Tuesday, January 24, 2012
Thursday, January 19, 2012
Mad Graffiti Week: The Black & White Posters
For those who feel the urge to participate in Mad Graffiti Week, but aren't really into the whole stenciling and spraying business, you can still participate by printing the following black & white posters on a normal home laser printer and can totally photocopy them in bulk quantities and paste them around town. Or even just paste one up. That one poster will be seen and will have an influence.
Why is imagery like this important? I feel the approach taken by many graffiti activists is to either defend the revolution or call for another big demo. This, of course, is understandable as the Egyptian military council has been on the offense towards revolutionaries (by mostly calling them thugs and not-the-same-original-revolutionary crowd). A year ago, we were not on the defense, we were on the offense, directly attacking the police and Mubarak with our words and art. It's time to turn things around again and opt for an offensive strategy, placing them on the defense instead.
Why is imagery like this important? I feel the approach taken by many graffiti activists is to either defend the revolution or call for another big demo. This, of course, is understandable as the Egyptian military council has been on the offense towards revolutionaries (by mostly calling them thugs and not-the-same-original-revolutionary crowd). A year ago, we were not on the defense, we were on the offense, directly attacking the police and Mubarak with our words and art. It's time to turn things around again and opt for an offensive strategy, placing them on the defense instead.
Monday, January 16, 2012
Mad Graffiti Week Everywhere
Mad Graffiti Week has kicked off with no central organization whatsoever. Several Facebook groups have formed allowing people to organize in different neighborhoods. The most prominent of these have been Mad Graffiti Week, where Egyptians across the country are getting in touch, forming teams in their neighborhoods, and planning hits.
A group for the Alexandrian branch of Mad Graffiti Week has also formed and is very active. Funnily enough, a group for the Berlin branch of Mad Graffiti Week has also formed, and it seems as though they've been as active as the Egyptians over here.
A Polish blog has also posted about some very powerful works appearing in Poland coinciding with Mad Graffiti Week in solidarity with Egypt. The most powerful of which have been, in my opinion, the works of Kamil Gorgon and 3fala. Some very powerful imagery there.
There's also a #MadGraffitiWeek hash-tag on Twitter being used for day-to-day organization, and its extraordinary.
I must say, seeing such a massive artistic mobilization for this one cause is incredibly inspiring. The fearlessness of young hopeful believers taking to the streets with their visual expression, be it in a big city or a small village, is something truly astounding. These people are fighters.
As for my own contributions to the week, I'll be posting a roundup of them towards the end of the week ;-)
On a final note, here's a message of solidarity I've received from Blu:
Hello Ganzer
i am sorry to hear that
i am following the Egyptian situation from the beginning
of course i can only see it from Internet
honestly i never believed any military backed revolution
and this one seems no exception
i often speak about the egyptian situation because it is symbolic of what could happen everywhere else
even here in europe
i will paint something about it as son as i have the chance
best wishes for your action
blu
It's good to know he's on our side :-)
A group for the Alexandrian branch of Mad Graffiti Week has also formed and is very active. Funnily enough, a group for the Berlin branch of Mad Graffiti Week has also formed, and it seems as though they've been as active as the Egyptians over here.
A Polish blog has also posted about some very powerful works appearing in Poland coinciding with Mad Graffiti Week in solidarity with Egypt. The most powerful of which have been, in my opinion, the works of Kamil Gorgon and 3fala. Some very powerful imagery there.
There's also a #MadGraffitiWeek hash-tag on Twitter being used for day-to-day organization, and its extraordinary.
I must say, seeing such a massive artistic mobilization for this one cause is incredibly inspiring. The fearlessness of young hopeful believers taking to the streets with their visual expression, be it in a big city or a small village, is something truly astounding. These people are fighters.
