Silent Protests, Tewa Barnosa (2023) (EMPIRE LINES x Africa Centre, Shubbak Festival 2023)

Curator Najlaa El-Ageli explores how Colonel Muammar Gaddafi colonised Libya’s character and identity from the 1960s to its post-Arab Spring present, and how contemporary artists play with the totalitarian props he used to perform and enact control.

During the 20th century, Libya became the main stage for much social change across the ‘Middle East’ and North Africa, including anti-colonial resistance. Armed with his Third International Theory, and strong words against Western imperialism, the Libyan dictator Muammar Gaddafi truly sought total power, control, and mass surveillance of his public - to become King of his own ‘United States of Africa’. Still today, ten years after the Arab Spring and Gaddafi’s death, the legacy of the leader and his dictatorship continues to shape national identities.

Najlaa El-Ageli, curator of Totalitarian Props, points out his signature sunglasses, headgear, and use of the colour green, contrasting the leader’s ‘performance’ - or pantomime - with lived experiences of his authoritarian regime. Beyond Libya, we look to the British colonisation of Egypt, and the ideals embodied by solidarity movements like pan-Africanism and pan-Arabism. Through the work of Tewa Barnosa, El-Ageli’s details the role of humour in social coping - and what it was like to curate an exhibition with the younger artist, creating an exhibition which spans generations and diasporas.

Totalitarian Props runs at The Africa Centre in London until 19 July 2023, as part of Shubbak Festival 2023.

WITH: Najlaa El-Ageli, architect, curator, and founder of Noon Arts. Projects. She is the co-curator of Totalitarian Props.

ART: ‘Silent Protests, Tewa Barnosa (2023)’.PRODUCER: Jelena Sofronijevic.

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