New Publication: Art Against Authoritarianism in Southwest Asia and North Africa (Political Communication and Media Practices in the Middle East and North Africa)
by Tijen Tunali (Herausgeber)
Abstract: Over the past decade, there has been a burgeoning interest in the realm of art activism within the Southwest Asia and North Africa region, shedding light on the political implications of aesthetic representation. Nevertheless, a critical inquiry into how political aesthetics can formulate both discernible and imperceptible resistance strategies in response to resurging authoritarianism and counter-revolution after the 2011 uprisings in the region remains conspicuously absent. This book delves into a comprehensive examination of diverse art forms, ranging from street art and cinema to performance art, as well as music and theatre, scrutinizing the manifestations of aesthetic resilience at the epicentre of the political resistance against oppression and authoritarianism in Sudan, Iran, Egypt, Tunisia, Algeria, Morocco, Lebanon, Yemen and Syria. The editors employ a multifaceted approach to investigate artistic activism, encompassing analysis of visibility, ephemerality, and speech within the public sphere, the establishment and perpetuation of collective transnational solidarities, the portrayal of suppressed identities and narratives, and the innovation of alternative mechanisms for producing and disseminating art.
About the Author: Tijen Tunali is an interdisciplinary scholar whose research focuses on contemporary aesthetics, political practices and relations in art activism and radical social praxis. Tijen was an EU Maria Skłodowska-Curie Cofund Fellow at the Aarhus Institute of Advanced Studies at Aarhus University in Denmark. Previously, Tijen was an EU Maria Skłodowska-Curie Actions Fellow at Le Studium-Centre Interdisciplinaire Cités, Territoires, Environnement et Sociétés at the University of Tours in France.
Tijen has published academic articles and opinion pieces on contemporary art and activism; art and neoliberalism; international art biennials and their discontents; alternative art forms, art spaces, and art communities; theory and practice of aesthetics and art in social movements; rebellious aesthetics and art in the urban public space; the aesthetics of the Zapatista Movement; queer aesthetics and museology; art and ecological critique; art and ideological critique; and art and migration politics.
Tijen is the founder and organizer of the international and interdisciplinary conference series “Art and the City: Urban Space, Art and Social Change,” which was launched in 2018 and is held in a different city each year. The latest edition of the conference is scheduled to take place in Amman in June 2023.
Tijen collaborated with Professor Brian Winkenweder on the volume “Routledge Companion to Marxisms in Art History” with the contributions of 35 renowned Marxist scholars around the world.