Engaged Ephemeral Art Street Art and the Egyptian Arab Spring by

Information technology'due south been a couple of years since I've seen anything interesting written nigh Egyptian graffiti, and virtually of that has been retrospective. Mona Abaza'southward fascinating "Repetitive repertoires," written in 2017, summarized the contemporary result: what hasn't been destroyed by the authorities has become commodified and commercialized.

But this week I discovered an new article–dated this twelvemonth–by Bolette Blaagaard and Nina Grønlykke Mollerup in the International Journal of Cultural Studies that suggested some ways we tin can nevertheless report graffiti productively. This made me curious: bated from my gut feelings, what is the state of scholarship on this topic?

I discovered that there are 36 bookish books, chapters or articles about graffiti in the Egyptian revolution in my bibliography of the Egyptian revolution. Involvement in graffiti seems to have built from 2011 until it peaked in 2015 with viii publications, and then declined until, from 2018 to the present, I have constitute merely one publication per year.

For those interested, I compile them here, consummate with links and abstracts where available.

2011

El Zein, Rayya and Alex Ortiz. 2011. Signs of the Times: the Popular Literature of Tahrir Protest Signs, Graffiti, and Street Art. Shahadat, April.

• Available at: http://issuu.com/arteeast/docs/shahadat_january25_final?mode=embed&layout=http%3A%2F%2Fskin.issuu.com%2Fv%2Flight%2Flayout.xml&showFlipBtn=true

Knecht, Eric. 2011. Far Exterior Cairo: A Graffiti Entrada to Denounce the SCAF. Jadaliyya, December. 23.

• Available at: http://world wide web.jadaliyya.com/pages/alphabetize/3736/far-exterior-cairo_a-graffiti-campaign-to-denounce-

Smith, Christine. 2011. Politics and art: graffiti art in Cairo, Egypt. anthrologiesproject.org, i December.

• Bachelor at: http://www.anthropologiesproject.org/2011/12/politics-and-fine art-graffiti-fine art-in-cairo.html (accessed 17 January 2012).

2012

Boraïe, Sherif (ed.) 2012. Wall Talk: Graffiti of the Egyptian Revolution. Cairo: Zeitouna.

Demerdash, Nancy. 2012. Consuming Revolution: Ethics, Fine art and Ambivalence in the Arab Spring. New Middle Eastern Studies 2

• Available at: https://journals.le.air-conditioning.britain/ojs1/index.php/nmes/article/view/2616/2449

Findlay, Cassie. 2012. Witness and trace: January 25 graffiti and public art equally archive. Interface: a periodical for and about social movements 4 (1): 178 – 182.

• Available at: http://www.interfacejournal.net/wordpress/wp-content/uploads/2012/05/Interface-four-ane-Findlay.pdf

Lindsey, Ursula. 2012. "Art in Egypt's Revolutionary Square." Middle East Research and Information Project.

• Bachelor at: http://www.merip.org/mero/interventions/art-egypts-revolutionary-square

Al-Fann Midan is 1 of many artistic initiatives that take sprung up since the insurgence that began on Jan 25, 2011. Although the legal framework in Egypt has non changed (Emergency Law and laws confronting defaming religion, the army and the state remain in identify), what Egyptians phone call the January 25 revolution has undoubtedly ushered in a new sense of liberty, as well as a conclusion to apply public space to congregate and to connect, and to demonstrate support for the uprising through cultural activism.

Schielke, Samuli and Jessica Winegar. 2012. The Writing on the Walls of Egypt. Eye East Report 42(625).

• Available at: http://world wide web.merip.org/mer/mer265/writing-walls-egypt

2013

Abaza, Mona. 2013. "Mourning, narratives and interactions with the martyrs through Cairo's graffiti." E-International Relations 7.

