Friday, September 7, 2018

Libya: Words of Anguish & Despair

The walls around Libya's streets have gone through an evolution since 2011. First there was the explosion of colorful, revolutionary and politically motivated drawings, paintings and slogans. Later the art slowly began to disappear, painted or whitewashed over as Libya changed. For a while,  graffiti was replaced with political posters for elections of the past.... they were left on the walls to slowly disintegrate and disappear.  

Here and there new artistic graffiti can be seen, especially in public areas or under bridges, but much of the graffiti today are spray painted slogans that have been quickly scrawled across the rough broken walls and decaying abandoned vehicles and shipping containers.

Libyan blogger, Malak Altaeb posted last January about some of the graffiti and slogans found around Libya. The Arabic is translated below each image. The writing says a lot about what Libyans are facing now. You can almost feel the anguish and despair. 

"We didn't participate in the destruction of our homeland, we didn't"

"Our reality has corrupted our future"

"There are people here who need to live."


Please visit Malak's post to to view the complete collection. You can find the link here: 

http://mylifeasahumanandasalibyan.blogspot.com/2018/01/graffiti-work-around-libya.html
Posted with permission of Malak Altaeb.

Tuesday, June 13, 2017

Libyan Murals: Between creativity and visual pollution

There is an interesting blog post (in Arabic) on the blog Outside Coverage (or Outreached) about graffiti in Libya, it's effect on society and Libyans' reactions. Although the post is written in Arabic, the blogger has written it well enough that Google translate comes out with a fair translation. You can find the post here: Libyan Murals: Between creativity and visual pollution

 Libyan Murals: Between creativity and visual pollution

Wednesday, March 30, 2016

Graffiti blackout

In IS controlled areas in Libya all displays of nationalism are prohibited. Graffiti depicting the February 17th revolution or the Libyan flag are painted over, covered in black. Images sourced from a Just Paste It account




Friday, January 22, 2016

Libyan Graffiti Artist: Aimen Ajhani (Elbohly)

Noon Arts has featured Libyan Street graffiti artist Aimen Ajhani, aka Elbohly on their website. You can read the post with his profile and view more of his work here: Noon Arts: Aimen Ajhani


Monday, April 16, 2012

Thursday, December 1, 2011

Arab Street Art Exhibition - an invitation

An invitation to an exhibition of Arab street art of the revolution at Casa Árabe in Madrid, Spain. Some of the photos of Libyan Street Art that I have taken will be featured. 



Revolution paintings. Graffiti and Arab public spaces
Casa Árabe inaugurates this exhibition which gathers more than a hundred images taken on the streets of different cities of Arab countries which during the last year were immersed in revolutionary processes.
This exhibition gathers the popular creative protest expression through the use of public spaces, both in individual and collective initiatives.

The opening will be held on Friday 2nd December at 20.00. 
 
Place: Casa Árabe’s exhibition rooms in Madrid (c/ Alcalá, 62).
Time: From Monday to Saturday, from 11.00 to 15:00 and from 16:00 to 19.30, Sundays and holidays from 11.00 and 15.00. Closed on December 24th, 25th and 31st.




Libyan Graffiti and the Point of No Return

Friday, November 11, 2011

An artist and his art (2 images)



Libyan Street Art Collection | Open Oil

A Libyan street art photo album collected by Zara Rahman. 
Link: Open Oil


French site reports on Libyan street artist Kais Al-Hilali

Canalstreet.tv reports about the street artist Kais Ahmed Al-Hilali who died during the Libyan revolution. Report with photos and a video of Al-Hilali's art and an interview with the late artist's mother. 



Danish website posts Libyan street art | Graffiti i Benghazi

A photoblog article on the Danish website Information.dk: Graffiti i Benghazi


Libya Uprising Archive | Art In Free Libya

Lot's of links to Libyan street art on this site: Art In Free Libya