A call to action

"This is an appeal to help save lives."

The prominent street-artist Ganzeer recently announced the Mad Graffiti Week initiative encouraging people in Egypt and beyond to take to the streets from January 13-25 to raise awareness about the situation in Egypt: "Our only hope right now is to destroy the military council using the weapon of art."

As I

I haven't actually seen the posters on the streets of Cairo, but they have been circulating online. Get ready.
http://ganzeer.blogspot.com/2011/12/mad-graffiti-week-jan-13-25-appeal-to.html

This is an appeal to help save lives. The Egyptian Military Council has unleashed a brutal crackdown on peaceful protests by the Egyptian people, calling for the resignation of the military council and a cancellation of the sham elections that they’ve been running under their supervision. Soldiers have shown us no mercy, hitting fallen women with their batons, stomping on skulls with their boots, and shooting unarmed civilians dead. I’ve seen this happen with my own eyes and was unable to stop it. It’s a soul-shattering pain like no other.

The lies being disseminated by military-controlled media are as equally painful. Nothing hurts more than such shameless injustice. I fear the military’s strategy will only lead my country to an armed civil war. In an effort to keep our struggle peaceful, I hear by call on artists everywhere to support the Egyptian revolution with their art. As the genius that is Alan Moore once said, “[a satire] destroys you in the eyes of your community, it shows you up as ridiculous, lame, pathetic, worthless, in the eyes of your community, in the eyes of your family, in the eyes of your children, in the eyes of yourself, and if it's a particularly good bard, and he's written a particularly good satire, then three hundred years after you're dead, people are still gonna be laughing."

Our only hope right now is to destroy the military council using the weapon of art. From January 13 to 25, the streets of Egypt will see an explosion of anti-military street-art. If you are a street artist elsewhere in the world, please do what you can in your city to help us. Even if you are not a street-artist. If you’re a comicbook artist, a musician, or filmmaker, whatever artistic talent you have can be of big help. If you can do something before the designated date, please do! We need all the help we can get.

Finding “inspiration” is not at all difficult. A quick visit to scaf-crimes.blogspot.com will do the trick. On behalf of Egypt’s street-art community, allow me to thank anybody in the world willing to help. Your art may very well save lives. 

If you need any instruction, here is "a how-to-graffiti guide for those who scheme and those who dream."
http://crimethinc.com/tools/downloads/pdfs/walls_are_alive.pdf

Dragons

Ever city must have its own football team, but more importantly, its own football fan club. Ismailia has the yellow dragons. There are murals around the city honoring the team. Street curbs and trees* are painted the team's colors-- yellow and blue.

*tree trunks throughout Egypt are painted as a form of insecticide. In Cairo many tree trucks were painted red, black, and white after the Revolution.
I noticed this form of insecticide during my travels in India.

Ismailia, E-day

This photograph was taken in Midan El Mamar, the center of the demonstrations during the 25 January Revolution in Ismailia. There are still military tanks stationed in the Midan.

Ismailia is half way between Port Said (to the north, on the Medterrain Sea) and Suez (to the south) and is the base of Egypt's second army. Ismailia is the hometown of Hasan Al-Bana, founder of the Muslim Brotherhood. Compared to Cairo, Ismailia is a small city (10-20 million vs. less than 1 million).
Nicholas Kristof recently reported from the city.
http://www.nytimes.com/2011/12/11/opinion/sunday/kristof-Democracy-in-the-Muslim-Brotherhoods-Birthplace.html

I traveled to Ismailia yesterday to witness the second-round of Egyptian parliamentary elections taking place in the city. I was surprised by the general lack of election-fever in the city. From what I observed, there was no campaigning outside of polling stations-- which is illegal by Egyptian law, but nevertheless took place during the first round of elections in Cairo. Like Cairo, however, there were campaigns posters dotting all of the walls in the city too.

I was surprised by the reach of the April 6th movement's "White Circle, Black Circle" campaign in the city. I had only seen black circles in Cairo, not white circles. In contrast, both black and white circles were spray-painted in abundance around the city center. The circles were not necessarily painted on campaign posters.
http://www.thedailynewsegypt.com/egypt-elections-2011/muslim-brotherhood-stronghold-sees-possible-vote-split-dp1.html

Vote for nobody

Polls begin in 9 governates tomorrow. While Cairo had its elections 2 weeks ago, election-fever is still palpable here: Giza, located on the other side of the Nile (where the pyramids are) and just two metro stops from downtown Cairo, will have its elections tomorrow.

