Samuli Schielke, « A City of Walls. A Photo Essay on Writing on Walls in Alexandria, 2011-2017 », Égypte/Monde arabe,Troisième série, 17 | 2018, 

p. 157-191

Outdoor walls of Alexandria are full of writings. Stencil graffiti, sprayed messages, painted advertisements, ball-pen notes, stickers and billboards create a mostly anonymous conversation of different messages struggling for space, mostly transient and at times poetic. Especially political graffiti during and after the 2011 revolution became the site of an often uncivil debate made up of deletions, crossings-out and changes to graffiti by others. But also love messages, religious phrases and advertisement have important messages to tell.The writings on the cityʼs three-dimensional walls often mingle with the metaphorical walls of social media feeds as inhabitants of the city are engaged in poetic, transient conversations and commentary on their phones while they move through their city. Sometimes the different poetics and materialities of wall-writing also converge when social media mimes reproduce or simulate photos of graffiti.In Alexandria today, both ways to write on walls are common and productive of spaces and social relations in the city. These forms of everyday textual conversation and presence push the limits of conventional understandings of literary vs. ordinary language. They also tell important stories of the coexistence of different visions and ways of life in a plural but not pluralistic city.

Plan

Introduction — Walls, writings, cities

Struggles and genres, alterations and transformations

Poetry of open-air and virtual walls

Conclusion: Speaking out loud and remaining invisible