In Yemen’s restive capital of Sana’a, colorful signs of hope emerge amid scenes of wreckage from the country’s ongoing civil war. Vivid murals on the walls of damaged buildings memorialize the many thousands of lives lost since 2011. Artist Murad Subay’s mural campaign, called “Ruins,” calls for peace.
Tag: murad subay
“Murad Subay” an article by the amazing Lydia Noon, in the printed magazine “New Internationalist”
“Do you think art can increase global awareness of Yemen’s humanitarian crisis?
Art is often used to send powerful messages, especially when it discusses the issues that concern people. Art can be understood globally; it is a universal an peaceful language. For this reason, I believe that using this medium to highlght the ‘forgotten’ Yemeni crisis and conflict might help in getting some of the attention that we need.”
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Yemen’s first revolutionary street artist Murad Subay.\ Turkish TV “Maydan
Yəmənin ilk inqilabçı küçə sənətçisi Murad Subay.
Murad inqilabdan sonra divarlara müharibənin izlərini həkk edir
Rəssam həlak olan insanların üzlərini, onların həyat hekayəsini divarlara köçürür.
O, yanlış verilmiş siyasi qərarlara fırçasıyla etiraz edir.
“Yəmənli Banksi” ləqəbi ilə məşhurlaşan Murad məqsədinin insanların qorxularını, ümidlərini və düşüncələrini divarda əks etdirmək olduğunu deyir.
Murad tək deyil. Rəssamın müharibəyə, təcavüzə etirazına dostları da dəstək verir.
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Yemeni Artist Encourages Youth to Embellish Streets with Murals\ ASHARQ AL-AWSAT
Lifestyle & Culture
Yemeni Artist Encourages Youth to Embellish Streets with Murals
Yemeni Artist Murad Subay has spent the last seven years in decorating Sanaa’s streets with murals and colorful paintings.
Since the Arab Spring kicked off in 2011, Subay has drawn hundreds of paintings on the walls of Sanna’a, which have been damaged by the war, aiming to highlight the oppression and sufferance of millions of Yemenis caused by the war, poverty, and revolution in their country.
Till this day, Subay launched five artistic campaigns, and each focused on a different aspect of the conflict, including the incidents of kidnap, disappearance, corruption, poverty, killing of civilians, drones’ use, and the huge devastation of his country’s infrastructure.
While drawing one of his paintings near the Yemeni Central Bank, Murad Subay said: “Today we are near the Yemeni Central Bank, and we want to say that economy shall find real solutions, stop the corruption and the collapse of the national economy”.
The deterioration of the Yemeni economy has increased with the launch of the civil war in March 2015, when the Saudi-led Arab coalition kicked off an air attack to overthrow the Houthis, and to return the government of President Abd Rabbo Mansour Hadi. The conflict led to the death of more than six thousand Yemeni to date, displaced more than two million people, and involved the poor country in one of the worst world humanitarian crises ever.
Subay has called his recent campaign “Ruins”, and drew paintings on the walls of the buildings damaged during the war, to commemorate thousands of people who lost their lives in the conflict.
Subay does not work alone. Over the years, he has called the youth who live in the neighborhoods near the city to join him, and hundreds have responded. The artist stresses that art is the best peaceful and influential mean to refuse oppression and to emphasize sufferance. Subay said that colors and paintings are a decent and peaceful call for Yemenis to refuse hatred and conflicts, and to move toward the construction of their country and to stop its destruction.
Subay received many global awards for the political expressions he use in his works. Yet, he sees that he earned these awards due to the support of his friends, family, and the Yemeni people, saying teamwork can make a significant difference in Yemen.
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Yemeni Artist Fights Oppression And Suffering with Art\ AJ+ English
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The Saw mural, Ruins campaign
English Text Follows:
عانى اليمنيون الأمرين خلال هذه الحرب، الدمار والقهر والجوع والعطش، وفوق ذلك، يعانون الآن من دمار شبه كلي لإقتصادهم.
جداريتي الثامنة “المنشار”، ضمن حملة “حُطام” في النشاط الثامن بعنوان “تدهور الإقتصاد”، على جدار جسر الصداقة، شارع التحرير، صنعاء بتاريخ 9 يونيو 2016. يظهر في الصورة “البنك المركزي اليمني”.