Located on Mohamed Mahmoud St., around the corner from Midan Tahrir, this is the first election related street art that I've seen in Egypt.

Voter turn-out was remarkably lower during the run-off elections last week than during the initial polls. I hope that the voter turn out is high tomorrow and Egyptians exercise their right to vote and duty to shape their country. A general sense of excitement surrounded the first polls and I hope that that excitement returns-- after all there are still three rounds of elections for the Shoura Council (the upper house of parliament) early next year, not to mention the presidential elections which SCAF recently promised will be held in June 2012 and a probable constitutional referendum.
http://english.ahram.org.eg/NewsContentPrint/4/0/28243/Opinion/0/Elections-and-their-discontents.aspx
The world cares, so I hope Egypt does too.

V for Vendetta

Over the past few weeks, I have noticed the emergence of "V" street-art in Cairo in reference to the film V for Vendetta.

The street-art focuses primarily around the letter V which has been transformed into the letter A by the Ultras Ahly, giving the film spoof a uniquely Cairo quality. There phrase "Remember, Remember the 19th of November," a spoof of the film's phrase "Remember, Remember the 5th of November," is also spray-painted on the streets. The mask itself has not been worn at any demonstrations (unlike at the Occupy Wall Street protests in New York where apparently such an act is illegal in the US http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424053111904194604576581171443151568.html).

I first watched the film V for Vendetta a few months ago here in Cairo. I had intended to watch it years ago-- I had the DVD in my possession last spring, but had to return it to Netflix before finishing it because my free-trial expired. In Egypt I watched a pirated copy that an Egyptian friend lent me, he had watched the film shortly after its release but still had it saved on his laptop. As the Arabic subtitles rolled across the screen, chants from Maglis Al Sha'ab sit-in were audible in the distance: Remember, Remember? How could you ever forget.

Located on the side of the 6th of October bridge in El Geziera, this stencil is by the street-artist Ganzeer. I took the photograph the first weekend in December, although it's been here since my arrival in early August. 

This photograph was taken in front of the Mugamma on Saturday 26 November during the recent Tahrir clashes. Since then the V has been spray-painted next to the words (and the letter M in november added). 

In the Sadat metro (under Midan Tahrir). This V is quite popular and can be found around the city. 

On Qasr Al-Aini St., near Midan Tahrir.
Is the black circle a reference to the April 6th movement's "White Circle, Black Circle" awareness campaign? Is V triumphing over El Feloul (the remnants of the old regime)?
There is no fist (a sign for the April 6th movement) to definitively indicate that it is in fact a part of the campaign. 

On Qasr Al-Aini St., near Midan Tahrir.
The Ultras Ahly (the football fan club of the major ) have spoofed on the V signature. Flipping the letter upside down, the letter A represents Ahly. The Ahly A is very popular (more popular than the V) and can be found around Cairo.





















On Qasr Al-Aini St., near the Maglis Al-Sha'ab sit-in.



Here the same A is used in the infamous acronym ACAB. This A had not previously been used in this acronym. On the on Qasr Al Aini St., near Midan Tahrir.

Eyes, edited

The expression goes that eyes are the window into the soul. Well, it appears that eyes are the window into the street.

The mural of the living martyrs on Mohamed Mahmoud St. has evolved and the eye patches are now being written on. Sadly some of the portraits have been defaced with crude jokes, but still others have the name of the living martyr or an expression of hope.

Translation: "God is great over all evil."

Maspero- 2 months and counting

Today marks the two month anniversary of the Maspero tragedy; it passed with little fanfare-- no newspaper headlines, no massive demonstration. Over the past month I have photographed many pieces of street art pertaining to the Maspero tragedy.

NOTE: All stencils reference the distinctive shape of the Maspero building (a circular building, with a tower jutting out of the middle) which houses the state-run TV industry and is located along the Nile in downtown, not far from Midan Tahrir.

Translation:"Dead poison"

This photo was taken on Monday 21 November in front of the Mugamma. Within a few days it was completely covered by new street art.

This photograph was taken on Sunday 27 November across the street from the Maglis Al Sha'ab on Qasr Al-Aini Street.

This photograph was taken on Sunday 27 November on the street of the Maglis Al Sha'ab. The wall was initially covered in only distinctive, pre-planned stencils, over time it has increasingly been covered in impromptu spray-paint.

This stencil is by the street artist El Teneen.