2_ When I was flying off from Cairo on the 25th January, I was reading Asef Bayat’s “Life as Politics – How Ordinary People Change the Middle-East”, which is a great publication about the eventfulness of non-movement, the power of everyday life practices, of the streets, all temporary autonomous zones created by people within authoritarian regimes. And maybe it were these unregulated practices on the street and in various corners (together with facebook) that lead to the BIG movement I saw in full surprise upon landing in the Istanbul Airport screens.
3_ I saw the “arab shorts” film screening during the Transmediale Festival in Berlin last week. After Adham’s question “where does arabness reside”, I was curious, what about these films is so arab. Ala’ Younis, the curator of the screening, made a great introduction, putting exactly the arabness in question, and introducing the films and/or the makers as the ones that reside on border of arabness. Wonderful program, very inspiring films (http://www.transmediale.de/de/content/arab-shorts-2010-curated-ala-younis), also very political by not portraying the “arab world” through the violence, conflicts and problems. But unforturnately ending with an audience member firing questions of relevance of these poetic, non-verbal, imagined images, in a time the arab world is actually on fire.
4_ Next day at Transmediale I saw a science-fiction about the future of Egypt, “2026” by Maha Maamoun (http://www.transmediale.de/content/2026). Latest this should erase the question of urgent relevance of artistic practice and imagination NOW, shouldn’t it?
amchoreo 
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