The Politics of Street Art in Yemen (2012–2017)

CTP0010.1177/2057047317718204Communication and the PublicAlviso-Marino 718204research-article2017

Original Research Article

Communication and the Public 16–1 © 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 mobilization” (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 life inside the Square reflecting little initiated in 2011 is far beyond the scope of this arti- or no interest in showing what was happening in the cle, the political and social learning that took place at rest of the city.8 the Square remains important to my analysis. The As the first months of the mobilizations passed, fact that people enhanced their understanding of some photographers and bloggers turned their atten- direct political participation and political action from tion to the streets surrounding the Square, which was the street in rejection of institutional politics is cer- blanketed gradually by colorful graffiti and free tainly an element present in practices such those ana- writing used to support the mobilization. Similar to lyzed in this article. Experiences such as the artistic photography or painting, these techniques of street ones developed by Murad Subay linked the conten- art also contributed to give an artistic expression to tious street politics learned at Change Square to the political claims. This practice was not unprecedented transitional period that immediately followed as in Yemen. Before the revolutionary period of 2011, Saleh resigned in November 2011 and formally street art techniques had been used in Yemeni cities left power in February 2012, when former vice pres- mainly to reflect religious messages through stencils ident of the country since 1994 and of Saleh’s party displaying “God is the greatest” or “there is no God Abd Rabbo Mansour Hadi became president. But but God” or to reproduce political slogans and sym- such artistic actions took place not only during this bols of political parties. As is the case also in other transitional period, but they also continued as the countries, art was not the first intention of their escalation of violence reached unprecedented levels anonymous performers (Figure 1).9 since the end of 2014, when Huthi rebels launched Two cases stand out in the use of techniques asso- a military offensive against Abd Rabbo Mansour ciated with street art prior to 2011 due to the fact that Hadi’s government. As the military intervention led they involved painters. The first one took place in by Saudi Arabia against the Huthi in March 2015 2006, when a group of female painters from the marked the beginning of the war that is still ongoing coastal city of Hodeidah chose a wall to paint their in 2017, street art interventions continued to take first collective piece (Alviso-Marino, 2017). This place in the capital and its surroundings. As I will group called “Halat Lawniyya” (“Colored haloes”), demonstrate in the following section, using street art composed of five former students of fine arts from techniques, this initiative organized around street art the University of Hodeidah, chose the celebration of 4 Communication and the Public 00(0)

Figure 1. “Pray for/on the Prophet,” “God is the greatest,” “There is no God but God, and Mohammed is God’s messenger,” and the horses symbol of Ali Abdallah Saleh’s party, the General People’s Congress, photographed by the author in Sana’a 2009–2010.

Figure 2. Mural paintings hanging in the old city of Sana’a in solidarity with Palestine, 2009, and a tag photographed in 2011. Images by the author.

Yemen’s unity on 22 May to unveil a painting col- reproduced against bright colors, people’s silhouettes lectively done on a wall of their city. The second marching in protest and holding the Yemeni flag were example took place in 2009 in Sana’a, when several painted, and implied references to social media were painters participated in making mural paintings that displayed on the walls. In the context of a movement they hung on the walls of the old city, using public and a time perceived as revolutionary, issues of ano- space to display solidarity with Palestine at a time nymity appeared less central to a practice otherwise when Israel renewed attacks on Gaza. In 2010 and characterized and built around the preservation of an 2011, “tags” or signatures aesthetically related to anonymous identity by its European, North and South graffiti started to appear in certain walls of Sana’a American practitioners.11 Under the circumstances (Figure 2). of open critique and protest, some of the graffiti In 2011, these different techniques were being appeared deliberately signed and dated although used in the walls nearby Change Square to visually most of it, together with the free writing on the walls, reenact the slogans that were being chanted by the was typically anonymous. The street art that appeared demonstrators. If the walls of cities such as Aden had in these walls was directly linked to the mobilization already been used to make political claims through and portrayed its political goals through visual means free writing prior to 2011,10 in Sana’a and around (Figure 3). Change Square, these techniques became aestheti- In 2012, a series of changes occurred in Yemen’s cally more complex. In this vein, the word “irhal” street art. Between March 2012 and 2017, street art (leave!), largely written on walls, asphalt, and street campaigns were launched by a young painter in his signs, started to appear written both in Arabic and twenties through Facebook. The city’s aesthetic was in English using colorful calligraphy. Fists were drastically transformed as kilometers of walls ended Alviso-Marino 5

