CAIRO: Whoever visited Cairo before January and returns now, must be struck by the deep, visual impact of the uprising. Countless new graffiti's and political slogans are painted on the walls, taxis and shops are decorated with the pictures of martyrs and symbols of the revolution, singers on Tahrir square are attracting an enthusiastic audience of demonstrators and a new business of revolutionary souvenirs has emerged. Beyond those visible effects, the uprising led to more deep reaching changes in Egypt's cultural life. One of the places that illustrate these effects is the faculty of Fine Arts of Helwan University in Zamalek. The walls of the faculty- building have recently been decorated with graffiti's inspired by the revolution. One of them states: ‘Art = freedom, freedom= responsibility, to be an artist= to be responsible'. This is symbolic for the strong sense political awareness among young artists. ‘Before January we were also interested in politics but we were not free to express it. ‘The revolution broke the fear inside the artists so that they feel free to express themselves' explains Ahmad Said one of the artists at Helwan University. This new freedom leads to the mushrooming of new graffiti's, graphics and other expressions of revolutionary enthusiasm. Many students at Helwan University describe that they feel more respected by their teachers. ‘The relation between us and the teachers changed 100 percent, we feel more respected and that gives us hope about the future' describes Sahar Ashraf, one if the art students. Graphic illustrations have the advantage that they are easily accessible to people. ‘It doesn't matter if you are young or old, well educated or not, art transmits feelings and emotions easily' explains Ahmad Said. The current revolution has been dubbed the Facebook-revolution. The importance of social media also reflected in the way artists are promoting their works. Various Facebook groups such as ‘I am Tahrir' and ‘University on the square', serve as a platform to exchange artistic work inspired by the revolution. The songs of Amir Eid and Hany Adel, or Ramy Gamal are hits on You Tube. Another example of revolutionary culture is the Bassem Youssef show. This home-produced comedy show became a million hit on You Tube. Bassem Youssef attacks the biased coverage of Egypts state-owned media, he is now dubbed the Egyptian John Stuart. However, the new cultural productions are not entirely disconnected from past customs and traditions. For example, Hosni Mubarak has often ironically been referred to as ‘la vache qui rit' because of his supposed resemblance with the laughing cow on the cheese packages. This symbol did now frequently return in political cartoons and posters. Moreover, protestors on Tahrir Square built on a long tradition of regime-critical art. The class-conscious songs of Egypts famous protest-singer Sheikh Imam and the poetry of Ahmed Fouad Negm are very popular among protestors on Tahrir square. Written as protestsongs in the 1960´s, Sheikh Imam's songs still seem to express the emotions of protestors on Tahrir. At the same time, there is a dark side to this newly emerging political consciousness of artists, illustrated by the fate Rami Issam, one of the revolutionary singers on Tahrir square. He was arrested by the army in March and tortured with whips and electroshocks. His destiny illustrates that the Egyptian revolution is still far from being completed. Critical and independent artists are still persecuted and threatened. But the uprisings during the last months seem to have made them more confident about their function as political watchdogs. ‘We feel that we have a voice now' explains Nervan Nader, one of the students in Helwan. Mina Essam, graduate at Helwan University stresses: ‘The revolution is not over, it will take more time but we want to change people's minds with our art, we want to practice democracy.' BM
