More than 100 graffiti artists were invited to Tunisia as part of the Djerbahood project – an inventive rehabilitation initiative that uses street art to turn a dusty village into an inspiring open air gallery.

We have watched with great interest as Tunisia’s graffiti culture has grown since post-Jasmine revolution. Artists like VA-JO and El Seed have dazzled us with great designs, along with a unifying sociocultural message that spins the stereotype of the anarchist street artist.

And while the political landscape in Tunisia remains tenuous, graffiti artists appear to have significant freedom and support to share their work.

Related: Tunisia’s tallest minaret sprayed with El Seed Calligraffiti

In particular, 150 artists from 30 different countries were invited to participate in the Djerbahood, where they painted old, dilapidated and perfectly good buildings with their signature style. Famous Belgian artist ROA was among the artists whose playful work incorporates certain domed buildings into his pieces – like the large octopus with a bulbous head.

El Seed, who is Tunisian, was also present for the massive paint out. And we are also particularly enamored with the artist from Mexico, Curiot, who added a significant splash of color to the village.

The site of one of the world’s oldest and most famous synagogues, the El Ghriba synagogue, Djerba is the largest island of North Africa at 198 square miles.

Support for this inspiring project came from the Embassy of France in Tunisia, and Boga Cidre, Airbus, One Tech, Digard, SEH Legal and Yosr Ben Ammar.

A municipality in Morocco has similarly used graffiti in order to stem urban decay and to find idleness among the youth.

:: Djerbahood

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Street art helps the young generation cope with discontent and dissent- making space for fresh ideas, while preserving old values. At least that’s how we see it in this fantastic series of Tunisian murals which take the old Arabian domed style architecture in Tunisia and playfully interacts with it.

The street art was created by ROA with some 150 others as part of Galerie Itinerrance’s Djerbahood open air museum project in Djerba, Tunisia. This artist took advantage of the domed buildings in the city for several of his monochromatic spray paint murals that spread across multiple surfaces. 

While this work was done by a Belgian, Tunisia’s got some pretty awesome local artists. Check out this street art in Arabic. And see Arab graffiti on the streets of Paris for more inspiration.

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Earlier this month several Tunisians in Hammamet, Sphax and Mahdia woke up to their beaches infested with dead fish and jelly fish, a beached whale in Tunis, off the coast of Sidi Bou Saïd was also carried to shore.

This event has generated an important debate, which confirms the need for investigative science and how little of that there is.

Some environmentalists sustain that the recent mass die-offs are not a coincidence, or a “natural” phenomenon, but a result of marine pollution.

[youtube]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-WYQ7GiB9IA[/youtube]

Pollution off the Tunisian coasts is known to be a largely unregulated affair, particularly since the Jasmine revolution, an increasing number of unregulated coastal industries have been leaking toxic waste directly into the sea, furthermore the large majority of the commercial shipping traffic between the Suez Canal and Gibraltar passes off the Tunisian coasts, exerting significant marine ecosystem pressures from hydrocarbon fuel pollution, fumes and waste.

There are also talks on the connection between increasing covert hydraulic fracturing activities offshore between the touristic islands of Djerba and Kerkhennah and the concomitant increase in dead fish found along the coast. This connection is not incongruous, it is not the first time fracking is identified as the culprit in mystery mass die-offs, and given the strong toxic content of  chemical concoctions used in fracturing, a small leak can have enormous consequences especially in water where containment is nearly impossible.

On the other hand Hédia Hili, a veterinary doctor at the National Institute of marine science and technology, in an interview states that there is nothing abnormal about these phenomenons and it corresponds to annual events which are due to the proliferation of red jellyfish in the red sea seeping through from the Atlantic and Red sea, changes in the Mediterranean marine ecosystem, climate change and ocean warming. But are these not all anthropologically caused factors?

And there is a final, more esoteric explanation, some say this is an indication the world is going to end soon. 

When recently speaking to young Tunisian and Lebanese marine scientists it is apparent that the problem is not the lack of scientists willing to research on these issues, but it is the lack of funding. This is particularly true for the Mediterranean countries who are experiencing economic downturn, and therefore cuts in research and development. The Mediterranean risks becoming a soup of environmental disasters, with little investigative science to explain such disasters.

It is especially alarming to read several articles where the discourse explaining mass die-offs fall into the “it’s normal”  or “It’s a mystery” scheme.

Is the human race starting to refute the responsibility for the consequences of its actions?

Image of dead fish on the coast from Shutterstock

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