Figure 3. From left to right: “Leave oh killer,” photographed by Abd al Rahman Taha, May 2011. “Leave,” “33 years are enough,” “Get out,” Revolutionaries and “Delete Ali?” courtesy of Jameel Subay, May 2011. up being covered by painting and spray, in the capi- background and living not far from where the dem- tal Sana’a as well as in other major cities such as onstrations against the regime took place at the Taez and Aden. Most importantly, public space was beginning of 2011, he participated for the first time again being used to express dissent and make social in a collective political action through the sit-in of critiques, this time through painting in a collective Change Square in Sana’a. He was among the youth manner. The practice of techniques related to street who started the sit-in in February 2011, and he art was thus being transformed and singularly trig- quickly volunteered to monitor the entrances in gered by the campaigns launched by Murad Subay. order to avoid arms into the Square. Subay had been interested in painting from a Color the walls of your street: young age, but until 2012 had never exhibited his local campaigns and international work, feeling that he was not ready yet to do so. visibility Although he knows the artistic circles of the city, he does not participate in any of them.12 As a self-taught A student of English Literature at the University of painter, he mainly practiced on canvases until he Sana’a, Murad Subay was born in 1987 in Dhamar. started to paint on walls in 2012. As Subay explained, Raised by his mother (his father is a blue-collar he learned about the techniques of street art through worker who emigrated to work in construction in the Internet and identified his projects with this form Saudi Arabia), he grew up in his village of Dhamar, of expression as it provided him with a “quick and and later in Sana’a, and was greatly influenced by easy way to pass messages to Yemenis and to his older brothers. In a similar manner as they the world” (M. Subay, personal communication, 9 became interested, respectively, in poetry, writing, October 2012 and 24 December 2013). From March and photography, he turned toward the world of arts 2012 through early 2017, he has worked on five at the end of his adolescence. As they and his sisters street art projects, which he describes in terms of actively participated in contentious politics, through campaigns. their written or photographic work as well as through The first campaign, named “Color the Walls of demonstrations and inclusion in activist networks your Street” (lawun jidar shari‘ak) was launched in related to the defense of human rights and freedom March 2012 as a call to color bullet-marked walls of expression, this environment contributed to where violent clashes occurred in 2011 between the Murad’s political socialization. Coming from this regime and demonstrators. When he started painting 6 Communication and the Public 00(0)

Figure 4. “Color the Walls of Your Street,” courtesy of Murad Subay. on the walls of the “Kentki roundabout,” at the that could not be politically neutral. As a reminder of crossroad of the streets Zubayri and Da’iri in Sana’a, the deaths that had occurred against pacifist demon- he did so by reproducing his own paintings, previ- strators,13 bullet-marked walls were chosen for this ously confined to canvases. The walls then started campaign in order to embellish the streets while to be covered by white hand-shapes painted over remembering history still in the making. This project a black background or square-shaped faces put effectively distanced Subay from institutional and par- together as if they were a collection of puzzle pieces tisan politics but rooted his practice in the street as a (Figure 4). They were all accompanied by two pieces site for enacting social and political critique and as a of information present in pictorial art: the date and “place of memory of the revolt.”14 Furthermore, he the full signature, easily legible, echoing the original carried out a collective project massively joined as canvases. Progressively, his paintings became art kilometers of walls testified, using public space with- works of public access, also inspiring other partici- out any authorization. pants who followed his initiative. These elements, as well as the political character The campaign was a success in which not only of the space chosen, allow us to draw parallels painters and those responding to the Facebook between his artistic practice and his learning of street announcement participated but also passersby joined politics. A year before this first campaign, he partici- them as they painted. Print and TV media were also pated in a popular mobilization that started using attracted by what quickly became a collective artistic public space also in an unauthorized manner. In action, covering the transformation of walls as they 2012, he transformed the political and social capital were being sprayed and hand painted. Abstract acquired under the tents of Change Square into an images of giant faces, lists with Yemeni names writ- artistic endeavor, inscribing his practice in a “poli- ten in ancient south Arabian alphabet, and colorful tics from below”15 approach that translated into an compositions appeared next to paintings that also “arts from below” campaign. This first campaign carried social comments. For instance, a child burn- also provoked changes in the way painting could be ing a gun, a simple drawing where a message in practiced, exhibited, and performed. Contrary to English declared “I don’t have a job” (Figure 4) or being secluded in a closed space or individually per- the word “jobless” written in Arabic highlighted the formed, paintings were all over the streets fully political impact that artistic expression in public signed and dated. places could have as devices to render people aware The brushes and the sprays used for these paint- of social problems. This use would later be deepened ings were temporarily substituted for wheat paste in the subsequent campaigns undertaken by Subay. during the summer of 2012. In this instance, Murad For “Color the Walls of your Street,” Subay con- Subay carried out a different project where he pasted ceived a campaign that was in his understanding a way photographs taken by his brother Jameel Subay. This to distance himself from politics, which he perceived time he did not post an announcement on Facebook as “disgusting” (qadhara). He wanted to beautify his or define his intervention as a “campaign,” but he city at a time when power struggles disgusted him the chose images and walls that were all but politically most and he chose to do so through painting on walls neutral. The images he enlarged and borrowed from Alviso-Marino 7 his photographer brother were used to show solidarity and visually enact social commentary. In fact, Jameel Subay had published or exhibited some of these images in order to question poverty, exclusion and war, and the ways in which attention can be deviated from these issues. By pasting