Blog Ganzeer

عاجل: كيفية صنع قناع ورقي لوجه خالد سعيد

2012-01-24T16:07:00.000+02:00

Download: Khaled Said (1) and Khaled Said (2)

Mad Graffiti Week: The Black & White Posters

2012-01-19T14:17:00.002+02:00

For those who feel the urge to participate in Mad Graffiti Week, but aren't really into the whole stenciling and spraying business, you can still participate by printing the following black & white posters on a normal home laser printer and can totally photocopy them in bulk quantities and paste them around town. Or even just paste one up. That one poster will be seen and will have an influence.

Download Hi-Res

Why is imagery like this important? I feel the approach taken by many graffiti activists is to either defend the revolution or call for another big demo. This, of course, is understandable as the Egyptian military council has been on the offense towards revolutionaries (by mostly calling them thugs and not-the-same-original-revolutionary crowd). A year ago, we were not on the defense, we were on the offense, directly attacking the police and Mubarak with our words and art. It's time to turn things around again and opt for an offensive strategy, placing them on the defense instead.

Mad Graffiti Week Everywhere

2012-01-16T11:51:00.002+02:00

Mad Graffiti Week has kicked off with no central organization whatsoever. Several Facebook groups have formed allowing people to organize in different neighborhoods. The most prominent of these have been Mad Graffiti Week, where Egyptians across the country are getting in touch, forming teams in their neighborhoods, and planning hits.

A group for the Alexandrian branch of Mad Graffiti Week has also formed and is very active. Funnily enough, a group for the Berlin branch of Mad Graffiti Week has also formed, and it seems as though they've been as active as the Egyptians over here.

A Polish blog has also posted about some very powerful works appearing in Poland coinciding with Mad Graffiti Week in solidarity with Egypt. The most powerful of which have been, in my opinion, the works of Kamil Gorgon and 3fala. Some very powerful imagery there.

There's also a #MadGraffitiWeek hash-tag on Twitter being used for day-to-day organization, and its extraordinary.

I must say, seeing such a massive artistic mobilization for this one cause is incredibly inspiring. The fearlessness of young hopeful believers taking to the streets with their visual expression, be it in a big city or a small village, is something truly astounding. These people are fighters.

As for my own contributions to the week, I'll be posting a roundup of them towards the end of the week ;-)

On a final note, here's a message of solidarity I've received from Blu:

Hello Ganzer
i am sorry to hear that
i am following the Egyptian situation from the beginning
of course i can only see it from Internet

honestly i never believed any military backed revolution
and this one seems no exception

i often speak about the egyptian situation because it is symbolic of what could happen everywhere else
even here in europe
i will paint something about it as son as i have the chance

best wishes for your action
blu

It's good to know he's on our side :-)

الجيش فوق الجميع

2012-01-13T01:44:00.000+02:00

Because of the importance of shock value, I decided to introduce some color posters on the streets of Cairo during Mad Graffiti Week. Especially with the abundance of black & white stencils on the walls of Cairo lately, I felt the following poster could garner some powerful results:

Unfortunately though, I don't have nearly enough funds to print a number of posters that could garner much attention, which is why I'm making it available as a high-res download for anyone to print and paste up in his/her neighborhood. Download by clicking here. The file's a little over 10 megs.

If you want to see this poster spread, but fear the possible repercussions of printing and pasting it up yourself, feel free to donate to the production of this poster by emailing me.

Zine El-Arab #2 - Deadline Reminder

2012-01-04T10:37:00.001+02:00

زين العرب مجلة عربية مستقلة، لا تخضع لأي رقابة، وتعتمد في معظم محتوياتها على مشاركات بصرية من العالم العربي وبعض الأعمال الكتابية القصيرة. تطبع المجلة على الطابعات المنزلية العادية، ويتم توزيعها من خلال تركها في الأماكن العامة بشكل عشوائي. أول عدد من زين اعرب يمكن تنزيله من: http://ganzeer.blogspot.com/2011/12/download-print-zine-el-arab-1.html

١- إنظر إلى الرسمة أعلى وإستوحى فكرة ما.

٢- قد تكون المشاركة بالقصص المصورة القصيرة، أعمال

الكاريكاتير، تصميمات جرافيكية، أو الكتابات النثرية

والشعرية القصيرة.

٣- مقاس الصفحة الواحدة A4 عادي أو 21x 29،7 سم.

