The Art of Uprising the Libyan Revolution in Graffiti

A few weeks ago, I was lucky enough to visit Tripoli during Libya's kickoff autonomous National Congress elections in twoscore years since the downfall of the Gadafi regime.

I'd heard and read and then much about Tripoli and was excited to meet the street fine art there -several visiting journalists had previously commented that the graffiti in Libya is primitive/amateur when compared to the scenes in Tunisia, Beirut and Egypt. I beg to differ; you can't compare when the political circumstances and social fabrics are so completely different.

Although x months have passed since the capture and killing of Gadafi, the streets of Tripoli are even so rife with memory. Everywhere y'all look, walls carry the faces and names of martyrs – there's one martyr for each street corner, information technology seems. Their pictures remain today – and unlike Egypt- their faces have not been covered upwardly by electoral entrada posters and forgotten.

Many locals in Tripoli regard the street murals equally 'shakhbata' or scribbling, just similar many practice hither in Arab republic of egypt, simply I found the art powerful and profound despite the often elementary styles. If information technology's not heartbreaking messages commemorating the fallen brothers, sons and friends who died fighting for their country, then it's sarcastic, witty and most offensive depictions of Gadafi, the onetime dictator.

After decades of unimaginable oppression, torture and intimidation of his own people, Gadafi is depicted as a rat, a female vocaliser, a scared man in a sinking boat, being kicked out of Libya, a fiddling being held at the scruff of  his neck by Omar Al Mokhtar, the spiritual 'grandfather' of the Libyan revolutionaries.

Through art, Gadafi is belittled and ridiculed; the artists took their revenge against his one time-glorified paradigm by stripping him down from a much-feared tyrant to a small, comical man. I know that other Libyans may disagree with this description; some locals that I spoke to said they would rather non remember him or go along his prototype live, and merely wipe him from the walls and their country's existence. Others, described by some as 'fulool', quietly miss the days he ruled and prefer to call up him in a positive light (coughstockholmsyndromecough).

In Egypt, yous wouldn't see such murals of Mubarak – at least non every bit frequently and not as delightfully roughshod every bit these murals in Tripoli. Only then once again, you can't compare one tyrant to another.

Of all the graffiti I saw, it was the murals on the walls of Abo Selim prison house that were the most powerful, emotional and traumatic. This, to me, was existent street art stripped down to its core: brutal, basic and made of real fury and memory.

The murals depicted the massacre of Abo Selim of 1996, where 1200 prisoners were shot dead past prison guards after they protested the prison house'south unfair conditions. I walked through the prison, went into the tiny cells and down into the stifling and claustrophobic underground torture room, a memory that stayed with me for several weeks and nightmares after.The visit alone helped me nearly sympathize the extent of the trauma and man suffering depicted in the murals.

It'southward difficult to imagine the extent of trauma that the Libyan people accept gone through over the past forty years and during the Feb17 uprising, just the street art around Tripoli is just scratching the surface. Messages of deep patriotism and hope combine with the memory of thousands of fallen heroes and fury against the dead tyrant.

Honestly, the little graffiti that I saw left me with deep respect for the Libyans and sincere hope that their path will learn from ours and lead to a better hereafter.

God is swell, Martyrs of free libya. God have mercy on you, hero, brother, friend of mine

The murals on the wall of Abo Selim prison

Omar Al Mokhtar to Gadafi: 'Who are you to tell my grandchildren 'Man Antom'?'

Shafshoufa, a nickname given to Gadafi for his unruly hair (i think), part of a phone call 'Maaleshi, Shafshoufa' that rang out at the Libyan embassy in Cairo (and around the world) the night Gadafi was captured

haleybected.blogspot.com

Source: https://suzeeinthecity.wordpress.com/2012/07/29/tripoli-graffiti-revolution-street-art-in-libya/

Share this post