Mideast Art

A Royal Crackdown: Morocco’s King Combats Critique

Is nothing sacred in politics these days? That is, aside from Mohammed VI, the King of Morocco, whose status as the Commander of the Faithful has for years made him virtually untouchable in the press. Despite the country’s July 2011 constitutional reforms which sought to increase freedoms, the 48-year-old leader remains as unassailable and above critique as he did in June.

Although the proposed political changes challenged Mohammed VI’s immunity to criticism, the recent arrest of Walid Bahomane, an 18-year-old Facebook user whose publication of an unflattering caricature of the king reignited public debate over the legality of such depictions, reveals the extent to which paradigms deeply embedded in Moroccan culture often figure more prominently in policy than the letter of the law itself.

The state is undergoing undeniable change, and in order for the government to stave off further protests, the policing of expressive culture must be relaxed.

Last winter in Morocco, I met the renegade-street-political-cartoonist Si Ahmed, a beggar-turned-artist who makes strategic use of poverty to disseminate his subtle critiques of the regime. Walid Bahomane publication was not so subtle, nor strategic, which landed him in jail on allegations of insulting the “sacred values” of Morocco.

Beggar? Activist? Artist? The Intriguing Case of Morocco’s “Street Cartoonist,” Si Ahmed

The busy streets of Morocco’s capital city are not immune to the common signs of poverty that one would expect in the urban centers of developing nations. Beggars are never far from view in Rabat, whether young children, veiled mothers with babies still too small to walk, or displaced sub-Saharans trying to migrate “elsewhere.”

High rates of unemployment, social problems (such as lack of options for divorced women), and the lack of an organized and stable welfare sector contribute to the prevalence of begging on the streets of Morocco. As a resident of Rabat, I continually recognized familiar faces on the downtown streets. And yet, in the winter of 2011, I first encountered a strange man who captured my attention: he goes by the name of “Si Ahmed.”

Like a Phoenix Rising from the Flames: Artist Mohamed Negm and the Arab Spring

British-Egyptian Mohamed Negm, is a young, self taught, emerging artist. Painting for the last five years, his work has varied from portraits, buildings, places and to his latest focus: the Egyptian revolution. With a style marked by his imagination and inspired by his surroundings, Negm has produced an outstanding number of pieces that have caught the attention of the media, galleries and exhibitions worldwide.

Operation Ajax Comic Puts Color in History

As a medium, comic books offer a range and breadth of possibilities. They can tell the stories of viking feuds, interpersonal relationships, or superhero epics. Whatever the creative team can come up with can be put to the page. And although it might sound unlikely, that’s what makes it the perfect medium to explore historical turning points.

Operation Ajax, the new motion comic app from Cognito Comics and writer Mike de Seve, uses that canvas to offer a visual narrative on one of the biggest moments in modern Iranian history: the 1953 CIA coup d’etat that overturned the country’s fledgling democracy and reinstalled Muhammad Reza Pahlavi as Shah of Iran. Taking its cue from Stephen Kinzer’s All the Shah’s Men, the mobile comic covers the lead up to, and the events around the coup. It even goes into the politcial context of the coup both in Iran and in Europe and the United States. De Seve takes the story through the early parts of the 20th Century, introducing Mohammad Mosaddegh, the charismatic prime minister of the country who would launch a democratic revolution against the Shah before being ousted by the CIA.

The Erasure of Palestine: The Disturbing Censorship of Palestinian Artist Larissa Sansour

The story sounds like a dinner party gone wrong.

Initially invited to the table of the 2011 Lacoste-Elysee Prize for up-and-coming photographers, Palestinian-born Larissa Sansour suddenly found herself removed from the shortlist, barred from the prestigious 25,000 Euro award, and, most importantly, silenced. Organizers added insult to injury by asking her to sign a statement of “voluntary” withdrawal. She refused.

Lacoste’s photography prize (now cancelled) invited artists to submit a series of three images, based on the theme “joie de vivre,” or “happiness.” Sansour’s submissions initially proved acceptable to the jury, who awarded her 4,000 Euro for working expenses.