Over the past decade, there has been a burgeoning interest in the realm of art activism within the Southwest Asia and North Africa region, shedding light on the political implications of aesthetic representation. Nevertheless, a critical inquiry into how political aesthetics can formulate both discernible and imperceptible resistance strategies in response to resurging authoritarianism and counter-revolution after the 2011 uprisings in the region remains conspicuously absent.

This book delves into a comprehensive examination of diverse art forms, ranging from street art and cinema to performance art, as well as music and theatre, scrutinizing the manifestations of aesthetic resilience at the epicentre of the political resistance against oppression and authoritarianism in Sudan, Iran, Egypt, Tunisia, Algeria, Morocco, Lebanon, Yemen and Syria. The editors employ a multifaceted approach to investigate artistic activism, encompassing analysis of visibility, ephemerality, and speech within the public sphere, the establishment and perpetuation of collective transnational solidarities, the portrayal of suppressed identities and narratives, and the innovation of alternative mechanisms for producing and disseminating a

The 2019 revolt in Sudan was seemingly the most successful uprising in the Arab world until the coup in 2021 and the outbreak of war in 2023. The Sudanese revolution of 2019 brought together a nationwide group of Sudanese youth who want change in their country. This chapter reflects on the various components of Sudan’s revolution which ousted its dictator Omar al-Bashir after decades of authoritarian rule. In the words of its own revolutionaries this is thanks to a strong commitment to non-violent values, a vibrant artistic public sphere on the streets and its connection to online digital dissidence. Visions for change can be seen and observed in the large body and collections of graffiti art and mural paintings throughout the public space in the city of Khartoum. Through extensive photographic documentation of revolutionary graffiti street art, ArcGIS story maps and interviewing young revolutionaries this study has documented graffiti and murals of the Sudanese revolution. The chapter concludes with a reflection on the ongoing resistance art in the increasingly difficult circumstances after the outbreak of war in Sudan in 2023 which is turning into a protracted conflict whereby artists and environmental activists are either forced to leave the country and continue their activism in a diasporic condition or to go underground inside Sudan.

In 2019, the Sudanese people managed to bring down an authoritarian regime that ruled the country for over 3 decades. Their visions for change in Sudan can be seen and observed in the large body and collections of graffiti art and mural paintings throughout the public space in the city of Khartoum. Some of these murals give a clear image of how the revolutionaries see and envision the Sudan they want to build (‘Hanabniho’ = ‘we will build’). The term ‘Hanabniho’ derives from a poem written by Mahjoub Sharif and sung by legendary Nubian Sudanese singer Mohammed Wardi; ‘We will build Sudan, how we dreamt it every day, homeland of goodness, homeland of democracy’ It was sung during the 2019 Sudanese Revolution. The creative and imaginary capacities of Sudanese young revolutionaries to imagine Sudan’s future, are the basis for a research project that explores collaborative storytelling and future making through bringing together Sudanese graffiti artist collectives and environmental activists for future visioning exercises to imagine a sustainable future for Sudan. Since January 2020, the author has documented the Sudanese revolutionary graffiti and murals using ArcGIS story mapping in which locations of important mural are geolocated and presented interactively to document and explore important relations between places, spaces and stories. In February 2022, the author conducted ethnographic fieldwork with environmentalists and mural artists in Khartoum. In this paper, she will present preliminary results of the study and participatory future workshopping as a method that she applied during the fieldwork. The goal of the future workshop was to creatively explore how Sudanese graffiti artists and environmentalists can co-create sustainable future visions for Sudan. Both groups exchanged knowledge, discussed SDGs, sketched together and collaborated in telling their stories for earthly survival and human rights with the walls as canvas.

This study aims to document and capture past and future visions of Sudan’s revolutionary youth. The 2019 Sudanese revolution ousted dictator Omar el-Bashir after decades of authoritarian rule. In the words of its own revolutionaries, this is thanks to a vibrant artistic public sphere on the streets and its connection to online digital dissidence. The Sudanese revolution caused an explosion of  vibrant urban art made by street artists who expressed their thoughts and voices through mural paintings and graffiti. In 2020 and 2022, I conducted fieldwork in Khartoum with the Sudanese revolutionary artists. My study focuses on the role of mural art and graffiti in the Sudanese protests, through digital ethnography, extensive digital photo documentation of revolutionary graffiti street art and photo elicitation interviews with Sudanese revolutionary artists, both on zoom and irl, in combination with organizing a collaborative visioning workshop. My geolocated photographic data are combined with regular and VR360 video data, embedded in a georeferenced ARcGIS storymap that enables everyone to digitally conduct an immersive tour through Khartoum city and virtually visit the sites of important political graffiti. My challenge is how to analyse and interpret the multimodal data to capture the visual cultures surrounding the Sudanese revolution.