There is an obsession in Egypt about who controls the street, says theatre director Hakim Abdulnaeem. Two years ago, his troupe Naseem al-Raqs took their dance performances into the streets of Cairo, but not without resistance. Years of political protests have politicized public space in Egypt’s large cities to a point that any gathering is regarded as a demonstration by the security services.

There is an obsession in Egypt about who controls the street, says theatre director Hakim Abdulnaeem. Two years ago, his troupe Naseem al-Raqs took their dance performances into the streets of Cairo, but not without resistance. Years of political protests have politicized public space in Egypt’s large cities to a point that any gathering is regarded as a demonstration by the security services. This presents a challenge to cultural and civic organizations attempting to reclaim public space as a neutral venue in which citizens meet, exchange ideas and consume culture.

Street galleries

The Al-Madina Foundation for Arts in Alexandria, along with other art and cultural foundations, is preparing a campaign to open the streets to artistic activity. Founded in Alexandria in 2000, the organization is working hard to open marginalized public spaces to public expression.

Perhaps one of the major components in this campaign is a booklet based on a survey of twelve street bands and art organizations. The drive behind the campaign is the poverty of public art production in Egypt and the lack of a legal structure to organize it.

Street art brings about security and an indirect sense of equality between the dominant powers on the street, like the authorities be they official or local, and the weaker voices, like those of residents or workers or marginalized minority groups, says Ahmad Saleh, one of the two founders of Al-Madina Project.

Artistic gatherings of artists and audiences are regulated by a 2013 law on gatherings and demonstrations. In the eyes of the law, a street art gathering is a parade. Even if it is apolitical, participants face imprisonment or a fine.

“Public space has become closed”

“People are afraid because public space has become closed and politicized, but what about apolitical activity? The decision makers in this country must understand the economic and social values of street art,” says Muhab Naser, the executive director of Al-Madina project.

Shaimaa Atef, a researcher for the Mahattat Foundation’s ‘Shadows of the City” project in Port Said, says that one of the main objectives is to show how abandoned and forgotten places can be used for art performance. She is developing a guide that gives an overview of other countries’ cultural policies towards abandoned places. The guide also shows how to find abandoned places in urban areas.

Claims to abandoned

Until 2012, artists did not need a permit to use abandoned places. Atef finds that street art and using the abandoned places is a type of resistance. She says that when artists apply for a permit, the security services view them as “trivial people. Nothing to worry about.” But gatherings in Cairo are worrisome for the state, especially if these gatherings are not organized by defined institutions.

The idea of Mahattat came about in 2011 when its five female founders saw that the art scene in Egypt was becoming constrained. At that time, neither the theater nor the cinema were producing high quality. People did not have enough money or time to attend art shows. The foundation aimed to make art a part of the everyday life, and is now active in Cairo, Port Said, Al-Masoura and Dumiat.

The foundation, with the help of roving percussion bands and puppet theater artists, organized balcony operas in Minaiel, a bazaar in Dumiat, on the street in Port Said, and in an old palace in Al-Mansoura. ”People gathered under the balconies and wished us joy,” one organizer recalls. “They told us they felt like human beings.”