STREET ART AND CULTURAL CONTEXT IN THE MENA REGION

In the years since the so-called Arab Spring of 2011 the use of street art as a tool of political discourse and protest in the Middle East and North Africa (MENA) has received substantial attention in the popular and critical press as well as through social media outlets. There is a tendency in these discussions to generalize, to speak of street art in the Middle East as a uniform entity with similar styles and goals in locations throughout the region. However, the reality is much different, with artists throughout the MENA region adopting not only specific visual styles in the street art they produce in different countries but also, and quite significantly, in the political and social motivations and purposes of this artwork. As a form of public visual expression street art dances on the boundary of the legal and the illegal, the popular and the elite, the valued and the disdained. The role that street art plays throughout the MENA region is shaped within countries not only by specific political situations but also by artistic tradition, public sentiment and economic drivers. Street art may be created primarily in reaction to certain political events and to provide a counter-narrative to established or official communication channels. It may serve to provide a broader social commentary on the status of a region or its citizens. It may also be created for the purpose of generating tourism or to engage with a contemporary art scene that increasingly values street and urban art as a means of expression. The role of street art is inextricably linked to the cultural and social context of its production. This paper considers the role of street art in three locations: Cairo, Dubai and Palestine and examines the roots of the practice in each area, the style of the work produced and the culturally and geographically specific functions that street art fulfills in each place.