[spectre] CFP: Book, Middle Eastern and North African Art against Authoritarianism

[Andreas Broeckmann]

From: TIJEN TUNALI
Date: Nov 27, 2022
Subject: CFP: Middle Eastern and North African Art against Authoritarianism

Deadline: Jan 31, 2023

The book, with the title MIDDLE EASTERN AND NORTH AFRICAN ART AGAINST 
AUTHORITARIANISM: AESTHETIC ACTIVISM AFTER THE ARAB UPRISINGS will be 
published in 2023 in the new IB Tauris academic book series: Political 
Communication and Media Practices in the Middle East and North Africa. 
WE ARE LOOKING FOR CHAPTERS ON TURKEY, SYRIA, EGYPT AND PALESTINE.

The book examines the roles that art can play in the collective labor of 
creating and defending “another aesthetics” and social reality in the 
contemporary Middle East and North Africa. By analyzing a variety of art 
practices that are articulated with different collective struggles in 
the region, this book elucidates the vitality and creativity of 
anti-capitalist and anti-authoritarian artistic production whose praxis 
is enmeshed with grassroots movements across MENA.
In the Middle East and North Africa not only the Arab Spring left its 
political imprint on social life in the countries concerned, but it also 
marked a change in the democratization of artistic expression and 
understanding of the role of art in the protests (Walid and Soliman. 
2013, Khatib 2013). In the last decade, there has been growing interest 
in art activism in the MENA region and the political significance of 
aesthetic representation (amongst others, Abaza 2016, El Hamamsy and 
Soliman 2013, Richter-Devroe and Salih 2014, Valassopoulos and Mostafa 
2014). However, the question of how political aesthetics can develop 
resistance strategies against the authoritarian specter of near-absolute 
control and massive oppression in the aftermath of the uprisings in the 
region remains unexplored. Looking to the future, art activism 
represents an important terrain of study for understanding political 
dynamics, trends, and outcomes in the ongoing struggles between 
revolutionary movements and counterrevolutionary forces in the Middle 
East and North Africa, particularly in the context of authoritarianism.
As many scholars have argued there is a persistent need to expose the 
various forms of repression that characterize the neo-liberal order 
today but there is also an urgent need to expose the forbidden truths 
about the nature of political authority. -- If art activism under 
authoritarianism is possible, can it not just resist but be resilient 
and foster emancipatory politics and possibilities for thinking and 
living in another world?
A decade after the Arab Spring, under persisting neocolonial ideology 
and authoritarian politics that censor and limit the conditions that 
make collective imagination, democratic participation and grassroots 
mobilization possible, aesthetic activism is increasingly a conditioning 
factor for social resistance. With examples from across MENA, this 
edited volume questions the aesthetic framing of politics that directs 
our gaze away from social struggles from below and toward the political 
theater of the state apparatus on the one hand, and discusses how 
activist aesthetics can cultivate a transformative potential for the 
idea and practice of a democratic life on the other.
As many scholars have argued there is a persistent need to expose the 
various forms of repression that characterize the neo-liberal order 
today but there is also an urgent need to expose the forbidden truths 
about the nature of political authority. We seek research papers that 
investigate the questions:
--In the current socio-political transformations in the region, can art 
reveal and subvert various paradigms of structural oppression and 
corruption that continues for decades in MENA?
--Can art be meaningfully transformative, creative and revolutionary 
under an authoritarian regime?
--If art activism under authoritarianism is possible, can it not just 
resist but be resilient and foster emancipatory politics and 
possibilities for thinking and living another world?
--How have been the artists in the MENA interpreting and developing the 
aesthetic and political discourses and tactics that the Arab Spring has 
produced?
--How new artistic and aesthetic activism take up knowledge, discourses, 
and tactics that the latest uprising in the MENA region have produced, 
elaborate upon them, and translate them into new politics of social 
resistance against authoritarianism?
--How can art forms of activist practice and new modes of social 
organization that seek to challenge existing hierarchies of power in MENA?
The analysis of examples could include but not limited to the 
discussions of the reclamation of the visibility and speech in the 
public space; the formation of collective solidarities; the 
representation of suppressed identities and narratives and the creation 
of a new value system for art.''

INTERESTED AUTHORS ARE REQUESTED TO SUBMIT A PAPER OF 5500-6500 WORDS 
AND A SHORT CV TO TIJEN TUNALI TIJEN.TUNALI at CC.AU.DK NO LATER THAN 
JANUARY 31, 2022.


Reference / Quellennachweis:
CFP: Middle Eastern and North African Art against Authoritarianism. In: 
ArtHist.net, Nov 27, 2022. <https://arthist.net/archive/38024>.