Art and the Arab Spring: Aesthetics of Revolution and Resistance in Tunisia and Beyond. By Siobhán Shilton

Abstract

The uprisings that took place in many Arab countries from December 2010 onwards were spectacular in their forms and in their effects. The public self-immolation of ­Mohamed Bouazizi in Sidi Bouzid in Tunisia; the art of destruction wrought upon the images of the numerous dictators that had dominated public spaces; the occupation and reappropriation of those spaces by bodily performances of mass resistance and defiance, and by the explosion of graffiti and street art, reasserted the public’s right to their own cities. All of this had a visual impact that was both affecting and politically powerful. The momentary faltering of regimes’ systems of control, the spaces carved out in defiance of the authorities, and the renewal of debates about possible futures furthermore allowed and encouraged creativity, complex and original, in thought and expression, through the visual arts, poetry, dance, and song. These are some of the aspects that Siobhán Shilton explores. Despite her trenchant critique of the term ‘Arab Spring’ in the first few pages, it is given curious prominence in the title of the book. Her concern is principally to examine the visual arts in the years following the uprisings, mainly through the work of Tunisian artists. In a series of detailed descriptions of the works of a limited number of nevertheless well-chosen Tunisian artists, she seeks to interpret their contributions in the context of larger transnational spaces of art and activism. She makes a series of arguments, based upon their work, that bring out the genealogies of their aesthetic and the ways in which their interventions might make one read the political upheavals of those years differently. Shilton seeks particularly to escape from the ‘icons of revolutionary exoticism’, to focus on the ways in which these artists have tried to reveal aspects of the unseen, the instability of apparently stable forms, and the powerful encounters of the ­local and the transnational. In doing so, she adds to the dimensions in which the works of artists such as Sonia Kallel, Nicène Kossentini, and the wonderfully creative dancers ­Selma and Sofiane Ouissi can be understood and appreciated. As with many of the others whom Shilton references or examines, her sensitive readings and interpretations of this outpouring of creativity allow one to appreciate the full context of their ­self-designation as artistes citoyens. There is something poignant, however, in these heartfelt expressions of their dual commitment as artists and as citizens, given the uncertain, often disturbing aftermaths of the uprisings. The caution, scepticism, and ambiguity about the meaning of revolution that informs much of their work seems prescient indeed. It was a pity therefore that the publishers did not allow the author to provide many illustrations. She does give lengthy and detailed descriptions of a number of the works, but a more generous use of images could only have strengthened the author’s arguments whilst providing the reader with much-needed visual points of reference.