The street art of resistance
Research output: Chapter in Book/Report/Conference proceeding › Book chapter › Research › peer-review
This chapter focuses on the interrelation between resistance, novelty and social change. We will consider resistance as both a social and individual phenomenon, as a constructive process that articulates continuity and change and as an act oriented towards an imagined future of different communities. In this account, resistance is thus a creative act having its own dynamic and, most of all, aesthetic dimension. In fact, it is one such visibly artistic form of resistance that will be considered here, the case of street art as a tool of social protest and revolution in Egypt. Street art is commonly defined in sharp contrast with high or fine art because of its collective nature, anonymity, its different kind of aesthetics and most of all its disruptive, "anti-social" outcomes. With the use of illustrations, we will argue here that street art is prototypical of a creative form of resistance, situated between revolutionary "artists" and their audiences, which includes both authorities and society at large. Furthermore, strategies of resistance will be shown to develop through time, as opposing social actors respond to one another's tactics. This tension between actors is generative of new actions and strategies of resistance.
Original language | English |
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Title of host publication | Resistance in Everyday Life : Constructing Cultural Experiences |
Editors | N. Chaudhary, P. Hviid, G. Marsico, J.W. Villadsen |
Number of pages | 20 |
Publisher | Springer |
Publication date | 1 Jan 2017 |
Pages | 161-180 |
ISBN (Print) | 9789811035807 |
ISBN (Electronic) | 9789811035814 |
DOIs | |
Publication status | Published - 1 Jan 2017 |
Externally published | Yes |
Bibliographical note
Publisher Copyright:
© Springer Nature Singapore Pte Ltd. 2017. All rights are reserved.
- Egypt, Graffiti, Resistance, Revolution, Social change, Street art
Research areas
ID: 355141183