٤- يمكن أن تشارك بأكثر من صفحة ولكن تذكر دائما أن خير

الكلام ما قل ودل، ويمكن تطبيق هذا على الرسومات أيضاً.

٥- على جميع المشاركات أن تكون باللغة العربية أو بدون كلام

أو تعليق.

٦- يجب أن تكون المشاركة بالأبيض والأسود، بدون رماديات

أو «جراي سكيل».

٧- أخر موعد لتسليم جميع المشاركات يوم ١٥ يناير ٢٠١٢

٨ - على المشاركات أن تكون ملفات عالية الجودة من طراز JPG أو PDF

٩- ترسل جميع المشاركات بالبريد الإلكتروني إلى

zine.elarab@gmail.com

تأكد من ذكر إسمك و بلد إقامتك إلا إذا كنت تفضل أن تبقى شخصيتك مجهولة.

١٠- بعد أن نجمع جميع المشاركات، سنرسلها كاملةً للمشاركين

مع تعليمات عن كيفية طباعتها وتجميعها.

١١- جميع حقوق النشر ليست محفوظة لأي جهة. ولكن سينسب

كل عمل إلى صانعه (لمن يريد ذكر إسمه). ولن يسمح بإستعارة أعمال أي فنان في مضمون مختلف دون إذن من الفنان نفسه.

Published quarterly, "Zine El-Arab" is an independent uncensored Arabic zine largely dependent on visual contributions from the Arab World as well as some short writings. The Zine is printed on home printers and distributed casually in public places with the help of its contributors. The first issue of Zine El-Arab is available for download at: http://ganzeer.blogspot.com/2011/12/download-print-zine-el-arab-1.html

To contribute to the second issue of Zine El-Arab, due for publication in February, follow these instructions:

1. See attached image, and get inspired.

2. Contribution can be in the form of short comics, caricatures, graphic design works, or short writing.

3. Each page is a normal A4 or 21 x 29.7 cm.

4. Feel free to contribute with more than one page, but remember that the best words are short and to the point. That rule can be applied to illustration as well.

5. All contributions must be in Arabic or void of any language at all.

6. All contributions should be in stark black & white, without the use of grayscale, to enable for better photocopying qualities.

7. Deadline to receive all material is January 15, 2011

8. All contributions should be sent as high resolution JPGs or PDFs.

9. All contributions are to be emailed to zine.elarab@gmail.com. Please be sure to mention your name and country of residence, unless you would like to remain anonymous.

10. Upon collection of all contributions, it will be placed within the zine's layout and all contributors are to receive it in PDF form with detailed printing and binding instructions.

11. The zine is a copy-left. Anyone is free to print and distribute as they please. Re-use of any artist's work in a different context is only possible if permission is obtained from the artist in question.

بنات مصر خط أحمر

2011-12-20T23:02:00.002+02:00

على كل مصري عنده قدر من النخوة أو الكرامة الوقوف ضد مهازل العسكر. أحدى الطرق البسيطة هي أن تطبع هذه الصورة وتلصقها على زجاج سيارتك أو منزلك.

قم بتنزيل الصورة عالية الجودة، صالحة للطباعة والتصوير.

U.S. Aid to Egypt

2011-12-20T22:32:00.000+02:00

Are you an American living in the United States? Do you know that your government funds this:

Do you really want you government to fund this bullshit? Do what you can to spread the word. Download the hi-res image here. Feel free to print it, photocopy it, and hang it in your neighborhood.

Mad Graffiti Week: Jan 13-25 - An Appeal to Artists Everywhere

2011-12-20T01:14:00.000+02:00

This is an appeal to help save lives. The Egyptian Military Council has unleashed a brutal crackdown on peaceful protests by the Egyptian people, calling for the resignation of the military council and a cancellation of the sham elections that they’ve been running under their supervision. Soldiers have shown us no mercy, hitting fallen women with their batons, stomping on skulls with their boots, and shooting unarmed civilians dead. I’ve seen this happen with my own eyes and was unable to stop it. It’s a soul-shattering pain like no other.

The lies being disseminated by military-controlled media are as equally painful. Nothing hurts more than such shameless injustice. I fear the military’s strategy will only lead my country to an armed civil war. In an effort to keep our struggle peaceful, I hear by call on artists everywhere to support the Egyptian revolution with their art. As the genius that is Alan Moore once said, “[a satire] destroys you in the eyes of your community, it shows you up as ridiculous, lame, pathetic, worthless, in the eyes of your community, in the eyes of your family, in the eyes of your children, in the eyes of yourself, and if it's a particularly good bard, and he's written a particularly good satire, then three hundred years after you're dead, people are still gonna be laughing."