As for my own contributions to the week, I'll be posting a roundup of them towards the end of the week ;-)
On a final note, here's a message of solidarity I've received from Blu:
Hello Ganzer
i am sorry to hear that
i am following the Egyptian situation from the beginning
of course i can only see it from Internet
honestly i never believed any military backed revolution
and this one seems no exception
i often speak about the egyptian situation because it is symbolic of what could happen everywhere else
even here in europe
i will paint something about it as son as i have the chance
best wishes for your action
blu
It's good to know he's on our side :-)
Friday, January 13, 2012
الجيش فوق الجميع
Because of the importance of shock value, I decided to introduce some color posters on the streets of Cairo during Mad Graffiti Week. Especially with the abundance of black & white stencils on the walls of Cairo lately, I felt the following poster could garner some powerful results:
Unfortunately though, I don't have nearly enough funds to print a number of posters that could garner much attention, which is why I'm making it available as a high-res download for anyone to print and paste up in his/her neighborhood. Download by clicking here. The file's a little over 10 megs.
If you want to see this poster spread, but fear the possible repercussions of printing and pasting it up yourself, feel free to donate to the production of this poster by emailing me.
Wednesday, January 4, 2012
Zine El-Arab #2 - Deadline Reminder
زين العرب مجلة عربية مستقلة، لا تخضع لأي رقابة، وتعتمد في معظم محتوياتها على مشاركات بصرية من العالم العربي وبعض الأعمال الكتابية القصيرة. تطبع المجلة على الطابعات المنزلية العادية، ويتم توزيعها من خلال تركها في الأماكن العامة بشكل عشوائي. أول عدد من زين اعرب يمكن تنزيله من: http://ganzeer.blogspot.
١- إنظر إلى الرسمة أعلى وإستوحى فكرة ما.
٢- قد تكون المشاركة بالقصص المصورة القصيرة، أعمال
الكاريكاتير، تصميمات جرافيكية، أو الكتابات النثرية
والشعرية القصيرة.
٣- مقاس الصفحة الواحدة A4 عادي أو 21x 29،7 سم.
٤- يمكن أن تشارك بأكثر من صفحة ولكن تذكر دائما أن خير
الكلام ما قل ودل، ويمكن تطبيق هذا على الرسومات أيضاً.
٥- على جميع المشاركات أن تكون باللغة العربية أو بدون كلام
أو تعليق.
٦- يجب أن تكون المشاركة بالأبيض والأسود، بدون رماديات
أو «جراي سكيل».
٧- أخر موعد لتسليم جميع المشاركات يوم ١٥ يناير ٢٠١٢
٨ - على المشاركات أن تكون ملفات عالية الجودة من طراز JPG أو PDF
٩- ترسل جميع المشاركات بالبريد الإلكتروني إلى
تأكد من ذكر إسمك و بلد إقامتك إلا إذا كنت تفضل أن تبقى شخصيتك مجهولة.
١٠- بعد أن نجمع جميع المشاركات، سنرسلها كاملةً للمشاركين
مع تعليمات عن كيفية طباعتها وتجميعها.
١١- جميع حقوق النشر ليست محفوظة لأي جهة. ولكن سينسب
كل عمل إلى صانعه (لمن يريد ذكر إسمه). ولن يسمح بإستعارة أعمال أي فنان في مضمون مختلف دون إذن من الفنان نفسه.
Published quarterly, "Zine El-Arab" is an independent uncensored Arabic zine largely dependent on visual contributions from the Arab World as well as some short writings. The Zine is printed on home printers and distributed casually in public places with the help of its contributors. The first issue of Zine El-Arab is available for download at: http://ganzeer.blogspot.
To contribute to the second issue of Zine El-Arab, due for publication in February, follow these instructions:
1. See attached image, and get inspired.
2. Contribution can be in the form of short comics, caricatures, graphic design works, or short writing.
3. Each page is a normal A4 or 21 x 29.7 cm.
4. Feel free to contribute with more than one page, but remember that the best words are short and to the point. That rule can be applied to illustration as well.
5. All contributions must be in Arabic or void of any language at all.
6. All contributions should be in stark black & white, without the use of grayscale, to enable for better photocopying qualities.
7. Deadline to receive all material is January 15, 2011
8. All contributions should be sent as high resolution JPGs or PDFs.
9. All contributions are to be emailed to zine.elarab@gmail.com. Please be sure to mention your name and country of residence, unless you would like to remain anonymous.
10. Upon collection of all contributions, it will be placed within the zine's layout and all contributors are to receive it in PDF form with detailed printing and binding instructions.
11. The zine is a copy-left. Anyone is free to print and distribute as they please. Re-use of any artist's work in a different context is only possible if permission is obtained from the artist in question.
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