Contemporary Art.. in Egypt?

‘In the Arab world art is something women can learn about, and when they get married they may use it to decorate something or other’

Taher Qassim, Chair of the Liverpool Arabic Centre, and Yemeni by birth, put across how art is regarded in many Arab nations. When such nations are undergoing deep political unrest, and ordinary citizens fight for their freedom of expression, how will art play its part in this revolution?

Ahmed Basioney

Amongst several others I took part in a discussion about ‘art in revolution’ in FACT gallery where Ahmed Basiony’s work was exhibited. By the end I felt how the revolution may have  inadvertently sparked a new small kind of revolution on its own. Ahmed Basiony was an Egyptian artist, a contemporary artist, who experimented with tools of new media. In the right hand side of the gallery on a screen played the video of his work ‘Thirty Days Running in the Place’, where Basiony can be seen wearing a plastic jumpsuit of some sort, running on one spot for an hour while on a projection opposite the energy he produced was visualised into an abstract portrait.

                                    

(Now if you are not a great enthusiast of such contemporary art work, and like me find it tedious having to work out how such an art is supposed to have any sort of impact, bear with me!)

About a year later after he produced this work in the garden of the Cairo Opera House, Egypt started to revolt against Muabarak’s regime. Basiony filmed these energetic demonstrations in Tahrir square, the film of which was being played on the left hand side of the gallery opposite ‘Thirty Days Running in the Place’ video. Suddenly the connection between the energy of one man running on the spot, and the energy of thousands protesting a year later became very apparent. Basiony was shot by a sniper by pro-government forces and killed on the bloodiest of these demonstrations. The footage taken on this day was never found. His shocking death has made his work all the more poignant. You could even say that this is the very reason his work is being displayed in a small gallery in Liverpool miles away from where it was taken, attracting 20 curious people to gather around and discuss the relationship between dissidence, art and revolution.

In the Arabic culture, much like Asian culture, to study and work in art is seen as a hobby not worthy of dedicating your life to as opposed to being an engineer for example. FACT’s curator even admitted during the discussion that his Egyptian father often asks him to do a PhD just so he can tell the family he is a doctor! Going back to what Taher Qassim said, when asked about what part he thought the ‘apparently’ insignificant art played in this Arab Spring he pointed out that it was through art many expressed their anger at the injustice, and managed to captivate the attention of the outside world. From street graffiti to placards, from rhythmic chants to patriotic body paints, to seizing the endless and infectious energy through video and photographs! All of this in defiance against extreme violence and injustice played a crucial role in fuelling the momentum of the movement.

'there was an artist, along with his many students fighting against impossible social and political construct'

It’s undeniable that both Basiony and his work gain more attention in the backdrop of his shocking end. However, what we should really take from this is that even when Egypt was under the stronghold of Mubarak’s suffocating regime, there was an artist, along with his many students fighting against impossible social and political construct to exercise his right to produce contemporary art work long before the revolution. Such is the will of an artist! The Egyptian revolution has made many ordinary citizens realise what an important part art played in expressing their passion to the outside world. This sense has not died down after the fall of Mubarak’s regime. An example is a young 16 year old Egyptian girl who sparked much debate and controversy for posting nude photos of herself on the internet, to oppose the on-going suppression of young revolutionaries by the current military regime. Reminiscent of dissident artist Ai WeiWei, who produced nude pictures of himself in defiance of the oppressive Chinese government don’t you think?

'To many of us whom have only a glimpse into this world, we can only collectively refer to them as martyrs. Such is our capacity as human beings.'

I want to bring to the forefront the most significant point. Through his art work, he has made a mark. Countless numbers have died and are dying during the Arab revolution. Their families and friends will remember their names and the sacrifice they have made for their country. To many of us whom have only a glimpse into this world, we can only collectively refer to them as martyrs. Such is our capacity as human beings. But we have remembered and will remember one who died among the thousands, because he has created works through which we can immerse ourselves into, and attempt to understand. For artists, it is only through their work they express themselves, and it is an invitation to everyone to share in what sometimes cannot be articulated into words. Basiony may be no longer, but his work has helped him live on. Undeniably, the most important aspect of art is that it makes a mark that cannot be as easily erased as a life.

As many martyrs fall for their country, as many artists will be born out of the flames of this Arab revolution.