images of such content on the walls of the city, the issues they pointed out acquired a greater visibility in a context that made them all the more pertinent. Learning from the Internet the characteristics of the technique, Murad pasted three photographs: one portraying a street cleaner mostly known as akhdam,16 which served to show solidarity with them at a moment when they undertook a strike (Figure 5). Another representing a man carrying aloe leaves was pasted Figure 5. Courtesy of Jameel Subay. on the Police Academy walls where a bomb attack claimed by al-Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula had taken place in July, killing cadets who were leaving “enforced disappearance,” and the date it happened, the academy at the moment of the explosion. Next to all both in Arabic and English (Figure 6). The first the photograph, he wrote “aloe to their souls,” with stencils were sprayed in the early morning for fear of the intent to offer “a present to the souls of the dead repressive reactions, but as the campaign grew in as one offers flowers in a funeral” (M. Subay, per- numbers of participants and media coverage Murad sonal communication, 7 August 2012). The third changed tactics. He then chose to ask for permission image exhibited a person sitting on the floor, the to the authorities in order to stencil walls placed back facing the viewer, which in Murad’s eyes along main roads. In some instances, the stencils served to point out when Yemenis “give their back were erased or painting washed, only to be quickly and ignore what is happening” (M. Subay, personal restored by participants who joined Subay in this communication, 7 August 2012). These three images campaign. The fear was justified in a context where were signed and dated under Murad and Jameel the military, suspected of having participated to the Subay’s names and did not capture any media atten- disappearances, was largely present in the streets of tion (Figure 5). Sana’a. As Murad Subay stated, “it is a sensitive Following this project, Subay carried out a new issue for them, it makes them fearful. The eyes of campaign that started in September 2012 and contin- those who disappeared watch the killers, the officials ued through 2013. Named “The Walls Remember with blood-soaked hands, right in front of their Their Faces” (al-judran tatadhakar wajuhahum), it houses” (Al-Shamahi, 2013). Subay was authorized was used to point out a political issue: the forced dis- to spray his stencils and was joined by a large crowd appearance of activists, journalists, and citizens in of participants. His campaign not only served to general from the 1970s until today.17 The govern- point out an issue of social concern but also trig- ment, both in former North (then presided over by gered a larger process of collective memory recov- Saleh) and South Yemen, but also Saleh’s most ery. Participants in the campaign stenciled the recent regime, are suspected of being responsible for images, but they also provided pieces of information the disappearance of an unknown number of citi- about the disappeared citizens or photographs to pro- zens. As he did for his first campaign, Murad duce new stencils that ended up reaching the hun- announced it on Facebook and recurred to the dreds. They commented and exchanged information Internet to learn about the use of stencils. Thus, he about their own disappeared family members, par- conceived of stencils that included a portrait of the ticipated in arguments with the military present in person who disappeared, his name, a line saying the streets, and became agents in the process of 8 Communication and the Public 00(0)

Figure 6. Courtesy of Murad Subay. finding more information about the whereabouts of institution while simultaneously continuing to their family members or acquaintances. develop new campaigns. This campaign was clearly a contentious one, Among the changes that have taken place from making claims and demands to the authorities in one campaign to the next, the most important has power and having several consequences for people been the clearer definition his street art projects have aside from the participants themselves. The creation acquired as political sensitizing devices. From the of a special committee to investigate and file cases first campaign to the most recent one, the political of enforced disappearance, the discussion over the scope of his artistic practice has been consolidated. elaboration of a transitional justice law, and the For instance, the campaign titled “12 Hours” (12 attention of the Human Rights Minister to promote sâ‘a) was designed by Subay to “pass messages of debate at the institutional level are some of the con- political content,” hoping that his work would have sequences that resulted from the stencil campaign. an impact locally and also internationally. He chose Although this issue had been raised previously in for this project the busy commercial streets of 2007 (Farhat, 2013), it was the stencil campaign that Zubayri and Haddah, filling the walls with images produced the most important impact via public par- spray and brush painted, accompanied by a text writ- ticipation and the recovery of collective memory, ten in Arabic and in English. Other painters joined resulting in inclusion of the issue in the political him, both male and female, reaching a total of six. agenda and contributing to finding alive some of the This campaign unfolded as a series in which each forcibly disappeared.18 The result was a campaign intervention in the public space corresponded to one that, initiated by a painter, gave rise to an unintended precise hour that was inscribed in a stencil showing collective action with consequences never initially the time. For a year, between 2013 and 2014, the imagined. interventions or “Hours” painted on the walls The large participation that accompanied Murad directed attention toward specific subjects such as Subay’s campaigns as well as the media coverage arms proliferation, sectarianism, kidnapping of for- he benefited from encouraged him to transform his eigners, trampling of the nation, drone attacks, pov- practice and even teach his technique in a more erty, civil war, corruption, or social marginalization, institutionalized way. In May 2013, he conducted a among others (Figure 7). For instance, the “eight- workshop at the French Institute in Sana’a where hour,” which Murad planned for 6 March 2014, was he taught students how to draw, cut, and spray sten- dedicated in his own words “to paint the faces of the cils that reproduced the faces of poets, writers, victims who were killed at Aurdhy Hospital after a thinkers, or, more generally, local and international terrorist attack claimed by Al Qaeda Arabian prominent figures, whose portraits were then spray Peninsula, or maybe I should say after the terrorist painted on the walls of the French Institute. Only massacre” (M. Subay, personal communication, 5 temporarily, he concealed his practice inside an March 2013) (Figure 7). His hope was to paint on the Alviso-Marino 9

