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Visual Communication of Counter-Cultures in Contemporary Art in the Middle East

Student: Shuman Lyuda

Supervisor: Panos Kompatsiaris

Faculty: Faculty of Creative Industries

Educational Programme: Media Communications (Bachelor)

Year of Graduation: 2020

The dynamic interplay between politics and arts may be expressed in contemporary pieces of art. In times of societal upheaval and civil unrest, artists have played a significant role in portraying the sentiment of societies towards the ruling elite through forms of visual communication. An example of visual communications in the context of contemporary art are graffiti’s, underground art, or installations. In recent years, there was a surge of revolts across different states of the MENA region such as the “Arab Spring” in Egypt. At the same time, artists in these countries have produced a vast number of pieces of contemporary art. Little is known about the interactions of contemporary art and political agitation of the people in the Middle East which have led to revolutions and violent governmental interventions. The aim of this paper is to analyze the role and effect of contemporary art at the political level in the Middle East. This paper aims to describe how the art community of the Middle East reacted against political upheavals through underground art and installations that portray oppositional politics, and in return how the ruling class responded by restricting the freedom of expression and speech. The relevance of the present study stems from the nature of the authoritarian political system of states in the MENA region and its potential implications for the expression of political activism in the form of visual arts. Therefore, the research question of this paper is: What is the the relationship between the emergence of contemporary art and (re-)actions and perceptions of citizens and functionaries in the political sphere across the Middle East? The analysis of this research question is based on the four-pattern model of Gallie and Cyril between politics and arts. We analyze five case studies in five countries of the MENA region discussing the interplay between contemporary arts and the political sphere along the dimensions of this framework. The results reveal a link between the occurrence of revolutions in the Middle East and the creation of contemporary art. Secondly, pieces of art display themes that are related to the revolts and may reflect the political ideology of the artists. These may be in favor or against the political ideas of the government and the ruling elite. Further, the perception of such artistic productions may contribute to the participation in rallies and protests through fueling political agitation. On the other hand, the government’s reaction may imply regulations and restrictions impeding the freedom of speech and creations of artistic forms of visual communications. In sum, the dynamic interplay between the actions undertaken by the governments and the reactions of their citizens and vice versa are expressed in such forms of art, which may act as a catalyst of aggression and distrust between the two parties. Conclusively, the protestors, the artists and the political elite responds to the creation of art by respectively participating in the protest, creating additional pieces of arts related to the protests, and restricting and regulating political activism. Therefore, this self-enhancing system may have contributed to the outcomes and political decay of countries affected by the Arab Springs. Future research should investigate the causal mechanisms underlying the relationship between contemporary art and political agitation and activism.

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