Abstract
The attempts to ban the burkini on numerous beaches in the summer of 2016 highlight the extent of fears of visual signifiers of Arabo-Muslim ‘difference’ in public spaces in France. Given these anxieties, the positive reception of El Seed’s ‘calligraffiti’ – combining graffiti and Arabic calligraphy – in Paris might seem surprising. Focusing on El Seed’s work, this chapter asks how art can encourage dialogue and tolerance between cultures and communities in local – particularly Parisian – contexts and in a globalised frame. How does El Seed bring Arabic writing, a visual signifier of ‘difference’, into the public spaces of the French capital? How does he use public sites within and beyond France? How does the digital online presence of his multi-sited ephemeral work signal new means of evoking cultural identity and of interpolating diversely located spectators?
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