• https://www.e-ir.info/2013/10/07/mourning-narratives-and-interactions-with-the-martyrs-through-cairos-graffiti/

Abdelmagid, Yakein. 2013. The emergence of the Mona Lisa Battalions: Graffiti fine art networks in post-2011 Egypt. Review of Eye Eastward Studies 47(ii): 172–182

During and afterward the January 2011 revolutionary protests Arab republic of egypt witnessed the surge and spread of graffiti and street fine art activities. The story of graffiti in Egypt is ordinarily rendered equally voices of dissent, modes of symbolic resistance, or expressive forcefulness of anger, solidarity, and commemoration. While it is true that the plummet of the land security services and the liberation of public infinite after the 2011 had fostered the growth of artistic revolutionary expressions, the story of creative product implies more than than politics of cultural representation. Rather, these artistic expressions are normally grounded in the formations, expansions, and contractions of social groups that go along on negotiating their identities, networks, capacities and limitations. In this article, I follow the trajectory of 1 graffiti group, Kataib ai-Mona Lisa (Mona Lisa Battalions), that started forming past the summertime of 2012, to review how they make sense of their worlds, negotiate their desires within objective constraints, and conjure alternative cultures, through continuous perseverance that involves hope, desire and euphoria, as well as failure, frustration and breakup.

Gröndahl, Mia. 2013. Revolution Graffiti: Street Art of the New Egypt. The American Academy in Cairo Printing.

Hamdy, Basma, Don Stone Karl, and Mona Eltahawy. 2013. Walls of Freedom: Street Art of the Egyptian Revolution. Berlin, Germany: From Hither to Fame.

Nicoarea, Georgiana. 2013 "Graffiti and Cultural Production in Contemporary Cairo:  Articulating Local and Global Elements of Popular Culture" in Periodical Romano-Arabica Periodical XIII: 261-272.

Abstract. The recent uprisings in the Arab World are indicators of continuous contestation of authoritarian regimes, a continuing procedure that leaves its mark on the field of cultural production. Revolutionary graffiti correspond a dynamic cocky-expression practice of public opinion in Cairo, Egypt, during and in the aftermath of the 2011 Revolution. As a medium of both advice and subversion, residing at the intersection of art and transgression, graffiti largely serve to re-advisable the public infinite and their popularity is mainly due to the themes addressed and their relevance to issues of everyday life. But tin can this re-cribbing be seen equally more than than merely a socio-political territory marking of the city? Tin graffiti be integrated into a discussion near culture in the Arab World?

2014

El-Hawary, Nouran Al-Anwar. 2014. The graffiti of Mohamed Mahmoud and the politics of transition in Egypt: The transformation of infinite, sociality and identities. MA Thesis. American Academy in Cairo.

• Bachelor: http://dar.aucegypt.edu/handle/10526/4081?show=full (accessed June 3, 2021)

This study is concerned with the spatial transformations taking identify in Mohamed Mahmoud that branches from Midan el-Tahrir; the official site of the Egyptian January 25 Revolution. Since the revolution, this street has witnessed a great deal of violence during several bloody clashes between protesters and security forces. It has as well become famous for the dissenting graffiti murals wrapping the walls of it entrance. By conducting ethnography of this cake of Mohamed Mahmoud Street, my study focuses on the residents and shop owners in the area, who I frame as the graffiti's 'unintended audition,' to understand how these spatial and political transformations take affected this space, the residents' experience, social relations and sense of belonging. I argue that these new spatial transformations brought past the revolution take introduced an alternative public space, inviting a peculiar array of incidents and distinctive social interactions in which people deploy the way of speaking in their subversion of many ambivalences in the class of troubled political transition.

Klaus, Enrique. 2014. "Graffiti and urban revolt in Cairo." Built Surroundings 40(1): xiv-33.

Lennon, John. 2014. Assembling a revolution: Graffiti, Cairo and the Arab Jump. Cultural Studies Review 20(1): 237–276.

An essay is presented on the impact of the revolution that concluded the presidency of Hosni Mubarak in Egypt and diminished the constriction of democratic process under the Supreme Council of the Military Forces (SCAF). Information technology explores the commentary of graffiti writers through wall paintings throughout Cairo. The writer cites the infamous street artist Mohammad Fahmy or Ganzeer, who made a grafitto that reflects the political divide between the youth motility and a urban center endangered of destruction.

Nicoarea, Georgiana. 2014 "Cairo's New Colors: Rethinking Identity in the Graffiti of the Egyptian Revolution" Journal Romano-Arabica Journal XIV: 247-262.

