Where the streets have new names

Visual Sunday

Like the other revolutionary countries – most notably Egypt, but also Tunisia, Bahrain and Syria – Libya has seen an explosion in street art. Under Gaddafi, neither political opposition nor independent cultural expressions were tolerated. Graffiti pieces like those you can see all over the streets today, mocking Gaddafi, celebrating the Libyan people, were unthinkable. Mashallah has put together a gallery with some of the street art of post-Gaddafi Libya. The photographs were taken in Benghazi, Tripoli and Misrata during February and March.

Edits by Josef Burton.

 

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22 thoughts on “Where the streets have new names

  1. come on. if street art is the expression of the people, then there has to be street art out there that is pro-gaddafi and hating the new regime. I’m sorry I just don’t buy it that Libyans are all happy their country is destroyed and leader killed, because the majority weren’t rebels. I saw the pro-gaddafi rally video. That was a lot of people.

  2. propaganda: you’re right that pro-Gaddafi sentiments exist, as do hatred of the new regime. this, however, is not something that’s expressed on walls in the main cities (let’s just say now is not the time to do such graffiti)

  3. Great piece.

    I agree with the Mashallah Team and further – the pro-gaddafi rally video that you speak of (in Tripoli on July 1st 2011 with the long green flag, if I am not mistaken) did indeed take place however it was no where near as popular as the videos would lead you to believe. Subsequent analysis of the video revealed that some people were, somehow, present in more than one place on the square – which means one of two things – 1) That Gaddafi was way ahead of everybody with cloning technology or 2) Magic touch of photoshop was used to multiply the appearance of attendees….

  4. Pingback: Libya | Pearltrees
  5. “Who am I” – a phrase alluding to Gaddafi’s infamous February 22 speech in which he asked the Libyan people “Min entum?”, “Who are you?”

    FALSE! He said “Who are you?” to the filthy Qataris who were funded and arming the rebels from the beginning. He blamed them for the trouble they caused in Libya.

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