Art Against Authoritarianism in Southwest Asia and North Africa

Over the past decade, there has been a burgeoning interest in the realm of art activism within the South West Asia and North Africa region, shedding light on the political implications of aesthetic representation. Nevertheless, a critical inquiry into how political aesthetics can formulate both discernible and imperceptible resistance strategies in response to resurging authoritarianism and counter-revolution after the 2011 uprisings in the region remains conspicuously absent. This text delves into a comprehensive examination of diverse art forms, ranging from street art and cinema to performance art, as well as music and theatre, scrutinizing the manifestations of aesthetic resilience at the epicenter of the political resistance against oppression and authoritarianism in Sudan, Iran, Turkey, Egypt, Tunisia, Algeria, Morocco, Lebanon, Yemen and Syria. The authors employ a multifaceted approach to investigate aesthetic activism, encompassing analysis of visibility, ephemerality, and speech within the public sphere, the establishment and perpetuation of collective transnational solidarities, the portrayal of suppressed identities and narratives, and the innovation of alternative mechanisms for producing and disseminating art.>

Auteur
Tijen Tunali is a Marie Sklodowska Curie Cofund Fellow at the University of Rennes 2, France. She is the editor of Art and Gentrification in the Changing Neoliberal Landscape (2021) and co-editor of Contemporary Art Across Political Divides: Difficult Conversations (2023). Josepha Wessels is an associate professor in Media and Communication Studies at the School of Arts and Communication at Malmö University, Sweden. She is the author of Documenting Syria: Film-making, Video Activism and Revolution (2019, I.B.Tauris).

Texte du rabat
"Discussing various art forms, from street art to performance art, and from music to theatre, this book examines forms of aesthetic resilience at the heart of the political struggle against authoritarianism in Iran, Turkey, Egypt, Tunisia, Algeria, Morocco, Sudan, Lebanon, Jordan and Syria. The authors investigate ongoing aesthetic activism after the Arab Uprisings in four ways: examining visibility and speech in the public space; the creation and sustaining of collective solidarities; and the representation of suppressed identities and narratives and the creation of alternative modes of producing and circulating art. The book questions the aesthetic frame of politics that obscures social struggles from below in favour of the political theatre of the state apparatus on the one hand and discusses how activist aesthetics cultivate a transformative imaginary of a just world, on the other"--

Contenu
List of Figures List of Contributors Acknowledgements Note on Transliteration Introduction Chapter1:AL SAR'A ALNA? Chapter2:REMAPPINGPOLITICALMUSICIN MOROCCO Chapter3:CREATIVESPACEANDUPRISINGINALGERIA Chapter4:MONUMENTALRE-BOURGUIBIZATION Chapter5:AFTERIMAGESOFTHE2011EGYPTIANUPRISINGS Chapter6:WALLSANDREVOLUTIONINSUDAN Chapter7:REVOLUTIONARYWOMENINIRAN Chapter8:WARON WALLS Chapter9:LITERARYWRITINGINSYRIA Index