Figure 7. Courtesy of Murad Subay. walls of the Aurdhy Hospital itself, and since he con- state-making with a symbol commemorating that sidered this a politically sensitive action, he requested 3000 years ago “the tribes in Yemen wanted to make authorization that was denied by the Ministry of a state and they united their gods, the star, the moon Defense, deciding then to find other suitable walls. and the sun” in one god that is “Elmuqah” (M. Subay, The “12 Hours” campaign ended on the 1 July 2014, personal communication, 26 January 2015). At the with a stencil that reproduced Subay and another beginning of the campaign, Subay feared that painter, a list of all the accomplished hours, and the Huthis would prevent him from continuing Murad writing “we won’t be silenced.” Following with the project, but he still planned to put up more this campaign, he traveled to Italy in November sculptures on the streets. Ultimately, however, the 2014 to receive the Art for Peace award from the deterioration of the political situation interrupted Veronesi Foundation. He then returned to Yemen and this project and the war, and the lack of electricity used the money he received to work on another made it impossible for him to continue (M. Subay, unprecedented project he formulated as a sculpture personal communication, 2015). campaign. During the period from the end of “12 Hours” In January 2015, a month before President Abd- campaign in July 2014 through the beginning early Rabbu Mansour Hadi escaped house arrest and Huthi 2015, Subay’s artistic trajectory was marked by a rebels took over power, Subay together with a group number of opportunities to exhibit his work outside of artists and activists put the first (and only) sculp- of Yemen. For instance, in September 2014, he exhib- ture of his fourth campaign in the middle of a com- ited street art works in an art center in the United mercial street of Sana’a. The sculpture evoked an States and abstract paintings in a gallery in Kuwait. ancient symbol, “Elmuqah,” related to national In the United States, this opportunity took place unity. Subay wanted to stress Yemenis’ expertise at through his political work: the stencils and paintings 10 Communication and the Public 00(0) he made for “12 Hours” were reproduced within the walls of the Helen Day Art Center in Vermont. The title of the exhibition, “Unrest: Art, Activism & Revolution,” aimed to reflect in the words of the curator “the impact artists have on the political and social reform of countries like Egypt, Yemen, Israel, Palestine, Iran and the United States” (Moore, 2014). According to the description of the exhibition on the art center’s website, this exhibition “looks at artists as activists, revolutionaries and visionaries” (Moore, 2014). This collective exhibition, featuring internationally renowned artists such as Iranian Shirin Neshat and Egyptian artist Lara Baladi, gave Murad’s Figure 8. “Ruins” campaign. work a visibility that values the political content of Courtesy of Murad Subay, June 2015, Bani Hawat. art. Such was not the case with the work he exhibited in Kuwait at the Contemporary Art Platform (CAP). In Kuwait, the exhibition featured his most abstract was awarded the “2016 Freedom of Expression Arts work, devoid of any political content, with other sim- Award” by the Index on Censorship organization ilar works made by other artists whose background or in the United Kingdom. This campaign explicitly country of origin could not be established (M. Subay, exposes war crimes and focuses on giving visibility 2014). to the lives lost due to the bombings of the Saudi-led The first of these exhibitions can be identified coalition. In Sana’a, as in other parts of the country, with a dynamic of artification and thus interpreted as the bombings have left whole districts in ruins. an opportunity to include street art as an artistic Subay painted 27 flowers on a wall next to the ruins object within spaces that recognize it as such. These that remain after a missile killed 27 people, includ- experiences that bring international visibility seem to ing 15 children, in Bani Hawat, close to Sana’a be opportunities seized by Subay when they arise but (M. Subay, personal communication, 11 June 2015) do not guide his practice, which is centered in the (Figure 8). Two days later, one of the biggest explo- street. The fact that public space is privileged within sions caused by air attacks took place in the capital. his trajectory reflects a deliberate choice to inscribe Murad and his friends went to the scene and made his work in mainly noncommercial places with the paintings on ruined walls where dozens of people aim of reaching a local public and creating aware- were killed near the mountain Faj Attan. ness, engagement, and participation around political Throughout all five of Subay’s campaigns, issues through artistic interventions. These opportu- certain elements converge and others fluctuate. nities to access visibility (through exhibiting outside Common to all is the use of public space and of col- of Yemen) and to reach a certain level of recognition lective initiatives aimed not only at painters but to (winning prizes) also suggest that the politicization encourage public and unanticipated participation. of art when it is associated with the countries which, In all cases Murad paid for materials from his own following the 2011 revolutionary period, saw their pocket. When approached by family and friends on populations mobilize for regime change in authori- the financial issue, he has only accepted help in tarian contexts, is a viable way to gain access to the form of painting supplies and, of