Forthcoming

Vol. 4 (2022): Ce que l’art fait à la ville au Maghreb et au Moyen-Orient. Pratiques artistiques, expression du politique et transformations de l’espace public, edited by Marie Bonte and Marion Slitine.

[Reclaiming Art in Urban Public Space in the MENA Region. Artistic Practices, Political Expression and Public Space Transformations]

The fourth issue of Manazir Journal focuses on “making art” in urban public space in North Africa and the Middle East. Whether visual or performative, these urban arts (tags, graffiti, street art, murals, performances, live shows, sculptures and installations) contribute to renewing forms of expression of politics in public space and, more broadly, to transforming urban space. Indeed, the graffiti and street art scene has accelerated over the past decade in line with the so-called “Arab Spring”: every year, graffiti on walls multiply, new urban art centers appear, and festivals entirely dedicated to street art are organized. All these initiatives are gradually turning the city into an “open-air gallery” and are transforming the relationship between city dwellers and urban public space. While many scholarly works have begun to take an interest in artistic practices in the MENA region, few of them have explored their urban dimensions. By asking what art does to the city, the contributions in this issue question the renewal of the links between art, modes of appropriation of urban space, and forms of political expression.

Future issues:

– The Idea Of The Just Rule in Persianate World And Its Embodiment In Art and Material Culture, edited by Negar Habibi.