NOTES- 
- Follow discussion on the Egyptian girl who posted nude photos of herself on Twitter using #NudePhotoRevolution 
      This has gotten many people talking: Here's two opinion I found on the blogsphere:
        Aliaa Elmahdy: Unnecessary, Useless "Freedom"
        Democrati.net: Egyptian girl naked photo. Is Egypt ready for nude art?
- FACT (Foundation for Art and Creative Technology) is a Liverpool based cinema and gallery
- Find out more about Ahmed Basioney and his work
- Also might interest you in following Chinese dissident artist Ai WeiWei on Gaurdian: Culture -Art and Design - Ai WeiWei

Yemen and the Invisible Media

From Egypt’s struggle to bring stability, to Libya’s rush to set up a government before the extremists start acting up, the Arab Spring has dominated the media for the past few months. In fact the words Libya, Syria, Egypt, Turkey has been repeated countless times, that when an article called ₁‘Explaining the Silence on Yemen’ caught my eye, I suddenly realised, Yemen is still part of the Arab uprising!

The country almost always crops up when a terrorist is suspected to have trained there. Amongst Pakistan, it’s regarded by the West as a place where extremist views of Islam breed. So my question is this, when a country considered as a ‘terrorist hot spot’ is demonstrating for peace and democracy, why are we not encouraging this? Surely if the western countries believe Yemen is a breeding ground for al-Qaeda, helping the Yemeni’s would be helping fight terrorism in the long haul. Then why has it been side-lined into the watery abyss of media ignorance?

Going back to the article, it highlights that the Yemeni’s have been peacefully protesting against the government since February, and in the past week there has been sudden horrific and senseless attacks on the protestors in the capital Sana’a. Al Jazeera has been reporting of the injured in hospitals crying out for the West to intervene and help them in their fight. Doesn’t it all seem a bit cruel helping out its neighbours, celebrating their victory while Yemen drowns in its battle for democracy?

Ultimately it’s about helping out the countries that are able to help the West out economically in return. A democratic Libya and Syria would be a great strength to the West, with ₂Libya having 3% of the entire world’s oil reserve, that’s $3.9 trillion worth of oil! Whereas Yemen is the poorest nation in Arabia, ₃with 40% unemployment rate, little oil reserve and therefore have the lowest prospect of being economically profitable. I believe this is the reason Yemen has been side-lined.

It’s harsh, and it is echoed from the invasion of Iraq and Afghanistan, to the silence of the failed Tamil genocide in Northern Sri-Lanka. 9/11 has been unashamedly used as an excuse to only find and kill Osama Bin Laden and Saddam Hussein. The promise of restoring the broken countries has been shattered as Obama gets ready to prematurely pull American troops out, even with the news of heavy bombings in Kabul and the killing of  Burhanuddin Rabbani, head of Afghanistan’s high peace council in the ‘safe green zone.’ I don’t know what else could possibly reiterate how unstable the country is than the killing of the head of the peace council.

In terms of Sri Lanka, if any under-developed country had such a vast amount of evidence of war crimes, it would have been subject to immediate and harsh punishment by the UN and the rest of the world. But Sri Lanka is anything but economically under-developed. In fact ₄Reuters reports that Sri Lanka’s economy is expected to grow by 8.5% this year, significant for a country bouncing back from 25 years of civil war. From a purely business perspective, would you condemn this government for its inhumane treatment of civilians during the last few months of the civil war, or would you jump at the chance of making deals with a country that is growing in economic power? The harsh reality is, is that country’s such as China and Iran know this value, and do not want to act on such allegations for want of profit. To an extremist fearing government such as America, they are given excuses from the Sri Lankan government, ‘Well we got rid of a terrorist organisation (Tamil Tigers) in the process didn’t we?’

This is not to say we should sit back and sigh, wondering what the world is coming to where everything is just business. We are living in a time where strong minded individuals from all across the world are taking it upon themselves to fight for their rights. The international Tamil community have persistently fought to get the UN to probe into the human rights violations. As many as 10,000 demonstrators are expected to gather at the UN’s European headquarters this week to protest. Even if the Western media doesn’t quite know how to approach the Yemen situation, and jumps on the default ‘shove it out the way until crisis point’, the Yemeni community have arranged for an international protest on the 24^th September, (this Saturday) to bring attention to this silence. I think this has been arranged by ‘Noon Arabia.’ Check out her blog www.notesbynoon.blogspot.com to see how you can get involved.

Also worth checking out is Al Jazeera’s new programme, ‘Active’, which gives a truly human insight into activists around the world.  http://english.aljazeera.net/programmes/activate/