8 June 2014
15.45 – at the Bluecoat (meet in the Hub)
Free
The presentation discusses forms of political resistance through visual culture in the Arab world. It draws comparisons between political posters of late 1960s-70s Beirut and contemporary graffiti in the Arab streets of cities that have recently experienced massive popular uprisings.
Zeina Maasri is Associate Professor of Graphic Design at the American University of Beirut. She is author of Off the Wall: Political Posters of the Lebanese Civil War (2009), curator of a related travelling exhibition, and editor of the project ‘s online counterpart (www.signsoconflict.com), which comprises an open digital archive of political posters.
Her more recent research is concerned with the history of graphic design in a broader Arab context (Lebanon, Palestine, Syria, Iraq, and Egypt) between the 1940s–70s, concurrent with these countries’ discourses around moderni s ation, the rise of postcolonial national imaginaries, and the development of artistic and cultural activities.