• Available at: https://world wide web.academia.edu/6464638/Cairo_s_New_Colors_Rethinking_Identity_in_the_Graffiti_of_the_Egyptian_Revolution

Abstract. The wave of uprisings and mass protests that took identify in Egypt since January 25th  2011 has adamant the rise of a new dimension of social freedom and the flourishing of graffiti could be considered as an attribute of this newly conquered freedom and a mark of a contentious appropriation of  public space. The writings on the streets of Cairo are just one of the elements of a vibrant, youth managed and relational protest art that has its signal of departure in the recent social and historical context. The political and social changes the Arab World underwent are accompanied by a re-setting of national identity representations, an ongoing procedure reflected in context specific artistic products and graffiti is a very productive example in the gimmicky Egyptian context. Graffiti, has been defined as a medium of advice, situated at the intersection of art and language with style, color, placement and grade interim every bit "visual modifiers" (Philips 1999: 39). This article analyses how symbols and colors are used as modifying elements in the graffiti of revolutionary Cairo, within a  process of memorialization and reinterpretation of identity

Nicoarea, Georgiana 2014. Interrogating the dynamics of Egyptian graffiti: From neglected marginality to image politics. Revista Română de Studii Eurasiatice x(i–2): 171–186.

• Available at: https://www.ceeol.com/search/commodity-detail?id=141301

Summary/Abstruse: The January 25th 2011 Revolution that interrupted the thirty years long reign of Hosni Mubarak brought about, amongst social and political changes, a series of transformations pertaining to the cultural panorama of Arab republic of egypt. Graffiti is 1 of the cultural practices greatly influenced by the revolutionary context, to the extent that it has come to be regarded as the art of the revolution, a almost revealing and trustworthy medium of artistic expression and political participation. As revolutionary Egyptian graffiti began to be scrutinized in academic works under its many aspects, little has been said about its pre-revolutionary journey. This article puts together a brief history of mod Egyptian graffiti analyzing the dynamics that shapes both current and past manifestations within the telescopic of creating a more detailed perspective, away from the oversimplifying gaze that reduces the exercise to its revolutionary dimension or underlines its exoticism.

Pierandrei, Elisa. 2014. Urban Cairo. La primavera araba dei graffiti. Rimini: Informant.

2015

Abaza, Mona. 2015. "Graffiti and the the Reshaping of Public Space in Cairo: Tensions Between Political Struggles and Commercialization." In Grafficity: Visual Practices and Pontestations in Urban Space. In Eva Youkhana and Larissa Forster, ed. Pp. 267-94. Paderborg: Wilhelm Fink.

Abou-Setta, Amal. 2015. Revisiting communities of practice: The case of Egyptian graffitists. Higher Education, Skills and Work-Based Learning 5(ii): 135–151.

The Egyptian Revolution gave birth to an intriguing community of graffiti artists that have been going through successful social learning processes. The naturally formed learning groups provided a fertile substance for social learning research and called for a comparison between the nature and elements of social learning and those of the learning taking place in the more traditional settings in an try to magnify factors of success. The purpose of this paper is to depict upon Wenger's (1998) theory of Communities of Practice (CoP) and examines iii major elements of learning in relation to it; namely, motivation, social practice, and the role of experts.

de Ruiter, Adrienne. 2015. Imaging Egypt'due south political transition in (postal service-)revolutionary street art: on the interrelations between social media and graffiti as media of communication. Media, Culture & Guild, 37(4), 581–601.

This article offers a conceptualization of the interrelations betwixt street art and social media in (postal service-)revolutionary Cairo by focusing on the reasons as to why sure politically engaged young people in Egypt select graffiti as their medium for political expression in a time in which many other media of communication, nigh notably social media, are bachelor. It contends that the particular appeal of street art for the graffiti artist lies in its ability to office simultaneously equally a medium of communication and a contentious functioning, combined with the particular power of the aesthetic to change conceptions of social reality of the audience through what Rancière has called the '(re)distribution of the sensible'. Graffiti and street art thus nowadays artists with singular possibilities to express their political ideas and appeal to the public because street art combines the ability of framing, the power of operation and the power of imagination.

