"On the walls of Cairo a dialogue is taking place. Street artists paint radical messages and images, reactionary forces erase them, then the artists return and paint again. “It’s lovely because we have reclaimed the city and every wall has a story,” says Bahia Shehab, an Islamic art historian, an artist and, since the revolution, a street artist. “We have an emotional affinity with the walls. They become ours. The moment you spray a wall you start feeling it belongs to you. ... When the revolution started Shehab was initially slow to respond. Her first outburst of street art didn’t occur until nine months after Hosni Mubarak’s regime ended, in February 2011. “It took us a lot of time to grasp [the revolution]. I tried within my circle of influence to help. I gave my students projects about the revolution. I had them design logos and posters. I started writing about the revolution . . . [After the resignation of Mubarak] we thought the revolution had succeeded and that now we just had to build the country, but nine months later we realised that that was just an illusion. It was in our heads only because all the government apparatuses were still there; the corruption was still there. I had been exposed to brutality [since the] revolution, but I kept ignoring it as labour pains or leftovers that were not concrete or important. But after the army came and started beating up protesters, I realised it was time to get out of our comfort zone and get out on the street.” She took a simple A3-size stencil declaring “No to military rule” and sprayed it in Tahrir Square. “It was broad daylight surrounded by a million people – the safest place to be.”
Posted on: Sun, 30 Jun 2013 21:35:12 +0000
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