… Before I Die

Back in late October and early November 2019, one of the walls surrounding the Beiruti ESCWA (a United Nations building, Economic and Social Commission for Western Asia) building was transformed with graffiti and street art into a “Revolution Wall”.  It coincided with protests against bad governance, corruption and social injustice in Lebanon.  The  Art of Change movement was involved in painting the wall…  along with many Lebanese artist.  This is only one of such walls.

below: Caricatures of Lebanese officials along with two posters.  The one on the far left is by sumerziady 

below: A mouse wearing a hard hat and brandishing a sword.

below: A wonderful black and rust coloured bird, by RenoZ,  It doesn’t seem fazed by the mouse with the sword.

below: A monkey-faced man by Zein, a clenched fist rising out of the ground, and two green fighters in a no entry zone (or is it the Lebanese flag?).

below: Freedom, loud and clear.

below: Another Renoz painting, a skull on a chair from which a red rose is rising.

below: The man in the megaphone is signed Dewdle, the mark of Ali Kadado, a Lebanese artist.  Resist.

below:  I am now feeling that my lack of Arabic means that I am missing a lot of what these mean.  For instance, the purple guy by Weesdom is saying something but I don’t know what.  I also suspect that the words written on the tap over the young man’s mouth are important, perhaps “Revolution even if you try to silence us”? (artwork by Roula Abdo).  The last one is in English but now some knowledge of Lebanese politics would be helpful –   a phone screenshot by phat2tg (ot the tg posse)

below: Stencil by markghsoub aka Markus – a larger than life man standing in a shallow boat.

below: Title section, “Revolution Wall” featuring a clown with dollar signs flashing in his eyes by Ivan Debs.

below: Caricature mugshots.  Lebanese government officials as Jokers as they go off to jail.

below: Another markghsoub stencil

below: Dancing while the bombs fall by Zein.

below: Giving the peace sign, a man in a red and white shirt by fasewho aka Oliver Matar (He also painted the large word ‘Freedom’ a few pictures back). The head with all the people as hair is another painting by Roula Abdo.

below: A bunch of balloons, most in the colours of the Lebanese flag by ilatk aka Ilat Knayzeh  on one side, and on the right is a woman stenciled on top of a circular pattern by  ZaFeelz aka Zayna Ayyad

below: Among the profanity, two calligraphy pieces by Ghaleb Hawila

below: An intricate and detailed black and white drawing by @rasharahal

below: A closer look at the top part

There is an Instagram page devoted to collecting the 2019 Lebanese Art of Revolution, or Art of Thawra.  Check it out if you are interested seeing more of this type of art.