Hamdy, Basma. 2015. Walls of freedom: Process and methodologies. Street Fine art & Urban Inventiveness Scientific Periodical 1(1): 67–79.

The Egyptian revolution of 2011 produced a massive transformation in the perception of urban space and the interrelated dynamic of people, their bodies, and the linguistic communication within that infinite. Cultural expressions such as caricature galleries, makeshift exhibitions, chants, poetry readings, and memorial spaces divers the foursquare as a place where activism and art intersected weaving a lyrical tapestry of the revolution. The most prominent of these expressions was the street fine art of the revolution where the human action of painting on walls re-territorialized the city making it the revolution's barometer by registering the shifting political discourses as they unfolded. Documenting and preserving these visual expressions was the driving force behind a 3-yr volume project, entitled Walls of Liberty: Street Art of the Egyptian Revolution, which narrates the revolution through striking images of the art that transformed Egypt's walls into a visual testimony of bravery and resistance. This commodity will serve to offering a detailed analysis of the methodologies and tools used in creating the volume as well equally managing, financing, and collecting all of its necessary components. Primarily focused on qualitative visual research methodologies, the volume is layered into three components or levels: one level is a visual journey of the revolution through a chronological image-timeline. The categorization and indexing of images by creative person, photographer, engagement and translation was an important role allowing quick access to images visually placing them in a larger continuum. The second level is a reference-based timeline of events where a connexion between the fine art and the historical/political events is presented. The third level involves the essays and analysis supplementing the timeline with historical implications, political and social contexts and personal voices collected from artists and activists.

Nicoarea, Giorgiana. 2015. "The Contentious Rhetoric of the Cairene Walls: When Graffiti Meets Pop Poetry." Romano-Arabica XV: 99-111.

• http://araba.lls.unibuc.ro/wp-content/uploads/2014/12/RoAr15-one.pdf

Abstruse: The Egyptian Revolution of 2011 had amid the mutual features of political popular expression in the public space the overwhelming presence of poetry to which Elliot Colla attributes a prominent part from the beginning of the uprising existence not an ornament but a soundtrack contributing to the revolutionary act(Colla 2012:47). The political graffiti of Cairo, a cultural practice brought about and fueled past the revolution is not exempted, with poetry interim as the sound recorded by graffiti, transformed at the aforementioned fourth dimension into a rhetorical device. This article will present an analysis of a selected corpus of graffiti featuring revolutionary imagery and fragments of poetry, focusing on the specificity of the re-appropriation of literary fragments used as elements of a revolutionary, contentious rhetoric, and the creation of an inter-textual topicality that transcends historical contexts. We will follow, at the same fourth dimension, the human relationship between poetry and graffiti in order to clarify the mechanisms of a lyrical dimension of Egyptian protest graffiti.

Sharaf, Radwa Othmaan. 2015. Graffiti as a means of protest and documentation in the Egyptian revolution. African Conflict and Peacebuilding Review 5(1): 152–161.

The graffiti of the contempo Egyptian revolution provides rich insight into the details, subjects, and symbols of the struggle and its importance to the Egyptian people. Over the last four years, graffiti in Cairo has de-veloped from largely apolitical writings on walls into complex political images that document the climactic fall of a powerful regime. From the chants and calls of the public for Hosni Mubarak to resign, to the introduction of a military machine council, presidential elections, and the fifty-fifty-tual overthrow of Mohammed Morsi, Egyptian graffiti has recorded popular sentiments held by many Egyptians and traced the dramatic chain of events. Graffiti's business relationship of the revolution has often varied from mainstream media, demonstrating its power to provide alterna-tive, notwithstanding popular, accounts of the situation. This photo essay discusses seven revolution-related graffiti images that appeared on Cairo streets between January 2011 and June 2013. Each generated considerable discussion inside the city at the time of creation, and by their inclusion hither, I hope that they continue to spark conversation on the situation in Egypt on and beyond Cairo'due south streets.