Yemenis have suffered both, destruction, oppression, hunger and thirst, and above it all, they are now going through even harder times with the almost economy collapse.
My mural “The Saw”, in the eighth activity of “Ruins” campaign around “The Economy Collapse”. It was painted on Al-sadaqah bridge, Tahrir street, Sana’a, on June 9, 2016. The “Central Bank of Yemen” appears in the picture.
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JOHNS HOPKINS University
I passed by an information a time ago, and was so happy to know that my artworks, along with the artworks of the international artists “Banksy, Shepard Fairey, Invader and other artists, are being taught in “John Hopkins University” under the course “Occupy Street Walls: Street Art, Public Space, and Law”. I’m so pleased to know that the humble campaigns I launched are getting this kind of attention.
مررت قبل فترة على هذه المعلومة وسعدت جدا بأن جامعة جون هوبكنز الأمريكية، والتي تعتبر من أهم وأعرق الجامعات في العالم، تقوم بتدريس أعمالي إلى جوار كل من أعمال الفنانين العالميين مثل “بانكسي، شيبيرد فيري، إنفيدر، وفنانين أخرين” ضمن مادة “شَغل جدران الشوارع: فن الشارع، المساحات العامة، والقانون”. من الجميل ان يكون للحملات المتواضعة التي اطلقتها مثل هذا الإهتمام.
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“Murad” – Film by: Abdurahman Hussain
“Elites and Politicians did not represent Yemenis well and they let them down, but there is no doubt that things will change. It won’t last forever. People will get to the stage where they demand a state, a just state – free of corruption. They will definitely pursue that.”
“Yemenis love beauty by nature, and for four years now, the murals in the streets haven’t been touched or destroyed by the Yemeni citizens.”
“Murad” A short film
By the brilliant: AbduRahman Hussain
خُذل اليمنيون من قبل ساستهم ونخبهم، لكن بلا شك الزمن يتغير وسيصل اليمنيون الى فكرة حاجتهم إلى الدولة، وسيخرجو لأجل الدولة، دولة مدنية، دولة عادلة ودولة خالية من الفساد. لا بد أن يخرجو”
“اليمنيون بطبعهم يحبون الجمال، ولأكثر من أربعة أعوام، لم تتعرض الجداريات للطمس من قبل المواطن اليمني.”
من فيلم قصير بعنوان “مراد”
للعبقري: عبدالرحمن حسين
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كلمتي أثناء تسلمي لجائزة “حرية التعبير 2016” إنجلترا
يشرفني ان أكون هنا معكم جميعاً اليوم، ولهذا، أود أن اشكر منظمة “Index On Censorship” على منحي هذه الجائزة، على إيمانهم بي واعترافهم بعملنا في الوطن.
وأود أن أشكر أصدقائي الذين ينضمون لي في كل مرة للرسم على جدران الشوارع، والذين يتشاركون معي نفس المخاوف بشأن القضايا المهمة. أريد أيضاً أن اشكر الناس الطيبين في اليمن والذين ساندونا دائما ولطالما كانوا روح كل حملة أطلقتها للرسم على جدران الشارع.
أود أن اغتنم هذه الفرصة الليلة لتسليط الضوء على واحدة من أكبر المخاوف بالنسبة لي وبالنسبة للكثير من اليمنيين. كما يعلم الكثيرون منكم، اليمن تمر بأصعب الأوقات في تاريخها مع اندلاع الصراعات الداخلية والإقليمية. عانى اليمنيون كثيراً حتى قبل اندلاع هذه الصراعات، واليوم يخوضون هذه الأوقات الصعبة بمفردهم، ولكن يبدو ان الخسائر الثقيلة التي يتحملها اليمنيون كل يوم ليست كافية حتى الآن لجذب انتباه المجتمع الدولي والإعلام.
