Projects tagged "Middle East"

Drawing with gunpowder ink: Interview with Carlos Latuff
Practitioner:
Ana Barata (interviewer), Carlos Latuff (interviewed activist artist)
Date:
Oct 10 2012
In the context of the PhD research “Consciousness-raising: Activism in Digital Art” (by Ana Barata, Faculdade de Ciências Sociais e Humanas da UNL, Lisbon, Portugal) Carlos Latuff was interviewed concerning his political graphical work that focuses on present conflicts and issues.
Jesus: Creative Activist
Practitioner:
Jesus Christ, the disciples
Date:
Aug 23 0030
Regardless of one's spiritual ties (or lack thereof) to Christianity, all artistic activists can take a note or two from Jesus's playbook--the actions of "a radical Mediterranean Jewish peasant building a revolutionary movement two millennia ago."1.  Jesus: Media Mogul.  Jesus was a master of making a scene, ensuring that news would spread.  If he was around today, the media wouldn't be able to get enough of him.
Domestic Tension
Practitioner:
Wafaa Bilal
Date:
May 1 2007
Wafaa Bilal's childhood in Iraq was defined by the horrific rule of Saddam Hussein, two wars, a bloody uprising, and time spent interned in chaotic refugee camps in Kuwait and Saudi Arabia. Bilal eventually made it to the U.S. to become a professor and a successful artist, but when his brother was killed at a U.S. checkpoint in 2005, he decided to use his art to confront those in the comfort zone with the realities of life in a conflict zone.
HarassMap
Practitioner:
HarassMap
Date:
Jan 1 2012
Acknowledging that sexual harassment is a serious problem in Egypt, the volunteer based organization HarassMap has created a series of strategies -both on site and online- to stamp out the social acceptability of sexual harassment in the country.
Bombed-out Nativity Sculpture
Practitioner:
Tarek Salsaa
Date:
Dec 25 2023
This year, Bethlehem is sombre and quiet. There is no Christmas tree and there are no holiday lights or tourists to see them. Instead, the city of Jesus’s birth – which is in the middle of a war zone – is marking Christmas with a powerful and poignant message: solidarity with Palestine.
"From Wall Street to Cairo", featuring Fire in Cairo
Practitioner:
Matthew Conners, Photo Journalist by John Otis, Reporter
Date:
Apr 6 2016
Matthew Connors spent much of 2012 in Lower Manhattan making portraits of the protesters in the Occupy Wall Street movement. But a chance encounter during the course of that project made him do a 180-degree turn after meeting some Egyptian activists who had participated in a different uprising: the Jan. 25 revolution that led to the ousting of President Hosni Mubarak. They convinced Mr.
Dubai Man Aims to Enable Filmmaking Skills Among West Bank Youngsters
Practitioner:
Handheld Stories
Date:
Jul 4 2011
Youngsters on the West Bank will have the chance to benefit creatively from a new project this summer. From the beginning of July, Handheld Stories plans to teach filmmaking skills to groups between eight and 16 years old from youth centres and refugee camps in East Jerusalem, Nablus and Hebron, while also giving them video equipment, computers and software.
The Dark Side of Creative Activism - Sudanese Refugees in Tel Aviv
Practitioner:
Michael Ben-Ari and Itamar Ben-Gvir
Date:
Jun 12 2011
Unfortunately, those who struggle for a more equal and democratic society are not the only ones who can make use of creative forms of activism. The following example shows how creative strategies can also be employed by those who have less wholesome intentions in mind.
Al Kufiyyeh 3arabeyyeh (The Kufiyeh is Arab)
Practitioner:
Shadia Mansour
Date:
Sep 1 2011
Mansour began rapping in 2003 and has gained recognition in the Middle East, Europe and the United States for her own songs and collaborations with other artists. She performs wearing a traditional Palestinian thawb and has said that she considers herself to be part of a "musical intifada" against the occupation of Palestine, conservatism and oppression of women.
Afghan Activist Urges Taliban Engagement
Practitioner:
Female right activists
Date:
Feb 18 2023
ISLAMABAD — A prominent female rights activist in Afghanistan lambasted the global community Saturday for failing to come up with a plan or agreement on how to help her crisis-ridden country since the Taliban took control of it 18 months ago. Mahbouba Seraj, a Nobel Peace Prize nominee, spoke virtually from the Afghan capital, Kabul, to a town hall at the Munich Security Conference on prospects for her country under Taliban rule.
Beirut Graffiti Artist Uses His Murals to Unite A Fragmented City
Practitioner:
Yazan Halwani
Date:
Jan 1 2011
Yazan Halwani is a young Beiruti artist who paints murals of revered Lebanese and Arab figures on prominent walls in a bid to help overcome sectarianism in this fragmented city. “What I try to do,” he explains down a fuzzy line from Beirut, “is write the stories of the city, on its own walls – creating a memory for the city.”
Silent vigil at Saudi Embassy to Free Abdulhadi Al-Khawaja
Practitioner:
Front Line Defenders
Date:
Apr 10 2012
Former colleagues of Abdulhadi Al Khawaja from Front Line Defenders today held a silent vigil at the Embassy of Saudi Arabia in Dublin to urge the King of Saudi Arabia to use his influence with Bahrain to enable Abdulhadi to travel to Denmark for medical treatment.