Perrin, Stephanie Jane. 2015. "Re-Defining Revolution: A Case Report of Women and Graffiti in Egypt." PhD diss., Simon Fraser Academy, Schoolhouse for International Studies.

• Available: https://summit.sfu.ca/particular/15794

Like any social miracle, revolutions are gendered. The male tilt of revolutionary processes and their histories has produced a definition of revolution that consistently fails women. This thesis aims to redefine revolution to incorporate women'due south visions of societal transformation and the total achievement of their rights and freedoms. I fence that approaches to women's revolutionary experiences are enriched by focusing on the roles of culture, consciousness, and unconventional revolutionary texts. Arab republic of egypt is examined every bit a case written report with a focus on the nation'south long history of women's activism that took on new forms in the moving ridge of socio-political upheaval since 2011. Using interdisciplinary, visual analysis, I examine graffiti created by women, or that depict women between 2011 and 2015 to reveal how gender was publicly re-imagined during a period of flux for Egyptian society. The historical and visual analysis contribute to a new definition of revolution, i that strives to achieve the total transformation of order by disrupting gendered consciousness to finally secure rights and freedoms for all.

Rizk, Nagla. 2015. "Revolution, Graffiti and Copyright: The Cases of Egypt and Tunisia" African Journal of Information and Communication 16: 48-59.

• http://wiredspace.wits.ac.za/bitstream/handle/10539/19314/AJIC-Issue-16-2015-Rizk.pdf?sequence=1&isAllowed=y

During and after the Arab uprisings in 2011, there was an flare-up of creative production in Egypt and Tunisia, serving every bit a ways to counter state-controlled media and to certificate alternative narratives of the revolutions. I of the near prominent modes of creative output was graffiti. Within an access to noesis (A2K) framework that views graffiti as an of import knowledge good, this commodity outlines the author'due south findings from research into perspectives towards revolutionary graffiti held by graffiti artists and graffiti consumers in Egypt and Tunisia. The main quest of this piece of work is to place a copyright regime best suited to the priorities of both the revolutionary graffiti artists and the consumers of this art, cognisant besides of the possibilities offered by increasingly widespread use of, and access to, online digital platforms. The research looked at how artists and consumers relate to the revolutionary graffiti, how they experience well-nigh its commercialisation, and how they feel about the idea of protecting it with copyright. Based on the research findings, the author concludes that an A2K-enabling arroyo to preservation and broadcasting of the revolutionary graffiti – and an approach that would all-time cater to the needs of both the artists and the consumers – is provided by the Artistic Eatables (CC) suite of flexible copyright licences.

2016

Abaza, Mona. 2016. "The field of graffiti and street art in post-Jan 2011 Egypt." In Routledge Handbook of Graffiti and Street Art, pp. 358-373. Routledge.

2017

Abaza, M (2017) Repetitive repertoires: How writing about Cairene graffiti has turned into a serial monotony. In: Avramidis, Grand, Tsilimpounidi, Grand (eds) Graffiti and Street Fine art: Reading, Writing and Representing the Urban center. London: Routledge, pp. 177–194.

I hope to engage dialectically with the ethical paradoxes that many accept encountered in post-Jan 2011 Arab republic of egypt in the 'field of cultural production' (Bourdieu 2002 [1993]), merely in particular in street fine art, under a withering revolutionary moment that is spiralling into a commonage despair. The aim of this chapter is to trace the transmutations in the field itself, which have been affected non only by the major political shifts through the pervasive militarization of urban life since the war machine takeover in 2013, but likewise past the very commodification of the revolution and the cribbing of a myriad of symbols, languages and icons by a counter-revolution. Graffiti witnessed an unprecedented blast at the beginning of the revolution, reaching a peak around 2012–2013, while continuing to flourish until 2014. Graffiti during the early years of the revolution dramatically told and retold the stories of the violent confrontations, killing and martyrdoms that took place in the streets. From twenty-four hour period one, the painted walls of Cairo were vehemently wiped out by the regime, to be instantly repainted by fifty-fifty more irreverent and mesmerizing graffiti that insult the police forces and the symbols of the state. It was the rapid pace of the whitening and repainting that created a pregnant public of followers, photographers and observers of the street. Graffiti and so witnessed a definite decline with the military takeover in 2013. Nonetheless, non only graffiti but many symbols that were circulated in Tahrir (such as flags, badges, gadgets, Facebook cartoons, t-shirts) underwent a swift commodification and commercialization. From solar day one, graffiti was the field that attracted the most international attending, leading to an over-saturation in this form of cultural production. The current paradox lies in the fact that the branding and celebration of 'revolutionary fine art' on the global scale allowed the archway of new immature artists/ players in the cultural field. These 'players' have gained international public visibility, just their graffiti did not escape obvious commodification and reification through curators, art galleries and media attention. Perhaps likewise the criminalization of graffiti after the armed services takeover was i of the reasons why graffiti was picked upwards by secluded spaces such as galleries, cultural centres, universities and museums.