course, par- visibility; valorization; and, potentially, social, eco- ticipation. He contends that the success of these nomic, and artistic recognition. campaigns resides in economic independence. Such visibility was noticeable during Subay’s lat- Equally self-financed are the campaign participants, est campaign, “Ruins,” which began in May 2015 who often offer materials that are shared by Subay and continued until 2017, in the middle of which he and the rest of the painters. Furthermore, the choice Alviso-Marino 11 of the walls and the streets is also a central common I think the similarities between our work are that we feature of Subay’s interventions, highlighting the both use the stencil technique, and also we both paint stakes of territorial appropriation. The streets are about political issues and issues that concern the chosen in order to grant greater visibility or to pro- majority of people […] I don’t really think people in vide the artistic intervention with a peculiar mean- Yemen know who Banksy is, most of them don’t really follow-up with the art news in the rest of the ing. A wall can thus be selected due to the symbolic globe. It was only during the “12 Hours” campaign meaning of the street where it is located, as emblem- when I was compared to him. I don’t know if atic spots associated with the mobilizations of 2011 the global media appreciated my work more after or as destroyed walls that point out at the violence of the comparison, but I do know that the Yemeni an ongoing war. The issue of space also informs an street wasn’t affected by it. (M. Subay, personal element that appears to be fluctuating in Murad’s communication, 5 March 2014) projects: the question of painting in authorized or unauthorized places. In this vein, the first and the There are several differences ranging from the most last campaigns did not imply a need for permission obvious ones, such as experience in the field, which and largely took place on unauthorized walls. Since Subay clarifies saying that “Banksy is an expert in the second campaign, Murad mixed the use of unau- what he does and I’m still taking my first steps in thorized walls with permission from the authorities. this field” (M. Subay, personal communication, 5 This strategy was present in the realization of one March 2014). The most important difference with particular intervention within the “12 Hours” cam- Banksy—but also with the type of street art that is paign, which was planned to take place on walls being “artified” in Europe and in the Americas—is that were later denied by the government. The the fact that Subay’s campaigns are collective pro- demand of permission seems to articulate around the jects, conceived to provoke the public not only to perception Murad has of the risks his actions might look at walls in the streets in a new way but also to take in terms of the political claims he makes. participate in this redefinition of public space.20 As Finally, the issue of the effects achieved by these Subay stated, while Banksy paints alone, “we paint campaigns appears as always unexpected. The case together with a large group of people, whether they of the stencils portraying disappeared citizens has are artists or not, and the work takes the form of been so far the only one that generated a collective campaigns” (M. Subay, personal communication, action with consequences at the institutional level, 5 March 2014). leaving the possibility open for future interventions From a sociological point of view, these cam- to generate such changes or to be conceived with this paigns can be analyzed as incubators of collective possibility in mind. action or as in the case of “The Walls Remember Their Faces” as instances of loose forms of collective action. The capacity of street art to be used as a sen- Conclusion sitizing device used for political awareness that can Since the summer of 2013, Subay’s work has been effectively mobilize people, turning into a pacifist qualified as Banksy-esque murals.19 As he explained, form of contentious, collective action inductive of Subay started to read about stencil techniques dur- changes both at the street and at the institutional ing his second campaign, “The Walls Remember level, is definitely at the core of the unprecedented Their Faces,” and it was during that time that he “got case offered by Murad Subay’s campaigns. If a cer- to know and admire Banksy’s work” (M. Subay, per- tain level of attention has been drawn to street art sonal communication, 5 March 2014). The social used as a sensitizing device for political awareness in and political commentary that characterizes the revolutionary contexts such as Egypt, Tunisia, Libya, British street artist’s work might be the only element or Bahrain, the Yemeni case provides the opportunity in common with Subay’s practice. In Subay’s own to question the scope of such practice as a repertoire words: of action. 12 Communication and the Public 00(0)

More generally, these campaigns have acted as Finally, issues of anonymity need to be pointed effective devices for bolstering political awareness out since the omission of such a practice is simulta- using public space, provoking the participation of neously a singularity of Yemeni street art, a contrib- the public and “causing/inciting affective reactions uting element to the professionalization of young that foster and extend the debate about subjects artists such as Murad Subay and, more generally, to worth of moral and political concern” (Traïni, 2009, the transformation of this practice into an artistic one p. 20). The fact that Murad Subay was rapidly joined inside the Yemeni context. The myriad of images by teenagers, young artists, workers, intellectuals, shared through Facebook, Twitter, and Subay’s web- and activists, and progressively by passersby and site and available to view in the transformation of even policemen or the military at work in the streets, streets in Sana’a into an open museum allow us to is also linked to practices observed at Change Square observe that almost all the street art works were in 2011. The fact that all sorts of people used public signed and dated. Since he first started painting the places to openly claim demands was definitely not walls, Murad provided a model and also structured new to Yemen but that people did so in order to con- the practice: by signing and dating