Our only hope right now is to destroy the military council using the weapon of art. From January 13 to 25, the streets of Egypt will see an explosion of anti-military street-art. If you are a street artist elsewhere in the world, please do what you can in your city to help us. Even if you are not a street-artist. If you’re a comicbook artist, a musician, or filmmaker, whatever artistic talent you have can be of big help. If you can do something before the designated date, please do! We need all the help we can get.

Finding “inspiration” is not at all difficult. A quick visit to scaf-crimes.blogspot.com will do the trick. On behalf of Egypt’s street-art community, allow me to thank anybody in the world willing to help. Your art may very well save lives.

Interviewed at ArtTerritories.net

2011-12-13T14:26:00.001+02:00

"Anybody in this here world is prone to getting fucked in the ass."

Those are my words of wisdom, taken directly from an interview Karem Said conducted with me over at ArtTerritories.net

Here's an excerpt:

Karem: It is the text in the “Mask of Freedom” image that establishes the graphic as an ad. There is a double meaning in the word “New” at the top, in that the muzzling device is recently crafted for the market and is previously unheard of within ideas of democracy. How does your street art and illustrative work aim to counter what SCAF has been selling?

Ganzeer: I guess I rely on obvious symbolism a lot of the time, using it to shed light on the wrongs of the current situation or perhaps the upside of an alternative situation? Probably a lot less of the latter though.

Call for Submissions: Zine El-Arab #2

2011-12-06T17:33:00.001+02:00

العدد القادم من زين العرب: فبراير ٢٠١٢

1- إنظر إلى الرسمة أعلى وإستوحى فكرة ما.

2- قد تكون المشاركة بالقصص المصورة القصيرة، أعمال

الكاريكاتير، تصميمات جرافيكية، أو الكتابات النثرية

والشعرية القصيرة.

3- مقاس الصفحة الواحدة A4 عادي أو 21x 29،7 سم.

4- يمكن أن تشارك بأكثر من صفحة ولكن تذكر دائما أن خير

الكلام ما قل ودل، ويمكن تطبيق هذا على الرسومات أيضاً.

5- على جميع المشاركات أن تكون باللغة العربية أو بدون كلام

أو تعليق.

6- يجب أن تكون المشاركة بالأبيض والأسود، بدون رماديات

أو «جراي سكيل».

7- أخر موعد لتسليم جميع المشاركات يوم 1 يناير 2012

8- ترسل جميع المشاركات بالبريد الإلكتروني إلى

zine.elarab@gmail.com

9- بعد أن نجمع جميع المشاركات، سنرسلها كاملةً للمشاركين

مع تعليمات عن كيفية طباعتها وتجميعها.

10- جميع حقوق النشر ليست محفوظة لأي جهة. ولكن سينسب

كل عمل إلى صانعه (لمن يريد ذكر إسمه).

Harvard University's Resource on Graffiti and Street-Art in the Middle East

2011-12-06T13:58:00.001+02:00

Harvard University's Center For Middle Eastern Studies has apparently held a two-session webinar on Graffiti and Street-Art in the Middle East for which they have set up this pretty informative resource page.

Virtual & Concrete

2011-12-06T13:49:00.001+02:00

I don't think its an exaggeration to say that the works of art across the walls of Cairo, combined with the virtual works spreading across the various online social networks, are a driving force to keeping the Egyptian revolution alive and going, much like how it's almost impossible to imagine the continuation of the Polish revolution in the 80's without the intervention of the Orange Alternative.

A French website called Culture et Politique Arabes has published an article exactly about that.

Inspired Stencil in Tahrir

2011-12-05T23:29:00.001+02:00

Back in December 2005 -that's 6 years ago- I created this illustration of Egyptian riot police, and I've had it on an abandoned Deviantart account ever since.

Today, I saw it turned into a stencil and sprayed onto the wall of Mogamma3 in Tahrir.

This, needless to say, made me incredibly happy :-)

Download & Print Zine El Arab #1

2011-12-05T10:48:00.001+02:00

Now you can download Zine El Arab #1 here. Simple right click the link, choose "save as" and voila! Printing and binding instructions are on page 51-52. Submission details for the next issue, due February 2011, are on page 53.

Download, print, bind, photocopy, and give to a friend! This file is a high quality print file at 53 megabytes. For faster download, but of a much lower quality, this 14.6 megabyte version is available for download.

