If the People One Day Decide They Want Life

In: Bustan: the Middle East book review, Volume 8, Issue 2, p. 111-131

Abstract

Abstract
The Naked Blogger of Cairo explores "creative insurgency" during the Arab Spring and in the face of renewed repression. Kraidy explores diverse manifestations of artistic dissent—graffiti, murals, street theater, social media postings, physical gestures, and chants—particularly related to the body, of rulers and ruled, with humor and rage, hope and despair. His focal points are Tunisia, Egypt, and Syria, but his gaze encompasses wider repercussions in and outside the Arab world, the latter especially pertinent as key artists find themselves forced to leave home. How their work translates in exile, how it is valued in a world art market, and how some of it continues to live in virtual space even after erasure at home become challenges to those who seek to continue to struggle against authoritarianism.