each one of his test and express critiques that were being openly street art pieces in the same way he signed his can- public and visually translated into contentious artis- vases, he was setting a precedent that ended up being tic practices grew since the establishment of the followed by a great number of the street painters that Square. The fact that these practices were no longer responded to his invitation. While the stencils of restricted to the Square and that people felt free to “The Walls Remember Their Faces” have not been put colors to the walls of their streets without being signed, he has been publicly and recognizably linked officially authorized to do so was relatively new. If to the campaign he also initiated. Both the signatures in previous years, artists had hung mural paintings in and the public visibility of the artist relatively distin- the capital’s walls to express political solidarity to a guish this practice from European, North or South cause, it has never been a practice perceived as pop- American graffiti, and street art where anonymity is ular and collective until the experiences launched by almost essential due to the illegality of these forms Murad Subay. of expression. However, as argued by Marisa In this light, the popular support and participation Leibaut, “the anonymity of the practice has been have been distinctive elements of the campaigns, progressively transformed in that part of the world linking them to street politics and taking them to a mainly due to the artification of street art” (Heinich new level of artistic expression made accessible for & Shapiro, 2012, p. 160) and its entrance into galler- people and made by people. Although this article has ies, museums, and auction houses. not examined the reception, the audiences, or the In the case of Yemen—in times of revolutionary role of social media, it is possible to assert that the upheaval, political transition, and war—this precau- publicity, commentary, visibility, and appreciation tion seemed unnecessary. By signing street art works, displayed in the media coverage that followed the Subay symbolically changed the scope of the practice campaigns contributed in enlarging the participation at the same time that he started to make a name for and enabled in conserving the paintings on the himself. In this vein, numerous foreign television walls.21 At the same time that this visibility contrib- channels as well as Yemeni and foreign newspapers uted to the recognition of the practice and its practi- gave the walls altogether with Subay’s project and his tioners, it has also highlighted the walls as spaces of signature, unprecedented visibility. While this visibil- struggle where discontent against these images has ity gained him recognition and support for his pro- also been present.22 The walls and streets where jects, he rejected any marketing of his work, and in these works are located have become sites of discur- turn, he used the publicity to increase the participation sive interaction characteristic of public spheres, fur- of young painters, amateurs, and any passerby in what ther pointing out that “politics is not only a salon ended up being a very collective practice of public art. activity but above all a street practice” (Crettiez & However unexpected the scope of this practice Piazza, 2014, p. 123). can be, limitations are also present. If during his first Alviso-Marino 13 campaigns, Murad Subay was more assertive of collective actions for the sake of memory recovery, the capacity that art can have in changing society are central to today’s institutional and noninstitu- (M. Subay, personal communication, 9 October tional politics, Murad Subay’s street art campaigns 2012), since his “12 Hours” campaign his approach might be one of many possible steps toward popular has turned more skeptical, plausibly also due to the and innovative ways of engaging participation and political environment of his country and the escala- provoking social and political changes. tion of violence leading to the war. As he has pointed out, the limitations of art as an inductor of change Notes are important and that is probably why he did not 1. What I study are interventions in the public space initi- conceive of his campaigns as contentious collective ated by a painter, joined by other painters, and largely actions from their inception. In this vein, some of by a public not specifically related to visual arts. I use them have turned into this type of action, such as the term ‘street art’ in its broadest sense to refer to “The Walls Remember Their Faces,” while others, mural painting, spray painting, wheat pasting/fly post- such as “Color the Walls” or “12 Hours,” have not. In ing, freehand drawing and stenciling. I consider these relation to “12 Hours,” Murad expressed awareness forms of expression socially invested objects that of the almost impossibility that his visual devices mark the space in an iconographic manner. could make any change in politics, especially in 2. Saleh formally gained power in 1978, when he terms of reducing drone attacks, one of the issues he became president of the former Yemen Arab Republic deals with through this campaign. In an article writ- (YAR). Upon unification in 1990, he became president of the current Republic of Yemen until 2012. ten by journalist Tik Root and dedicated to describ- 3. This term refers to the means of action used in con- ing the use of poetry and street art against US drone tentious politics. See Tilly (1981). attacks in Yemen, he cited Subay’s skepticism about 4. See in the case of Yemen: Wedeen (2008) and the capacity art can have to induce policy changes. Messick B, in Salvatore and Levine (2005, pp. 207– He then quoted Murad saying: “the United States’ 229). Other works include Eickelman and Anderson counterterrorism strategy will likely ‘carry on’ (1999). regardless; maybe I don’t expect any action [from 5. I purposely understand collective action in a loose the US], but I will always keep hoping” (Root, sense, as a concerted action through which peo- 2013). If internationally the scope of Subay’s cam- ple try to attain shared goals. For a more structured paigns is limited, locally he has been able to mobi- definition, refer to Daniel Cefaï (2007) and Fillieule, lize people both to activate collective memory and to Agrikoliansky, and Sommier (2010). 