The posters, which are captioned “Saudi Approved”, depict the duo in traditional Saudi Arabian head scarves. Arabic text on Begley’s poster translates to, “I love Arab oil,” while the poster for thrice-married Kennedy purrs, “Hello, ladies.”

The anonymous artists behind the images explained their actions in an email to the Hollywood Reporter, “We’re fed up with the environmental narrative that sounds good, but is ultimately dangerous and backwards. Characters like Begley and Kennedy claim the moral high ground without anyone questioning the damage that their politics cause to real people in the real world.”

They didn’t define what those damages might be, but said a video by conservative documentarian and ‘sting artist’ James O’Keefe motivated their designs. In 2014, O’Keefe secretly videotaped Begley and a pair of environmental documentarians as they seemingly agreed to accept funding from Middle Eastern oil interests for a film opposing fracking.  Hydraulic fracturing, or “fracking”, is the process of drilling and injecting fluid into the ground at a high pressure to fracture shale rocks to release natural gas inside.

At the time, Begley issued a statement insisting that his presence at the Beverly Hills Hotel meeting was simply to help friends get a film financed. He told The Hollywood Reporter that he is hearing-impaired and couldn’t make out much of the discussion. Begley insisted he did not agree to any deal with the undercover Middle Eastern oil men, he said, he was just being polite.

“How desperate must they be to portray someone who has used precious little oil since 1970 as being pro-Saudi oil,” Begley said in response to the posters. “As for ‘Saudi Approved,’ I don’t think there’s a Saudi living who even knows who I am,” said the 65-year-old actor. Kennedy has issued no statements about the matter.

Celebrities hold the power to attract the attention of massive audiences, inviting bigger involvement in a political topic, charity, or environmental activity. They can boost the image of a social cause and elevate public discussion, and be powerhouse fundraisers. They can ‘bring the (public) horse to water’,  but unless they are competently versed in the topic at hand, they are best to exit, stage left – and hand the microphone to the experts to help the horse ‘drink’ in the specific message.

“Getting celebrity ambassadors take lots of time, energy and effort … so it’s important to get somebody who is willing to give his time, commitment and dedication to the issue,” Save the Children President and CEO Carolyn Miles told Devex, the development newswire.

The trick is get a celebrity who can deliver the message without eclipsing it.

Consider the late Princess Diana, whose outfits and hairstyles received more coverage than the non-governmental organizations doing the front-line work. Celebrity behavior can also discredit good causes. After admitting to having used performance-enhancing drugs, athlete Lance Armstrong severed ties with his charity LiveStrong in order to allow it to continue its work, undistracted. More recently, actress and former Oxfam ambassador Scarlett Johansson quit the aid agency after being called out for endorsing a soda manufacturer that partially operates out of Israeli settlements in the West Bank.

Famous endorsers lose their value when they – rather than the causes they champion – become the headline act. Green Prophet would like to hear where you stand on celebrity ambassadors for the environment.  Drop us a comment, and while you gather your thoughts – let’s go back to fracking.

Last year, due to increased fracking, the U.S. overtook Saudi Arabia and Russia as the world’s biggest oil producer. The International Energy Agency confirmed in June, 2014, that the U.S. was also the biggest producer of natural gas liquids. The nation also remains the world’s largest oil consumer, importing an average of 7.5 million barrels of crude a day, according to the Department of Energy.

Given America’s voracious thirst for energy, does anyone seriously think a Gulf-funded film will derail the course of U.S. fracking? And ought not the artists have focused their satire on the environmental negatives of fracking itself, and not the alleged conspiracies behind who funds documentaries? At least, since oil extraction is soaring at shale formations in Texas and North Dakota, maybe they should’ve put Begley and Kennedy in cowboy hats.

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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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[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NKNTkG5dr4A[/youtube]

This artistic three minute film co-directed by Kafi Films and Da Fox In Da Box unveils the spirit of el Seed’s Jara Mosque mural project.

To those of us in the Middle East who are concerned with creativity and community, el Seed is something of a hero. We’ve featured his work previously but this latest project in Tunisia’s southern industrial city Gabes is definitely one of his most exciting.

His goal as an artist in general and with this particular project is to fight intolerance, to promote unity and love in a country that is unravelling at the seams following the rise of long-suppressed ultraconservative Islamists.

“The objective is to inspire people from different backgrounds,” el Seed said in the video above. “To come together, to bring love and to unite.”

