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June 17, 2014
Art for Change Becomes a Reality in "ART WAR"
ganzeer
                                                                       Artist Ganzeer at work.

The Egyptian Revolution shook the world in myriad ways, yet no one really thinks of it in artistic terms. This is precisely what Marco Wilms does in his “ART WAR”; he chronicles the Revolution through the endless artistic expressions that arose from it. From music videos to photography and graffiti, the film features interviews with the artists who unarguably propelled this fight for freedom. The documentary is part of the Kino Festival of German Films,which this year has showed politically-minded films that open up audiences perspectives.

We sat down with director Wilms and one of the film’s subjects, the multitalented Ganzeer. They both spoke about the shoot, what the media hasn’t told us about the Revolution and the importance of art as a tool to change the world.

Why did you feel compelled to tell this story?

Marco Wilms: I saw the Egyptian revolution on TV and it reminded me of my own revolution. I’m East German, from Berlin and I was very excited, thought I should go there. I also wanted to write a screenplay and when I arrived there the revolution was already going on, so I started filming and met the artists one by one. These artists didn’t vote on the election, so I realized that this was what mattered: young people giving their lives for the revolution.

Can you elaborate on how you found each of these artists? Several of them have appeared on TV and other documentaries and have become symbols of the revolution.

Marco Wilms: Yes, in a way they are. I met Ammar for example by accident, I was sitting in a cafe, and this guy was sitting next to me with a sketchbook, I saw his work and started filming without asking. I asked what he was doing and when he said he’d go do graffiti, I asked if I could come along, he asked for my number and called me like at two in the morning. Ganzeer, I called a few times before we met. I went with him to a very dangerous place to make a graffiti. I met others at Tahrir Square.

Ganzeer, did doing this documentary make you a bigger target for the military?

Ganzeer: When Marco approached me I was trying to avoid him, not so much because I didn’t want to be in the film but because of the immediate danger that meant having a camera while trying to work. Marco is very persistent…

Marco Wilms: I had a system actually. I met his friends and started calling his friends and asked them to show up at places with him.

Did the camera grant you any sort of protection?

Marco Wilms: The opposite.

Ganzeer: The camera actually calls for aggression. When Marco arrived the regime was trying to convince people that once Mubarak was gone the Revolution was over and people actually believed that. But then they started to slowly discover that they hadn’t gotten the results they wanted, so the regime tried to argue that the new uprising was a counterrevolution and that people with cameras were spies.

Marco Wilms: From the beginning if they see you’re a foreigner with a camera they assume you’re a supporter because the Egyptian media doesn’t cover this. One time they arrested me and then they interrogated me for three hours and asked me to erase everything, but instead I recorded the sound.
Ganzeer: Why didn’t you put this in the film?

Marco Wilms: It’s too complicated to explain! The film is not about my story.

How did you choose what to include in the film?

Marco Wilms: I was always very clear on what I wanted. I filmed a lot because you never knew what would make a good scene in the film, so it was better to shoot everything. The hardest part was translating because I don’t speak Arabic. I had to translate all the material before editing, we had over twenty translators and it took me three months.

The graffiti in the film reminded me of movies, we see images in motion, was this why you included this in your documentary?

Marco Wilms: I decided to put so much attention on street art because it was the perfect picture of the revolution. For me the graffiti was like a water drop that reflected the revolution’s many aspects. Ganzeer for example gave comic books to people in the train station or did fliers with descriptions with how to save yourselves from tear gas, which now they’re using in Maidan Square…

Ganzeer: They use these in Ukraine. The funny thing is that the Russian television showed the Russian and Arabic versions as well as an English version, so the Russian media accused American NGO’s of producing this thing and distributing it in Egypt and Ukraine to start revolutions. But this was just something I put together in less than 24 hours, just right before the protests.

Even before the Revolution what was your purpose with your art?

Ganzeer: I grew up reading comic books and that has been my first and foremost influence as an artist and then I studied graphic design and typography. If you know the history of these things, you realize that they both appeared in response to social issues. Graphic design was used to create protest posters, people now understand design as something used for branding, but when it first came out it was used for other purposes entirely. Same with comic books, they appeared in response to the Nazi aggressions in Europe and the Jewish immigrants created superheroes. You look around and there are so many things wrong with the world, so I knew I wanted to make something that was relevant. I did a lot of commercial work, as well as art, and I was trying to argue the importance of what I was doing and then the Revolution comes and you realize that nothing you’d ever done before had any importance.

Since the media has pretty much stopped covering this,what would you want people to take from the film?

Ganzeer: I would hope that they would see a part of the Revolution that wasn’t covered by the media, that this isn’t a battle being fought by the Muslim Brotherhood and the military to gain power, but that it’s the people caught in between who are being fucked in the process. It was these people who went outside and revolted and started the Revolution. But now history is being rewritten, in Egypt they are claiming that the January revolution was all started by the Muslim Brotherhood, they are rewriting history to support military propaganda. Films are important because they show what really happened. Also, the Revolution has been very artistic and creative, I don’t know many other revolutions that involved people not taking up arms and violence, it’s people using creative means to revolt. Music, posters...it’s a very purposeful kind of creativity. It’s not about selling or winning prizes in a biennale, the prize is to free our country. I’d argue that the work coming out of Egypt is some of the most important.

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Director Marco Wilms

After making the film what surprised you the most? Did your preconceptions change?

Marco Wilms: Yes, every day. You’d never know in the morning what would happen in the afternoon.

Ganzeer: Was it frustrating?

Marco Wilms: Just at the beginning.This was the first film I did on my own because bringing a crew to Egypt was impossible and we couldn’t come up with a schedule because you never knew when things would happen. Like for example one day they tell me there’s this great festival soon, you should come, but it’s in Luxor. My return flight was in two weeks! This is how most of the film went.

With all of these unused material are you planning on making more films about the Revolution?

Marco Wilms: As a filmmaker, once you make a film you said everything you wanted to say. It makes no sense to go back. Maybe in five years, or if there’s a new turn of events. I’m surprised that this window of time is closing so fast.

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Written by: Jose Solis
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