Healing Torture Through Art
Practitioner:
Najah al-Bukai
Date:
Feb 1 2018
Najah al-Bukai cannot forget. As an accomplished artist in Syria before the war, Mr. Bukai had long thought his photographic memory was his greatest asset, allowing him to recreate scenes on his sketch pads and canvases days, months and even years after he witnessed them. But now, after he has survived two stretches in the Syrian government’s notorious detention centers, his sharp memories only serve to haunt him.
Spec Ops: The Line
Practitioner:
Walt Williams; Richard Pearsey
Date:
Jun 26 2012
Often in military style video games we kill without much regard for the enemy. They are faceless or stereotypical, the Nazi or evil Cold War–era Russian. They are enemies that were fought on the battlefields of great wars, or they are aliens that have no resemblance to humans save for a general humanoid form.
Path to Peace
Practitioner:
Tsameret Zamir
Date:
Jan 1 2012
About us "Path to Peace" - is a joint mosaic creation, by thousands of people, towards hope, love, and happiness among all people. The creation is placed upon the border wall that divides the Gaza Strip and Israel, adjacent to the homes of Moshav Netiv HaAsara. The creation is seen from both sides of the wall, spreads on the gray security wall and completely changes the place's atmosphere.
Poetry and silence: Iran's Kurds tread the line between art and activism
Practitioner:
Iranian Kurds
Date:
Feb 26 2016
In a sleepy town in Iranian Kurdistan, people take off their winter coats. It is evening, and outside one can just about discern the silhouettes of the mountains that lead to the Turkish and Iraqi borders. Inside, some 60 people fill the small community centre with a clammy heat. But it is not just warmth they are after. They have come for poetry.
Picasso In Palestine
Practitioner:
Picasso
Date:
Jun 27 2011
Last Friday, Pablo Picasso’s Buste de Femme, (1943), was put on display at the International Art Academy Palestine in Ramallah. Marking the very first time that the Picasso’s work has been shown in Palestine and as the result of a loan request to the Van Abbemuseum in Eindhoven, this project is the tenacious vision of artist Khaled Hourani (also the Artistic Director of IAAP).
Why Is Iran’s Regime So Afraid of This Song?
Practitioner:
Shervin Hajipour
Date:
Sep 27 2022
“Baraye,” the anthem of Iran’s “Woman, Life, Liberty” protest movement—a song woven together entirely from a Twitter hashtag trend in which Iranians express their investment in the current protests—continues to unite Iranians in their opposition to the Islamic Republic several weeks after it was first released online.
Fashion label Vaqar is dispelling conservative perceptions of what Iranian fashion looks like
Practitioner:
Vaqar
Date:
Feb 4 2021
Iran is a nation with a fine art tradition that stretches back thousands of years; its reputation for contemporary fashion design less so. Writing that from an external, Western perspective may read unduly dismissive, but it’s a statement that holds up even from within the country’s borders, Shiva Vaqar assures us. “Being a designer has never really been considered a serious job here,” she says over the phone from Tehran.
Burkaphilia
Practitioner:
Behnaz Babazadeh
Date:
Jun 1 2012
When Behnaz Babazadeh was young, her family moved from Afghanistan to the US. She loved almost everything about her new home — especially America’s amazing selection of candy — but she also loved wearing her familiar pink-flowered headscarf, which she’d grown used to wearing as part of her school uniform in her old home.
Concrete Creek
Practitioner:
Shai Zakai
Date:
Mar 24 2001
Utilizing excess construction cement that was being dumped into a creek near Beit Shemesh, Israel, Shai Zakai harnessed the unclaimed cement to create an art installation that brought awareness to the ongoing pollution. The project was entitled, 'Concrete Creek' aimed to bring the community closer to their environment. Zakai installed cement flags and set them among the river.
Face 2 Face
Practitioner:
JR
Date:
Mar 4 2007
In 2007, anonymous French photographer JR embarked on the Face2Face project - the largest unauthorized photo exhibition ever conceived. JR and his collaborator Marco engaged Israelis and Palestinians employed in the same profession to be photographed making funny faces. They then enlarged the photos to grand proportions and wheat pasted juxtaposed portraits onto both sides of the security Separation Wall and in surrounding cities.
Guerilla Projections for Palestine
Practitioner:
Decolonize This Place, Within Our Lifetime
Date:
May 13 2021
As the death toll from Israel’s attacks on the besieged Gaza Strip continues to rise, a guerrilla projection on May 13, 2021 illuminated a building in Brooklyn’s Dumbo neighborhood with messages of solidarity with Palestinians.
Walkthrough
Practitioner:
Walid Raad
Date:
Oct 12 2015
MoMA presents the first comprehensive American survey of the leading contemporary artist Walid Raad (b. 1967, Lebanon), featuring his work in photography, video, sculpture, and performance from the last 25 years.
Welcome to Palestine
Practitioner:
Palestine Justice Network
Date:
Apr 15 2012
Welcome To Palestine by Saed Bannoura Israeli daily Haaretz, reported that 470 of the 1200 persons that Israel blacklisted as “pro-Palestinian” and part of the Welcome To Palestine campaign, were not activists; two of them were a French diplomat and his wife.

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