أهدي هذه الجائزة اليوم إلى الأشخاص المجهولين الذين يكافحون من أجل البقاء على قيد الحياة، وأنا لا أتحدث عن أولئك الذين يخوضون هذه الصراعات بأسلحتهم. بالأحرى، أنا اتحدث عن كل شخص يعاني من إصابة خطيرة، او فقد أحد افراد اسرته أو محبوبيه، أو فقد منزله أو مدرسته أو وظيفته، أو كافح للحفاظ على اسرته على قيد الحياة عندما كانوا يموتون جوعاً بسبب الحرب. هؤلاء النساء، الرجال والأطفال هم الأبطال الحقيقيين الذي يجب علينا جميعا أن ننحني لهم إجلالا واكبارا لمواصلتهم الحياة وتمسكهم بها.
لذلك، لكل رؤساء وملوك وقادة العالم الذين اساؤوا ويسيئون استخدام سلطتهم، صحيح انكم قد لا تحاكمون ابداً، ولكن يجب أن تعرفوا انكم تتركون ورائكم إرث قذر في الوقت عينه الذي ينبغي بكم ان تركزوا على القضايا الحقيقية التي تواجه البشرية، بدلاً من إلقاء الحروب الطائشة وإشراك العالم في قتل بعضهم بعضاً.
مرة أخرى، أشكر منظمة “Index On Censorship” وفريقها على منحي هذه الجائزة، واشكركم جميعا لاستماعكم لي أشارك مخاوفي معكم. دعونا نأمل أن يسود السلام في اليمن بأسرع ما يمكن.
شكرا لكم.
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#INDEXAWARDS2016: MURAD SUBAY SHEDS LIGHT ON HUMAN COST OF YEMEN’S WAR
#IndexAwards2016: Murad Subay sheds light on human cost of Yemen’s war
By Georgia Hussey, 18 March 2016
In 2011, artist Murad Subay took to the streets of Yemen’s capital, Sana’a to protest the country’s dysfunctional economy and institutionalised corruption, and to bring attention to a population besieged by conflict. Choosing street art as his medium of protest, he’s since run five campaigns to promote peace and art, and to discuss sensitive political and social issues in society. Unlike many street artists, all his painting is done in public, during the day, often with passers by getting involved themselves.
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Since 2011, jihadist attacks and sectarian clashes have engulfed Yemen, and in 2015 a civil war began between two factions claiming to constitute the Yemeni government. The exiled Yemeni government, backed by a Saudi-led coalition stood against the Houthi militia, and those loyal to former president Ali Abdullah Saleh and backed by Iran. |
In the last seven months the conflict has hit the already unstable country, leading to over 21 million people – 82 percent of the population – needing humanitarian assistance. In addition, a strong Al-Qaeda presence has drawn repeated drone strikes from the United States.
“Yemenis live under catastrophic conditions due to the conflicts, considering that they are already one of the poorest nations in the world,” Subay told Index. “They lack food, water and medicine, and they are in need of urgent humanitarian assistance.” With his art, Subay aims to highlight the situation in which millions of Yemenis find themselves in today.
Murad started his graffiti campaigns with The Walls Remember Their Faces, drawing the faces of Yemeni citizens who had been forcibly disappeared.
“This particular campaign meant so much to me,” he said. “I felt that I got closer to those people every time we painted their faces. Almost every week people came holding the picture of their long disappeared family member, so that we paint it on the walls.”
He then began Colour the Walls of Your Street, claiming back the bombed remains of Yemen’s capital, followed by 12 Hours in 2013. 12 Hours was an hour-by-hour series with each piece depicting one of 12 problems facing Yemen, including weapons proliferation, sectarianism, kidnapping and poverty. The project used social media to call Yemeni citizens to action, painting walls with messages about government and policy across Yemen’s capital.
His latest campaign Ruins was initiated in May 2015, in collaboration with artist Thi Yazen. The project involves them painting on the walls of buildings damaged by the war, to provide a memorial for the thousands of war victims, and to highlight war crimes.
Subay has faced pressure from the authorities, who have covered his work or stopped him from extending his campaigns to other towns. However ordinary Yemenis — including victims’ families — have gotten behind his campaigns by painting alongside Subay, or repainting pieces “scrubbed out” by authorities.
Murad Subay continues to shed light on the human cost of the war, taking his murals to other cities in Yemen, including Aden, Taizz, Ebb and Hodeidah.
Murad Subay 