Hall displays giant Congo soccer photo banner
A 14-by-18-foot Congo soccer banner is back on Lawrence City Hall, turning the civic building into a window on war, play and downtown public art.
After a May storm briefly pulled it down, Gary Mark Smith’s 14-by-18-foot photographic banner, Soka Kila Mahali, is hanging again at Lawrence City Hall at 6 E. 6th St. and Massachusetts Street as part of Lawrence’s 2026 Unmistakable Public Art Exhibition.
The work’s Swahili title means Soccer Everywhere. Smith’s banner is built from 13 photographs taken in Goma, in the Democratic Republic of the Congo, during a 2015 United Nations peacekeeping mission. The images show children playing soccer in a place shaped by violence and displacement, and the piece centers on the game and the crisis behind it, especially the long-running conflict in eastern Democratic Republic of the Congo.
The city placed the work on City Hall. The Unmistakable Public Art Exhibition, formerly the Outdoor Downtown Sculpture Exhibition, has run since 1988 and is meant to use public art as a tool for storytelling, connection, economic development and community wellness. This year’s edition is World Cup-themed, with six selected artworks tied to the global tournament spotlight that will fall on the United States, Kansas City and Lawrence in June and early July.
Smith’s banner is the first large-scale photographic banner in the exhibition. The piece is a photo collage on a banner at Lawrence City Hall, and the exhibition also includes a wearable-fútbol project installed at downtown shops.
The work hangs at one of downtown’s busiest corners, where the 6th and Massachusetts intersection carries municipal traffic and pedestrian foot traffic. The city invited the public to walking tours of the exhibition during First Friday on June 5 and again on Final Friday, June 26.
Smith’s banner is installed through July, and it will remain on display until August after World Cup festivities end.
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