Caramblogage

Note: MeMus was written from 2012-2015. Things have (again) changed since then. But I maintain that it is mainly an "export industry". The current Egyptian street art scene is an export industry. Due to legal restrictions on the use of public space as a forum for expression which are vigorously enforced and a general atmosphere of hegemonic domination in the country, many of the artists who can, by choice or necessity, remain in the country, choose to work outside their local contents. Though this allows for a higher degree of experimentation stylistically, it also removes the street from the art, thus removing the unmediated interaction by a public in a sphere. Though currently limited, the extensive use and cultural acceptance of street art as an art form opens a new horizon for the use and application of the practice to more mainstream artistic means. So far, it has not been used, except in erasing, in attempts at directly representing the government and remains exclu...

The following is what feels like a timely excerpt from Memetic Murals, 2016.  The internet phenomenon 1  of spreading street art directs attention not only to the topic, or cause, but also towards the person responsible for expressing it. International attention recreates the creative actor in the form of a constructed sym bolic gure, required to represent a majority they sometimes do not even agree with, or belong to. Many of the chosen representatives are masters in their respective arts and in expressing their personal observations on larger societal developments. No matter if their perspective conforms with the current opinions or not, artists are considered open minded observers, eloquent representatives of their societies. What is often underestimated is that artists mostly represent a cultured, liberal elite in their country, no matter how much they identify with the causes within. This reterritorialization of the Israeli Separation Barrier as an internatio...