“When we enter the square, we feel as if we don’t have any fear anymore. We saw the photos of the martyrs everywhere in the square and we felt if we didn’t participate then the blood of all these martyrs would have been wasted for nothing. It’s a feeling that can’t be described. The feeling of seeing all these different types of people together. Tahrir was a like a small country, when we entered no one judges you. We used to raise our flags and speak and nobody judged you. There was also cooperation, there was food available and there was a newspaper that was published everyday It was really like our small country”. Female Artist from Baghdad.
Tahrir Square
The art produced in Tahrir Square, including in its underpass and adjacent areas, represents some of the most significant bodies of artwork produced in the October 2019 protests. Murals throughout Tahrir Square’s underpass represent diverse images and representations of political and cultural expression. Working in tandem with protestors, artists attempted to claim physical space and represent art within different domains of protest.
To counter years of retraction from active societal life, protestors’ attempted to capture and hold on to government buildings, a situation that Bahrani (2021) depicts in relation to the 2019 protests as an ‘occupy’ movement that was reminiscent of the Arab Spring demonstrations and those in US, Europe and many other regions of the world. Those attempts to control physical sites as well as more generally the active effort to elevate issues of common concern to Iraqi society is constitutive of social space (Bourdieu 1989) as way to analyse protest related activity as a site of contestation that similarly involves rivalry over such things as images and symbolism and cultural production more generally.
As protestors camped in Tahrir Square itself they attempted to reclaim public space for their goals. For the next several months, Tahrir Square would be cordoned off from the rest of the city, though people were generally free to come and go as they wished.
We also examined the role of the main building over the Tigris and Tahrir Square – the so called ‘Turkish Restaurant – that had become a hub of protestor activity and its role in the protest movement. Other components of our study include an analysis of the temporary art exhibitions erected by the protestors themselves in Tahrir Square.
''All the murals were supposed to be something cheerful and something to encourage protesters. However, it turned out to be a lot sadder than it should and there is a lot of mourning involved since we lost many lives. Everyone had to put their feelings into their art and hence you can see many of the murals in Tahrir reflect sadness''
Artist from Baghdad.
“We went through many challenges in Tahrir, and I joined some of the artwork and plays in Tahrir. But slowly things got tighter, and they were watching us and threatening us so it was harder to continue. After that, I started writing slogans for the student union and usually on Fridays or Sundays, students would come, and we used to write slogans for them. When I hear slogans, I used to feel relieved. However, slowly and in December, less students started coming and not many strikes were happening in higher education institutions but some of the universities kept on going so I joined them”.
Iraqi Artist.
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