The Politics of Street Art in Yemen (2012–2017)
Total Page：16
File Type：pdf, Size：1020Kb
CTP0010.1177/2057047317718204Communication and the PublicAlviso-Marino 718204research-article2017 Original Research Article Communication and the Public 1 –16 © The Author(s) 2017 The politics of street art in Reprints and permissions: sagepub.co.uk/journalsPermissions.nav Yemen (2012–2017) DOI:https://doi.org/10.1177/2057047317718204 10.1177/2057047317718204 journals.sagepub.com/home/ctp Anahi Alviso-Marino French Center for Archeology and Social Sciences (CEFAS), Kuwait Abstract In 2012, as a continuation of street politics developed in places like the antigovernment sit-in in Change Square in Yemen’s capital Sana’a, a small number of visual artists incorporated dissent, transgression, and civil disobedience into their artistic practices. Such is the case of Murad Subay, the painter who initiated the series of street art campaigns analyzed in this article. This case allows us to study the intersections of space, contentious politics, and artistic practices, interrogating how visual expressions located in the streets reflect a vivid political public sphere, understood as a site of critical debate and interaction. Furthermore, it introduces a series of dynamics that make of these campaigns something more than a site for production and circulation of discourses critical of the state. Street art campaigns in Yemen are thus explored sensitizing devices for political awareness. Keywords Contentious politics, sensitizing devices, street art, street politics, Yemen Introduction Between 2012 and 2017, a series of street art1 long-standing sit-ins, and the ousting from power “campaigns” (s. hamla, pl. hamlat) have transformed of former president Ali Abdallah Saleh in 2011.2 public spaces in Yemen through artistic expression Initiated by a self-proclaimed “youth of the revolu- used to provoke political awareness and mobiliza- tion” (shabab al-thawra), the occupation of public tion. Defined as “campaigns,” artistic interventions space through indefinite sit-ins spread throughout the on the walls of Sana’a have taken place in a collective country, adding new faces to a political opposition manner with the objective of identifying subjects of previously limited to political parties and human social and political concern. In certain cases, they rights organizations among other social actors. have provoked changes at the institutional level, Gradually, antigovernmental demonstrators came to having an effect on the population outside of the par- modify old repertoires of contention,3 such as the ticipants in the campaigns and triggering other forms of participation and expression of political griev- Corresponding author: ances. This use of street art cannot be understood Anahi Alviso-Marino, French Center for Archeology and Social without taking into account the contentious mobiliza- Sciences (CEFAS), Kuwait. tion that gave place to demonstrations, massive and Email: [email protected] 2 Communication and the Public 00(0) demonstration or the temporary sit-in, into what series of artistic actions that initially aimed to “color became a permanent camp and a new space of resist- the walls” of bullet-marked spaces where violent ance at the heart of Sana’a, subsequently named confrontations took place between pacifist demon- Change Square (saha at-taghyir). strators and forces loyal to the regime. Encouraged The physical and social space of the streets served by large public participation and media coverage, he as the locus of collective expression, echoing the undertook other street art campaigns, where a con- notion of street politics developed by sociologist tentious discourse and the potential to mobilize peo- Asef Bayat (1997). Furthermore, this sit-in became a ple became more evident. Being among the youth political arena where people actively participated in who initiated the sit-in in Sana’a in 2011, his practice transforming the Square into a sort of parallel city, serves to explore the implications of direct political where a more structured and institutionalized site of participation as well as civil disobedience learned discursive interaction developed. This arena effec- under the tents and expressed through artistic prac- tively resonates with the notion of public sphere, tices that uses both walls and streets as canvases and elaborated by philosopher and sociologist Jürgen exhibition spaces that are public, free, and not always Habermas who studied the emergence, transforma- subject to prior and official authorization. tion, and disintegration of the bourgeois public This case study focuses on the intersection of sphere through an analysis of coffeehouses in Great space, contentious politics, and artistic practices, Britain and France in 1680 and 1730, respectively. interrogating how dissent is expressed through street His (Habermas, 1989/2011) study identified these art rooted in street politics. More specifically, it spaces as a sphere between civil society and the questions the conditions that allowed street art to state, where informed and critical discourse by the encourage political engagement, mobilize people, people emerged. Many Middle Eastern countries and and provoke instances of collective action5 in Yemen. the larger Muslim world of many areas have been In this sense, this case shows that visual expressions examined through his analytical approach,4 though located in the streets not only reflect a vivid political not in terms of artistic activity and expression. public sphere understood as a site of critical debate Visual artists were also among the shabab al- and interaction. Furthermore, it introduces a series of thawra of a sit-in that lasted through early 2013. dynamics that make of these campaigns something Some of these artists exhibited their works inside the more than a site for production and circulation of Square, photographed life and death in the sit-in, and discourses critical of the state. more generally participated in supporting the popu- Foreign media’s description of Subay as the lar mobilization. Artistic expression was also notice- “Yemeni Banksy” is misleading because it stems able outside the Square, where graffiti and street art from the ways that Western street art is often identi- techniques such as free writing, mural painting, or fied in terms of a process of artification, that is, the stenciling were used throughout 2011 to reproduce recognition of graffiti and street art as form of artistic political slogans in unauthorized places, aiming to expression with a consequent inclusion in museums, support the overthrow of Saleh’s regime. In various galleries, or markets (Heinich & Shapiro, 2012). This manners, artistic practices contributed to the sym- interpretation of Murad Subay’s practice might not bolic aspects of this mobilization both inside and coincide with local dynamics of “visibility” and outside of Change Square. access to social “recognition” (Honneth, 1995). In 2012, as a continuation of street politics devel- Although the differences of perception are not at the oped in places such as Change Square, a small center of this study, it is worth stressing that they number of visual artists incorporated dissent, trans- highlight the ways in which what is observed interna- gression, and civil disobedience into their artistic tionally as urban and public art is locally used as practices. Such is the case of Murad Subay, the a sensitizing device (Traïni, 2009). Connecting the painter who initiated the series of campaigns I ana- study of emotions, collective action, and mobiliza- lyze in this article. Sending an open call through tion,6 French sociologist Christophe Traïni (2009) Facebook in March 2012, he started the first of a defines these types of devices as “all the material Alviso-Marino 3 support, the placement of objects, and the staging practices transformed walls, streets, and the city into techniques that the militants exploit, in order to a territory for collective and participatory experi- arouse the kind of affective reactions which predis- ments of an artistic and political nature. pose those who experience them to join or support the cause being defended” (p. 15, Traïni, 2016). As From political uses of street art opposed to studying sensitizing devices in a given mobilization, in the following pages, I explore street to aesthetically invested political art as a device used to express issues that become devices considered as worthy of collectively being shared The myriad of ways in which people practiced par- and denounced, and the potential capacity of mobili- ticipatory politics in the streets of Change Square zation that this use of painting on public spaces can were reflected in the transformations taking place in have in the short or long term. Having participated in a variety of other fields. Among them, artistic prac- the contentious occupation of public space at Change tices were also combined with expressions of politi- Square in 2011, Murad Subay’s commitment to street cal claims. During 2011, the use of painting and politics and to the revolutionary public sphere deep- photography reflected an interest mainly centered on ened. My approach is to study his street art cam- the space of the Square, thus serving to support and paigns as devices that encouraged political action in reiterate slogans enduring the mobilization by sym- the period following the ousting of power of former bolic means. In other words, these forms of visual president Saleh.7 expression (especially photography) were mainly Although the study of the contentious movement used to record