This is what it says:

“Oh humankind, we have created you from a male ad a female and made people and tribes so you may know each other.”

Executed in stylized Arabic script, this powerful message neutralizes the hateful discourse that has been populating the airwaves in recent days.

“I hope that this artistic wall on the minaret will help to revive the city, and especially tourism in Gabes,” said Slah Thebet, Imam of Jara Mosque.

All images taken from el Seed’s Facebook page.

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Israel’s Mediterranean city of Bat Yam is pulling itself out of obscurity with one of the most unusual art spaces we’ve seen. Located just south of Tel Aviv –  the country’s most well-known seaside city, the Riviera used to be a thumping nightclub in the 1950s and 1960s. Now it’s a very yellow and open industrial-chic art colony and public gallery that features a sea sand floor and some seriously gritty street art. 

Derman Verbakel Architecture was commissioned by the city to revive the 1200 square meter space that was previously defined by a series of artisinal columns and beams. It had been left fallow for years.

The design team opted for a minimalist approach to the intervention and essentially left much of the existing space as they found it apart from adding some yellow paint and neon lights.

In order to create a fluid continuation between the open-plan gallery and the beach, the designers used sea sand to create a stabilized sand floor.

A sustainable addition to the former nightclub that almost entirely eradicates site disruption, the sandy floor is designed to encourage bikini-clad beach-goers to experience the art exhibition space as part of their daily sun-worshipping ritual.

This seems so much more organic to us than going home, putting on a pile of makeup and dressing in Versace in order to see scripted pieces on a giant white wall.

Other signs that Bat Yam is putting itself on the map – both architecturally and creatively – include the annual 72 Hour Urban Action architecture competition that invites talented young design teams from around the world to transform decaying urban areas in the city within just 72 hours!

Watch out Tel Aviv, Bat Yam is coming alive!

:: Arch Daily

Images via Derman Verbakel Architecture

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Following violent protests in February, Cairo police stacked 10-feet-tall masonry walls around the Ministry of the Interior to cut access to that hated symbol of Egypt’s ousted regime. New barriers appeared after subsequent riots, turning nearby communities into a labyrinth of roadblocks and checkpoints.

Recently, artists “removed” them, overpainting concrete with images of the streetscapes they blocked. In a few days, the “No Walls” protest covered every barrier with a mural.  Some residents are sanguine about the obstructions, expecting them to come down as the new government emerges. Others, like these nameless artists, don’t want to wait. Their optical illusions convey a powerful political message: Give us back our streets.

[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ElPuqSu6ttw[/youtube]
Yemen paints over a painful past.

Yemen is one of the poorest Arab countries, with a young, rapidly growing population and soaring unemployment. Following Tunisia’s 2011 revolution and simultaneous with Egypt’s uprising, Yemen’s protests targeted economic conditions and corruption before escalating to demands for governmental reform.

Buildings throughout capital city Sana’a are scarred from year-long conflict that resulted in President Ali Abdullah Saleh stepping down from power last February. City walls were pitted by bullets and scrawled with inflammatory graffiti from both Saleh loyalists and their opposition.

Sana’a artist Murad Subay saw an opportunity to paint a positive backdrop to reform. Using social media, he invited residents to take to the streets and erase the graffiti with colorful paintings.  The process of artistic expression gave voice to their desire for peaceful progress, for a return to urban normalcy.

[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LvX0cvwWS8w[/youtube]
West Bank Project spins graffiti into Youth Centers.

Built in 2002, the Israeli West Bank barrier is a favored graffiti site that also spurred a bit of entrepreneurship with a philanthropic goal. Web-based Sendamessage Foundation served as conduit for faraway customers wanting to get their personal messages on that provocative wall. For about $40, a Palestinian painter would make the tag and send the customer a few digital photos of the final work.

Hatched at a Dutch-Palestinian workshop in Ramallah, the wildly popular scheme placed 1498 messages on the wall, with 550,000,000 website hits. A Palestinian non-profit youth group, the Peace and Freedom Youth Forum, masterminded the project, which has now concluded.

Pretty much any commission was accepted: marriage proposals, jokes, shout-outs to distant friends.  All extremist, obscene and hate-mongering requests were denied.  The project opened a small window to Palestinian lives behind the wall, and offered residents visible proof that their plight is not forgotten.

Graffiti is a peaceful way to protest the barrier and a way to beautify ugliness.  One message reads, “Mirror, mirror on the wall. When will this senseless object fall?”, and another shouts, “Get along with each other!”

