Archive for the ‘Photography’ Category
Cairo’s street artists defy authorities with graffiti protest
Cairo’s graffiti artists offered a sarcastic rebuttal to city authorities on Thursday during the last day of voting in Egypt’s presidential elections. Following plans to whitewash street art on Mohamed Mahmoud St, artists instead began the whitewashing themselves spelling out a cynical phrase in Arabic – “forget about the past, focus on the elections”.
“We decided to do it, but our way,” independent artist Mahmoud Hany tells RFI, his hands covered in paint after descending down a ladder.
The wall just off Tahrir Square is particularly iconic. It features the faces of several martyrs, anti-military council slogans and reminders of last year’s uprising.
Hany says the city authorities had threatened to cover the wall a few days ago. But they wanted to beat them to it. “We have to be with the events,” he explains.
Some of the graffiti is particularly critical of the elections. With some of the so-called revolutionary youth seeing the polls as an exercise in consolidation of power for the Supreme Council of the Armed Forces (SCAF).
Slideshow: Mohamed Mahmoud St, in downtown Cairo, Egypt
Especially evident, they say, in the candidacy of figures such as former Mubarak-era prime minister Ahmed Shariq and former foreign minister Amr Moussa.
One evocative mural directs its criticism of the old regime by morphing the faces of various figures together.
“Half of it is [Field Marshall] Tantawi, and the other half is Hosni Mubarak,” says Hany. “Behind them, Amr Moussa and Shafiq,” he adds.
The young artist explained that the authorities removed the original piece featuring just Tantawi and Mubarak. So they repainted it. Adding Moussa and Shafiq, placed in the background.
Cairo’s downtown area is awash with graffiti over a year after the ousting of Mubarak. Further down Mohamed Mahmoud St each side street is blocked off by a wall constructed by the security services to protect the interior ministry. Each one serving as a canvas for Cairo’s street artists.
It is not clear how long the authorities will tolerate it for. Hany, however, is unperturbed. “Graffiti is not an art that lasts forever,” he says. “Anyone can add anything at anytime,” he adds, smiling.
Slideshow: France’s geeks power up at Paris Games Week
People lined up to enter Paris Games Week
This year’s Paris Games Week powers up on Friday with more than 150,000 gaming geeks expected to pass through the doors of the city’s Parc des expositions. French video game fans will get an exclusive look at the new Playstation Vita handheld console, as well as new titles including Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 3, Assassin’s Creed Revelations and Saint’s Row The Third.
Indignant protests in 82 countries target corporate greed, austerity
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Demonstrators angered by corporate greed and government austerity policies are demonstrating in 951 cities in 82 countries around the world as part of the United for Global Change movement. The protests, first proposed by a Portuguese youth movement, come as leaders of 20 countries meet in Paris to prepare for the G20 summit in Cannes on 3-4 November.
Jostling for position at the Paris Games Week
Poster of the Lapins Crétins video game at Paris Games Week
With 28 million regular video game players in France and a market worth more than three billion euros in 2010, the inaugural Paris Games Week is attempting to woo gaming geeks with new games as well as innovations in interactivity. Ahead of the important Christmas period, major players such as Xbox, Disney and Electronic Arts are showing off their wares.
Radio Feature: Focus on France
Glastonbury festival 40th anniversary
Glastonbury festival 2010
Glasto 2010
Britain’s Glastonbury festival kicked off this week, arguably Europe’s most famous and most celebrated music festival. The area of farmland in Somerset, south-west England is hosting a jam-packed weekend of music, arts and culture.
The festival’s hippy ethos brings together people from all walks of life, offering what it describes as a beacon of hope and aspiration. This year it also celebrates a very special anniversary.
Radio Report
Presenter: Richard Walker