Awad, S (2017) Documenting contested retention: Symbols in irresolute city space of Cairo. Civilization & Psychology 23(two): 234–254.

This article looks at how symbols in the urban surroundings are intentionally produced and modified to regulate a community'south collective memory. Our urban environment is filled with symbols in the class of images, text, and structures that embody certain narratives about the past. Once those symbols are introduced into the urban center space they accept a life span of their own in a continuous procedure of reproduction and reconstruction by dissimilar social actors. In the context of the city space of Cairo in the v years post-obit the 2011 Egyptian revolution, I will wait on the ane side at efforts of activists to preserve the retentivity of the revolution through graffiti murals and the utilization of public infinite, and from the other, the authority'south efforts to replace those initiatives with its ain official narrative. Edifice on the concept of commonage retentiveness, also as Bartlett's studies of serial reproductions and theorization of reconstructive remembering, I will follow the reproduction of different symbols in the city and how they were perceived and remembered by pedestrians.

Naguib, Saphinaz Amal. 2017. Engaged imperceptible art: Street fine art and the Egyptian Arab Spring. Transcultural Studies 2: 53–88.

• Bachelor at: https://heiup.uni-heidelberg.de/journals/index.php/transcultural/article/view/23590 (accessed June 3, 2021)

The wave of uprisings known every bit the Arab Spring that swept over the Middle East and Due north Africa from Dec 2010 to early on 2013 left its imprint on political and social life in the countries concerned. This ephemeral moment as well marked a change in various forms of creative expression. Street art, graffiti, and calligraffiti are among the virtually striking art forms of this short period. Artists recorded and commented on events and developments in the political situation. They drew upon their people's cultural memory to impart their letters and expressed dissension, civil disobedience, and resistance by combining images and scripts. This article is about the materiality of visual fine art and the translation of political contestation into street art, graffiti, and calligraffiti in Egypt. It probes the means slogans were visualised, drawn, and inscribed on the walls of the urban space in Cairo and and then disseminated on the internet and social media. Translation relates here to transcultural contacts and the coaction between texts, images, and contexts from the vantage indicate of intermediality.

Taş, Hakkı. 2017. "Street arts of resistance in Tahrir and Gezi." Middle Eastern Studies 53(5): 802-819.

Abstruse: With the tremendous visibility of popular mobilization in the last decade, scholars have increasingly directed their attention to the streets to examine the dynamics of power and resistance. Amongst emerging venues of politics, this study examines street fine art and graffiti equally a performance of resistance in the 2011 Tahrir Revolution and 2013 Gezi Protests in Egypt and Turkey, respectively. As re-appropriation of the urban landscape and modes of self-expression, street art and graffiti lie at the intersection of politics, infinite, and identity. Inspired by James C. Scott's concept of 'arts of resistance', this study takes up these 'street arts of resistance' as revealing the hidden transcript, namely, the self-disclosure of subordinates nether the politics of disguise. While unpacking that destructive power, this study rests on its claim that street art and graffiti not only seek to stand for, but likewise to perform and interject. Thereafter, it examines how these modes of visual culture interrupt time, space, and the self, along with their respective furnishings.

2018

Majid, Asif. 2018. "Graffiti during and after Egypt's most contempo revolution." In Peterson, Christian Philip, William K. Knoblauch and Michael Loadenthal, eds. Routledge History of World Peace Since 1750 (Pp. 208-226). Routledge.