The group’s largely volunteer Dutch partners maintained the Web site and managed all transactions.  Earnings paid for renovation of a West Bank youth center,  a fleet of bicycles,  a new playground, and laundry facilities for university students in Bir Zeit, near Ramallah.

Since its fall in 1989, hundreds of artists have painted the eastern face of the Berlin Wall.  This longest remaining section of that infamous divider, the East Side Gallery,  is billed as the world’s biggest open-air art exhibit.  Decades after it’s demise, the Berlin Wall illustrates how a flashpoint for political debate can evolve into a powerful stage for creative discourse.

Graffiti explodes during periods of social unrest. In the West, it’s vandalism. In the Middle East, using street art to comment on social and political issues can be a much more dangerous crime.

Green Prophet has shown how Arabic graffiti voices personal and national ideas, inviting people from different backgrounds to connect in a most public forum. With its ready alignment with social media – easily captured images with high visual appeal – street art is emerging as an accessible and entertaining instrument in the political change toolbox.

You can find out more about the history of this artform and its historical role in Middle Eastern revolution in Ard ard (Surface-to-surface): The story of a graffiti revolution by Egyptian writer Sherif Abdel-Megid (Egyptian Association for Books 2011; ISBN 978-977-207-102-9).

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I can’t remember how I found him. One of those idle internet ramblings where a sound or image grabs you by the hair and pulls you smack up to the monitor to find out more. I love when that happens. And it happened with eL Seed.

I’m a graffiti fan. Filthy subway cars in ‘70’s Manhattan made more tolerable by paint-sprayed shells.  Crumbling underbellies of bridges and tunnels, colorfully tagged, sound out visual wake-up calls.  People observe, and comment. I love public art.  The kind spelled in lower case.  Yarn-bombing, sidewalk chalk painting, Lego micro-installations, and graffiti.

[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-jer8RStSXQ[/youtube]

It’s not so easy in Jordan to find things to read in English. Of course these exist, but my unscientific observation is that most English-speaking Jordanians prefer their info delivered in Arabic. I hop on a bus, brush aside someone’s  newspaper, and get zapped by exotic fonts.

Arabic script is gorgeous: bold swirls and delicate loops and fat, juicy dots that look ready to burst. Could be an ad for toothpaste, but to my eye it’s art. The only upside to being Arabic-illiterate is that I see script as pure graphics. Arabic-speaking friends think I’m nuts. I clip newsprint and make collages. My daughter rolls her eyes, then joins me with scissors and glue. I think everyone can appreciate the beauty of Arabic calligraphy. Enter my soulmate, eL Seed.

Born in France to Tunisian parents, his work is a quest for identity. He dabbled in graffiti as a hobbyist, but didn’t take the art form seriously until twelve years ago. eL Seed’s style developed in tandem with a re-immersion into his family’s roots and language. Although street art can be controversial, he chose the form because of its public view; it’s immediate and accessible. It doesn’t require climate control, special lighting, or security guards. And it pulls people in who might not normally enter a museum.

Mixing the ancient art of Arabic calligraphy with modern spray paint techniques, he calls his work “calligraffiti”.  Early works commented on French politics with an emphasis on immigrant acceptance. He now works to promote wider Arab culture, breaking down common stereotypes and misconceptions.

While creating pieces in the street, he hears onlookers comment, “What’s this guy writing?  Is it a call for jihad?” Says the artist with a smile, “It’s an Arabic saying, just keep it cool!”  He says other street artists are surprised to see a Muslim-Arab artist born and raised in the West painting in Arabic.

Arabic script grew as a means of transmitting the messages of the Qur’an. The holy book, in turn, played a major part in the evolution of Arabic language. “Calligraphy is a venerated form of Islamic art,” says eL Seed: “Middle East youth say calligraphy’s an old-school art form for old people. Through graffiti, I feel I’m carrying cultural traditions into modern reality while keeping my heritage alive.”

Arab revolutions instigate parallel development in art.  Serious artists – “taggers” – have emerged in the United Arab Emirates, Israel and Iran. Tags can be spotted on bullet-punched walls in Bahrain, in ancient Palestinian alleyways, on Jordanian trucks cruising from Aqaba to Damascus.  Iranian artist A1one, considered the “Persian Bansky”, uses Tehran walls as his canvas.

The Israeli West Bank barrier is a favored site for political graffiti with its provocative symbolism drawing artists from around the world. Images are photographed and shared through art blogs and social media. The form becomes legitimized. In the West, graffiti is vandalism. In the Middle East, using street art to comment on social and political issues can be a much more dangerous crime.