6. This approach is embedded in the works of Aminzade induce changes that affected people outside his cam- and McAdam (2001) and Goodwing, Jasper, and paign like in the case of the disappeared citizens. Polletta (2001). Although the scope of the changes induced 7. I lived in Yemen from May 2008 until March 2011 remains unseen, the fact that actions have been taken in order to conduct my doctoral fieldwork. For this to legally and bureaucratically treat and file disap- article, I conducted interviews with Murad Subay pearance cases is as important as the popular impli- through Skype and e-mails, between 2012 and 2017. cation in identification of the people disappeared. 8. On the role of photography during the revolution, see Similar popular campaigns including street art have Alviso-Marino (2013 and 2016a). been undertaken, for instance, in Argentina, where 9. In Egypt, for example, see Klaus (2014). also the lack of juridical actions triggered alternative 10. Also in the northern city of Saada and surroundings mechanisms of collective memory recovery and areas, writings on the walls were also used to reenact the mobilization of the Huthi rebels. In this case, denunciation.23 Similar to Yemen, in Argentina, the the freehand writing made with spray paint echoes “desaparecidos” (the disappeared) have been miss- the slogans of the “Believing youth” movement (al- ing since the 1970s and also instances of this type of shabab al-mu’min): “God is great! Death to America illegal state action have been used until recently and Israel!” by current democratic governments. If in Argentina, 11. I consider the use of “tags” (or signature of the the role of popular justice initiatives, as well as author) as a preservation of the author’s identity. It is 14 Communication and the Public 00(0)

a fictitious name or pseudonym and thus a technique Than In” during October 2013, the only interaction of anonymity. with the public was to provoke curiosity and expecta- 12. For a short overview of the history of modern and tion, lightly question the commercialization of street contemporary visual arts infrastructures in Yemen, art and its artification, and largely to provide with refer to Alviso-Marino (2016b). a background against which people could take pic- 13. In a report about attacks against pacifist demonstra- tures of themselves. While these interventions were tors Human Rights Watch counts 250 dead in Sanaa, taking place, Murad Subay did his “5th Hour” on 31 Taez, and Aden in 2011. Human Rights Watch, October 2013 to denounce the use of US drones in “World report 2012: Yemen,” retrieved from http:// Yemen. His painting was then a clear political device www.hrw.org. to continue and foster by symbolic means the mobi- 14. This campaign echoes what Erique Klaus defines lization against drones carried by Yemeni citizens on after Pierre Nora as “places of memory” in the the streets. Egyptian street art context of 2011. Thus, he refers 21. By conservation I mean simply not erasing and not to places that became iconic in the unfolding of the painting over. I do not mean campaigns to preserve urban revolt (Klaus, 2014). The status of “memo- the graffiti like the ones that have taken place in rial sites” acquired through street art, especially in Cairo, namely, in relation to the walls of the American Cairo’s street, Mohammed Mahmoud has also been University of Cairo or Mohammed Mahmoud street. studied, for instance, by Carle and Huguet (2013). 22. For instance, in Taez, the walls were vandalized 15. This notion refers to noninstitutional politics with black painting covering large murals reproduc- where the relation between different social actors ing works by Hashem Ali, considered the father of is approached from the point of view of those sub- modern painting in Yemen and deceased in 2009. To ordinated to power instead of from those who have view images of the campaign “Colors of life” in Taez: power. Bayart, Mbembe, and Toulabor (2008, p. 20). http://www.al-monitor.com/pulse/contents/articles/ 16. Literally “servant,” referring to Yemenis mainly of galleries/yemen-graffiti-vandalism-or-high-art.html. African descent that occupy the lowest position in Also, the faces of some of the disappeared stenciled the social hierarchy. In a less pejorative manner, this by Murad Subay had been a site of visual struggle highly vulnerable social category is labeled “margin- in the capital Sana’a. http://www.yementimes.com/ alized” (muhamasheen). en/1613/report/1481/%E2%80%9CThe-Walls- 17. Following the definition provided by Amnesty Remember%E2%80%9D-graffiti-puts-a-face-to- International, an enforced disappearance Yemen%E2%80%99s-forcibly-disappeared.htm. 23. It is interesting to note that in the case of Argentina, takes place when a person is arrested, detained or where artistic devices have been used in the public abducted by the state or agents acting for the state, space, similar analysis have been developed to the who then deny that the person is being held or ones being drawn using the idea of “palimpseste” in conceal their whereabouts, placing them outside the case of the work done by Carle and Huguet or the protection of the law. The disappeared person approaching space in terms of “places of memory” is often tortured and in constant fear for their life. like Klaus does, all of them while studying Cairo’s street art. In this respect, refer to the work of Cambra Retrieved from http://www.amnesty.org/en/enforced- Badii and Dowd (2012). disappearances. 18. Such is the case of Mathar al-Iryani, one of the activists disappeared in the 1980s and found alive in 2013. References As Nabil Subay (2013) reported, Iryani’s family “reinvigorated the search for Mathar in December Al-Shamahi, A. (2013, October 31). Yemeni street 2012 after receiving a phone call from a political artist uses Sana’a walls to remember the disap- activist in Sana’a involved in ‘The walls remember peared. The Guardian. Retrieved from https://www. their faces’ campaign.” theguardian.com/world/2013/oct/31/yemeni-street- 19. See Craig (2013), Al-Shamahi (2013), Zarkan (2013), artist-disappeared-sanaa-walls and Root (2013). Alviso-Marino, A. (2013). Soutenir la mobilisation poli- 20. In this sense, while Banksy did complete surprise tique par l’image. Photographie contestataire au interventions in New York City titled “Better Out Yémen [Supporting political mobilization through Alviso-Marino 15