The first issue of Zine El-Arab was edited by Nidal El-Khairy and myself and included contributions from Egypt, Jordan, Lebanon, and Palestine.

On another note, we seriously need a pretty basic website for the Zine. Any web designers/developers out there up for volunteering?

Culture in Action Debate

2011-12-05T10:28:00.001+02:00

The debate I participated in at the European Cultural Congress in Wroclaw is finally online. Moderated by Polish journalist Witold Szabolski, the debate took place between French intellectual Guy Sorman, Tunisian philosopher and art curator Rachida Triki, and myself.

Forum Liberation de Lyon

2011-12-05T09:56:00.001+02:00

Forum Libération 2011 #2 by GerardCollomb

On November 26, I participated in a debate with Major Waldemar Fydrych about "Militer à travers l’art," or Activism Through Art, at Forum Liberation in Lyon, France. Waldemar was the driving force of an absurdist protest movement in 80's Poland called the Orange Alternative. Through a series of odd happenings, Poland's revolution stayed alive, and absurdist protests swept the country long enough to eradicate Poland's Leninist version of communism.

I originally met Waldemar in September in the Polish city of Wroclaw by absolute coincidence. I was there for the European Culture Congress to participate in a debate on Culture in Action, but Waldemar was there protesting against the city's capitalization on the symbol of orange dwarves created by Waldemar in the 80's, which I gotta say... was pretty awesome of him.

The debate itself is still not online, but an interview conducted by Euronews right after the debate is available here.

The Mask Behind the Mask Behind the Mask

2011-12-05T09:44:00.001+02:00

A little something I made for the Manazer series on Rolling Bulb.

Komikazen Wearing the Mask of Freedom

2011-12-05T09:38:00.001+02:00

This is a photo of the Komikazen Festival poster in Ravenna, using the Mask of Freedom as its central image.

Komikazen Festival Wears the Mask of Freedom

2011-11-12T15:40:00.001+02:00

The Mask of Freedom, created in May as a protest against Egypt's Supreme Council of the Armed Forces, is being used as the central image of this year's Komikazen Festival in the small town of Ravenna in Italy. The festival generally revolves around comicbook works of political and social relevance.

I didn't design any of the festival's communication material myself, but its nice to see the Mask of Freedom used and endorsed by others.

Jordan's Ice Cream Truck

2011-11-09T13:31:00.002+02:00

This is a little illustration I did for Manazer, the regular sociopolitical graphics series on Rolling Bulb.

Polish Coverage in Gazeta Wyborcza

2011-11-09T12:49:00.003+02:00

Also during my short stay in Poland, an interview was conducted with me for a supplement in the Gazeta Wyborcza by Witek Szablowski.

Again, I can't understand a word, but it looks cool enough to dig. Gazeta Wyborcza is apparently Poland's leading newspaper with an average circulation of about 319,000.

Coverage in Czech Reflex

2011-11-09T12:26:00.001+02:00

During my short visit to Wroclaw, Poland, for the European Cultural Congress back in September, I was interviewed for Czech weekly magazine, Reflex. I was just send a spread of how the interview appeared in the magazine, and although I can't understand a single word, I'm satisfied knowing that it looks cool :-]

I don't know much about Reflex, but according to Wikipedia, it's a weekly magazine focusing on social, cultural, and political issues, with a print circulation of approximately 60,000 copies that manage to reach 270,000 readers (I'm guessing its left on a lot of trains?).

Zine El-Arab #1 in the Press

2011-11-09T12:10:00.002+02:00

Zine El-Arab has been covered in Arabic Lebanese newspaper AlAkhbar by Ahmad El-Zatari, saying that "Zine El-Arab laughs in the face of authority."

Zine El-Arab #1 Launch in Amman

2011-11-09T12:01:00.000+02:00

Here are a bunch of photos from Zine El-Arab's Amman launch at Makan on November 2, which was uber successful. Everyone was having a great time and actually stuck around to read the zine at Makan.

The first issue of Zine El-Arab was edited by Nidal El-Khairy and myself and included contributions from Egypt, Jordan, Lebanon, and Palestine. A few tweaks will be made to printable PDF of the first issue, and it will be made available online for all

Finishing Up Zine El-Arab #1

2011-11-02T00:17:00.000+02:00

Nidal El-Khairy, Yazan Al Ashqar, and myself are up late right now wrapping up the first 100 copies of Zine El-Arab for tomorrow's launch at Makan in Amman, Jordan.