Arabic script is surfing a hipster wave seen in Western cities in highbrow galleries and on lowbrow tee-shirts.   Due to the efforts of artists like eL Seed, who also works on traditional canvas, examples can be seen in Los Angeles, Beirut, Gaza and Montréal.

A year after the Tunisian revolution, the city of Kairouan ignited an artistic “revolution” with a mural on a 40m x 7m wall positioned just beyond the turrets of the old Medina,  a site of cultural innovation since the first Islamic Empires.

Cultural group El Khaldounia mobilized the project, inviting eL Seed to design and oversee the works.  Local authorities, community leaders and townspeople worked together to complete the project, the first of its kind in Tunisia.

He recently took part in the annual Sharjah Islamic Festival.  At the Museum of Islamic Art in Doha, he conducted a week-long series of workshops with local school kids.

He’s toured North America, sharing his artistic vision and demonstrating how Arabic graffiti can voice personal and national ideas. He encourages people from different backgrounds to connect with Arabic calligraphy by using a medium familiar to all in the West: graffiti.

The name eL Seed is inspired from the Arabic word, al Sayed, which means the man, the master.  Enjoy watching this seed grow.

More on Urban Art in the Middle East:

The Bedouins Convert Ill-Begotten Mansion into a Skate Park

Israeli Artist Transforms Rockets into Roses

HAMAD: Sheikh Graffiti Visible From Space

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When Nathan Gray and his posse of skateboarders and street artists collectively known as “The Bedouins” were scouting out the perfect place to build a skate park in post-revolutionary Tunisia, some of the locals suggested they inhabit Imed Trabelsi’s abandoned mansion.

Once the glittering home of the country’s former Construction Minister and nephew-in-law of ousted dictator Zine El Abidine Ben Ali, the building and grounds had been trashed by protestors during the Jasmine revolution, so a team of skaters and locals set about converting the place into an inspiring skate and art park. It is also an important location for PUSH Tunisia – a documentary scheduled to make its official debut later this year.

Adaptive reuse

Trabelsi’s swimming pool was filled to the gills with rubbish when The Bedouins came upon it, but within a day it was spotless and equipped with concrete concave cambers repurposed from broken pillars that allow skaters to perform their tricks.

Gray told The Guardian in a recent profile that “everyone showed up and liked the idea of converting the place into something anybody could skate and enjoy. The locals told us they’d help out however we needed them to. They didn’t know hot to build it, but they were down to make it happen.”

Egyptian street artist Yehia Ossama put the finishing touches on this inspiring new urban space with a mural entitled “Al Arab,” which means “The Arabs.” His idea was to honor everyone in the region who has sacrificed their personal security and often their lives for the benefit of a better future.

Films that inspire

This is not the first time Gray has entered a beleaguered zone intent on uplifting disadvantaged or traumatized youth. While he was in university, he traveled to Bangladesh and donated a pile of skateboards and lessons to slum dwellers. Later he returned and lived with his new friends for a while and filmed the documentary “Smile.”

Then, during the Lebanese war in 2006, he gathered Arab and Jew skaters together – “people who aren’t supposed to like each other” – and filmed a second documentary called SOUR aimed at bridging a cultural divide during one of the most divisive periods of the region’s history.

PUSH Tunisia will profile the characters who are being transformed by The Bedouins’ most recent creative outreach program. Each person’s unique history will be chronicled, as well as their response to the revolution and their thoughts about Tunisia’s future.

Creating awareness

“Although the emphasis will be about skateboarding there is also an important element of connecting African, Arab, and American cultures, inspiring those affected by conflict, and creating a sense of awareness of the current events happening in Tunisia, Libya, and Egypt,” according to The Bedouins’ online literature.

Gray hopes that in addition to establishing a platform for the locals to express themselves, the documentary will raise awareness of the people affected by the Arab Spring uprisings – both then and now. They received support from skateboarders, NGOs, and even the American embassy in Tunisia to make this vision a reality.

If you’re in the area, try to catch a preview screening of PUSH – one of the most exciting developments to come out of the new Tunisia.

:: The Guardian

images taken from PUSH Tunisia’s Facebook page

More Creative Arts Projects in the Middle East:

Balyolu: Turkey’s First Honey Tasting Tour

Israeli Artist Transforms Rockets into Roses

Zabaleen Film Portrays Cairo’s Garbage City People

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