images. Contentious photography in Yemen]. Craig, I. (2013, May 27). Yemen’s own Banksy. The Participations, 3, 747–771. Times. Retrieved from https://www.thetimes.co.uk/ Alviso-Marino, A. (2016a). « Faire d’un lieu un sym- article/yemens-own-banksy-pays-tribute-to-protesters- bole politique. La photographie engagée sur la nwcbtt5jjm0 Place du Changement à Sanaa » [Turn a place into Crettiez, X., & Piazza, P. (2014). Murs rebelles. a political symbol. Politically engaged photogra- Iconographie nationaliste contestataire: Corse, phy in Sana’a’s Change Square], In H. Combes, D. Pays Basque, Irlande du Nord [Rebellious walls. Garibay & C. Goirand (dir.), Les lieux de la colère. Iconography nationalist protestor: Corsica, Basque Occuper l’espace pour contester, de Madrid à Sanaa Country, Northern Ireland]. Paris, France: Karthala. [The sites of anger. Contentious occupation of the Eickelman, D. F., & Anderson, J. W. (1999). New media space, from Madrid to Sana’a] (pp. 35–70). Paris: in the Muslim world: The emerging public sphere. Karthala. Bloomington: Indiana University Press. Alviso-Marino, A. (2016b). Making stories visible: Farhat, J. (2013, January 9). Justice for the disappeared Institutions and art histories in Yemen. In A. Downey in Yemen? Al-Akhbar English. (Ed.), Future imperfect: Contemporary art practices Fillieule, O., Agrikoliansky, E., & Sommier, I. (2010). and cultural institutions in the Middle East (pp. 98– Penser les mouvements sociaux. Conflits sociaux 106). Berlin, Germany: Sternberg Press. et contestations dans les societés contemporaries Alviso-Marino, A. (2017). “Femmes, peintres, et de [Think social movements. Social conflicts and Hodeidah”: le collectif artistique Halât Lawnîa comme Disputes in contemporary societies]. Paris, France: “espace libre” au Yémen (2005–2011) [Women, La Découverte. painters and from Hodeidah: The art collective Halât Goodwing, J., Jasper, J. M., & Polletta, F. (2001). Lawnîa as a ‘free space’ in Yemen (2005–2011)]. In Passionate politics: Emotions and social move- F. Daghmi & M. Blin (Eds.), Arts Contestataires. ments. Chicago, IL: The University of Chicago Rouen, France: PURH. Press. Aminzade, R., & McAdam, D. (2001). Emotions and con- Habermas, J. (2011). The structural transformation of the tentious politics. In R. R. Aminzade, et al. (Eds.), public sphere: An inquiry into a category of bour- Silence and voice in the study of contentious politics geois society. Cambridge, UK: Polity Press. (Original (pp. 14–50). Cambridge, UK: Cambridge University work published 1989) Press. Heinich, N., & Shapiro, R. (2012). De l’artification. Bayart, J. F., Mbembe, A., & Toulabor, C. (2008). Le Enquêtes sur le passage à l’art [Of the artification. politique par le bas en Afrique noire. Contributions Investigations into the transition to art]. Paris, France: a une problématique de la démocratie [The from the Editions EHESS. bottom in black Africa. contributions to a problem of Honneth, A. (1995). The struggle for recognition: The democracy]. Paris, France: Karthala. moral grammar of social conflicts. Cambridge, UK: Bayat, A. (1997). Street politics: Poor people’s move- Polity Press. ments in Iran. New York, NY: Columbia University Klaus, E. (2014). Graffiti and urban revolt in Cairo. Built Press. Environment, 40, 14–33. Cambra Badii, I., & Dowd, A. (2012). La ciudad como Moore, R. (2014). Unrest: Art, Activism & Revolution. territorio de la memoria. Una vision a traves del arte Retrieved from http://www.helenday.com/exhibitions/ [The city as territory of memory. A vision through past/18-unrest (accessed 3 July 2015). art]. International Journal on Subjectivity, Politics Root, T. (2013, November 30). Yemen’s new ways of and the Arts, 8, 51–69. protesting drone strikes: Graffiti and poetry. Time. Carle, Z., & Huguet, F. (2013). Les graffitis de la rue Retrieved from http://world.time.com/2013/11/30/ Mohammed Mahmoud. Palimpseste De La Revolution yemens-new-ways-of-protesting-drone-strikes- Egyptienne? [Graffiti on the street Mohammed graffiti-and-poetry/ Mahmoud. Palimpsest of the Revolution Egyptian?] Salvatore, A., & Levine, M. (2005). Religion, social prac- Manuscript. tice, and contested hegemonies. Reconstructing the Cefaï, D. (2007). Pourquoi se mobilize-t-on? Les theo- public sphere in Muslim majority societies. New ries de l’action collective [Why do we mobilize? York, NY: Palgrave Macmillan. Theories of collective action]. Paris, France: La Subay, N. (2013, February 3). Disappeared under Yemen’s Découverte. Saleh, activist found alive decades later. Al Akhbar 16 Communication and the Public 00(0)

English. Retrieved from http://english.al-akhbar. Retrieved from http://www.lejournalinternational.fr/ com/node/14857 Murad-Sobay-le-Banksy-yemenite_a1456.html Subay, M. (2014). Murad Subay. Retrieved from https:// muradsubay.com/ Tilly, C. (1981, September). Nineteenth-century origins Author biography of our twentieth-century collective-action repertoire Anahi Alviso-Marino is a 2017 FMSH/CEFAS postdoc- (CRSO Working Paper No. 244). Ann Arbor: toral fellow and an associated researcher at the CESSP/ University of Michigan. France and CRAPUL/Switzerland. She obtained her Traïni, C. (2009). Émotions … Mobilisations! [Emotions doctorate in Political Science at the University Paris … Mobilizations!]. Paris, France: Presses de 1-Sorbonne and the University of Lausanne, researching Science Po. the political sociology of visual arts in Yemen. Her Traïni, C. (2016). The animal rights struggle an essay dissertation was awarded with the 2016 SAV Prize in historical sociology. Amsterdam: Amsterdam (Switzerland), and it also received honorable mentions University Press. from the jury of the 2016 Dissertation Prize on the Middle Wedeen, L. (2008). Peripheral visions: Publics, power, East and Muslim Worlds (IISMM and GIS), France, and and performance in Yemen. Chicago, IL: The from the 2017 Rhonda A. Saad Prize committee, United University of Chicago Press. States. Her current projects focus on archival and ethno- Zarkan, S. (2013, November 11). Murad Sobay, le Banksy graphic research in visual arts in Kuwait and Oman. yéménite [Murad Sobay, the Banksy Yemenite]. Le Her publications include peer-reviewed articles, popular Journal International [The International Journal]. pieces, book chapters, and curatorial projects.