My argument is twofold: one) Egyptian graffiti embodies the 3 central tenets of the revolution, and two) it is improvisatory in both artistic grade and political content. In reflecting the revolution's three central tenets—economic, political, and social justice—graffiti uses Egypt's urban walls to dilate, challenge, and reinscribe the revolution's demands. Artistic calls for economical justice ("bread") betrayal the longstanding and growing gap betwixt rich and poor, the subalternity of children who live on urban streets, and ongoing contestation near Arab republic of egypt'due south future. Demands for political justice ("freedom") unveil dissonant opinions virtually the Egyptian armed services, the decentralized nature with which graffiti was employed, and the social vulnerability required for political freedom. Calls for social change ("social justice")draw attention to the gendered façade of perfection effectually revolutionary euphoria that elides sexual harassment issues and the policing of women's bodies such as through and so-called"virginity tests" administered by the military, the celebrated cross-religious resonances of the revolution, and the need for common spaces of memorial.Second, graffiti, by its very nature, is improvisatory both in creative form and political content. By this, I mean that the actual act of what to spray and how to practice so takes influence from both structural macro-level issues (i.eastward., economic inequality, mass corruption, and sexual harassment) and firsthand micro-level concerns (i.e., needing a memorial to honor protesters who died supporting the revolution and reclaiming specific artworks after state-sponsored censorship). Both the macro and the micro dovetail in the making of graffiti,where choices of location, symbolism, and creative form constitute particular responses to general economic, political, and social configurations of the Egyptian state. In so doing,artist–activists transformed the economical and socio-political goals of the revolution into an improvisational exclamation that the creation of beauty, too, tin shape Egyptian life

2019

Hammad, Mahmoud. 2019. Graffiti and Political Sarcasm every bit Tools for Political participation in Egypt. Euromesco Policy Brief, 105. European Institute of the Mediterranean.

• https://www.euneighbours.eu/sites/default/files/publications/2020-01/Brief105_graffiti-and-political-sarcasm_Egypt.pdf (accessed June xxx, 2021)

This article aims to examine the features of the evolution of political activism, witha focus on political sarcasm and graffiti. The beginning part of this policy brief analyses the political activism in Egypt since 2004 and its increased resort to social media. The second part examines the transformation of activism and a gradual development of its tools, from a more "traditional" use of online tools (i.east. posting and moderating a debateon social media) to adoption of more than captivating tactics – political sarcasm and graffiti.Subsequently, the article discusses the legal developments in Egypt related to control of political activism in the state. Lastly, the commodity provides some recommendations on how to ensure safer space for online users and promote and safeguard street artists

2020

Bardhan, Soumia, and Karen A. Foss. 2020. "Revolutionary Graffiti and Cairene Women." In Women Rising: In and Across the Arab Leap, Stephan, Rita  and Mounira M. Charrad, eds. (Pp. 267-282) NYU Press.

2021

Blaagaard, Bolette B, and Nina Grønlykke Mollerup. 2021. "On Political Street Fine art as Expressions of Denizen Media in Revolutionary Egypt." International Periodical of Cultural Studies 24(3): 434–453.

This article traces the intersecting and interstitial spaces of political aesthetics in political street art featuring central activists of the Egyptian uprising of 2011–xiii as well equally the post-obit struggle. We debate that the complex political expressions displayed in the images as recontextualized and embodied afford the images different roles in citizens' political and social struggles. Nosotros develop 3 modalities of political street art – emplacement, travelling and conversation – that allow dissimilar works different roles in the political germination of subjectivity. In lodge to sympathize street art'south role in political subjectivity germination, this article applies visual discursive analyses to ii expressions of political street art: showtime, the stencil of a blue bra, referring to sitt al-banat, a woman who was stripped naked in public as she was beaten unconscious by Egyptian armed forces soldiers; 2d, the mural of and then jailed activist Sanaa Seif in the Copenhagen borough of Christiania.

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Source: https://connectedincairo.com/2021/06/04/reading-the-writing-on-the-wall/

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