 Good afternoon, welcome to USIP It's great to see such a Well-attended event in the hot days of July. We do have an overflow room That is available two doors down the staff can direct you to if if you're not comfortable standing and apologize that we have limited space Let me say some introductory remarks for this event and welcome you and Then I will introduce The ambassador of Afghanistan to Washington and then I will turn it over to the panel For those of you that are not familiar with USIP. We were founded by we were formed by Congress 30 years ago and The founding principle was the proposition that peace is possible Peace is practical and peace is essential for us and international security USIP pursues this vision of a world without conflict by working in conflict zones with partners like several of the ones that are here Equipping them with tools knowledge and training to peacefully resolve conflict We're here to discuss a very important issue and one that I think is refreshingly different from typical think tank panels And that is how public art can be used in communities to prompt discussions on good governance and peace USIP is investing more time and thought about the arts as an important item in the peace makers toolbox They can contribute to reducing violent conflict and USIP has created an arts and cultural forum to explore the link between arts and conflict resolution One recent event that we had that demonstrates the potential success of the arts and in a different medium of Filmmaking was when we hosted a screening of the Academy Award-winning documentary a girl in the river by Directed by Charmine Obayichanoy About the problem of honor killings in Pakistan, which unfortunately is prominently in the news. The good news is from that movie's publicity And and activism around it. There's new legislation in Pakistan to address to make it more easy to prosecute honor killings So that I think in a different context shows Potentially the power of arts rather than traditional advocacy to change people's minds to open up their thinking to new ideas In this event, we're going to hear about three innovative initiatives use murals and painting To convey messages of tolerance better governance and peace in Afghanistan Pakistan the Middle East and Africa My colleague Huda will introduce the panelists But first I have the honor of introducing ambassador Hamdullah Maheep Ambassador Afghanistan's ambassador to Washington who makes some introductory remarks Afghanistan has been the site of several innovative arts projects including an exhibit by the turquoise mountain Foundation at the Smithsonian. It's going on now And the mural projects art lords that will be talked about among the panelists today Ambassador Maheep has been a strong supporter of these initiatives for Afghanistan Ambassador Maheep took up his post in Washington Recently before He was the deputy chief of staff to his excellency the president Ashraf Ghani of Afghanistan Dr. Maheep has been an active leader in civil society Among the global Afghan community He founded the largest Afghan diaspora youth association in Europe the Afghan students Association of the UK and received his PhD from Brunel University in the United Kingdom So ambassador, let me turn it over to you for some opening remarks and then to the panel and thank you all for joining Andrew Analyst or maid is good to see you good to see some friends and it's good to see so many people here today It shows that Afghanistan is still There is a lot of interest in Afghanistan and especially in art We're here of course to celebrate the power of art It's power to move us and it's power to help us see the world through different eyes And it's power to teach us to think differently about ourselves And about our fellow human beings, but above all we're here to celebrate art lords now They're out on a mission to change the meaning of the suffix lords They are out here to tell us what the millennial of Afghanistan are a different kind of lords the peaceful kind The constructive kind the kind kind of lords In that spirit, I want to paint a picture for you a picture of a vision of Afghanistan picture this a couple of young engineers building a Functioning aircraft from the instructions they download from the internet Another build a solar car from scrap And yet a duo building a wind power robot and a detective drone to clear landmines Picture a country where women entrepreneurs enjoy the same career success as men and Where a rising generation of young people is ambitious tech savvy and culturally sophisticated a country where civil society works alongside government To make sure it remains accountable to its citizens Where ethnic diversity is respected and all are included a Country determined to leave the troubles of the past behind and focus on moving forward Where domestic government government works to heal? the wounds of war and hatred through political compromise a Country whose people diaspora refugees leaders are united in their commitment to create a better future for Afghanistan Ladies and gentlemen, this picture is not of a distant future. This is the Afghanistan of today Despite what some outside observers may believe the 37 years of conflict has not broken Afghanistan Afghans are still standing strong in solidarity with each other in so many different ways Just look at the long lines of people who queue up to give blood donation when there is an attack Nobody questions who is injured what the person's ethnicity is They are there to help because the Afghans their fellow Afghans need help I want to talk a little bit about our Lord because I think it's very close to my own heart When I started working for the government I suddenly found myself in this diplomatic and governmental enclave in the heart of Kabul city The building inside this Kabul in this part of Kabul are beautiful still are but due to necessity They it has been made ugly by this big concrete tall walls around around it It has turned into a avertable fortress today These walls are for security, but they make the area look like and feel like a prison When you look on this expanse of blank industrial concrete, it feels like there is no hope. I Call it the Wall Street of Kabul Not it makes you feel like there is nothing lovely in green and it will never grow Things will never turn to normal Every time I pass through this area. I want you to paint these walls. I want them to paint them in bright colors red blue green yellow So that instead of seeing these Concrete walls. I wanted them to be brighter colors So that it would give people a little more hope and a bit more refreshment We couldn't take the walls down, but we could take them down with what paint I called Omaid one day and asked and told him and shared that that idea with him I told him that I'd be happy to put down some seed money to at least paint one street so that once it is Once we have a pilot we can show what it looks like I'll be able to put the government to To to sponsor a citywide project But I said that it would need to be a civil society led initiative that the government would be a facilitating partner Well made had the same vision, but a better one. He had an artful vision He told me that instead of just painting the walls. He wanted to create art to turn these walls into an art exhibition an Open art exhibition that would inspire people and promote social and political reforms. I knew he was right, of course his friends and him They were determined to turn what was the most depressing part of about our city into an open plan art gallery and they did it and and the art lords were born Even before the first painting was finished everyone saw the beauty of this idea They all loved it The art lords is expanding to other cities Bringing its creative inspiring messages and images to millions of people Images like the pair of eyes with the anti-corruption message. I see you Which seeks to inspire people to act ethically the image of the hard-working Street cleaners which inspires people to appreciate and respect these invaluable but invisible workers And the image of a heart on a balloon string Which inspires us to remember that love will always lift us even in our darkest moments Who made his 30 years old now, I think Which makes him part of the millennial generation on Afghanistan. You see 30 Over three quarters of our gen our people were born after 1980 After the Soviet Union had invaded Afghanistan and after the war had begun the war for independence Their lives are shaped by vastly different forces than the lives of the older generation their hope and For the future are informed by the trap not by the tragedies that have befallen our future our past but what the Potential for the future is I Believe their determination to change Afghanistan's story is unprecedented in our history It's so wonderful and so inspirational that people like Omey Chereefi Come up with wonderful and brilliant ideas such as art lord Which move our country forward? But it's let me tell you but this is just the beginning Instead of warlords and drug lords Let our lords be the first of money constructive lords in Afghanistan Tech lords pen lords science lords and most importantly peace lords. Thank you very much Thank You ambassador moheep for those very moving remarks, and I want to echo the same I also just want to add that we're extremely delighted at us IP to have such a fabulous lineup today of colleagues and panelists As far as moving forward, I just want to briefly introduce Omey, although at this point he does not need any introduction that truly was fabulous But I just want to echo that Omey is also a social and human rights activist He's the social Afghanistan social media award winner for encouraging offline action in 2015 He's also the country representative slash ambassador of accountability lab And he is the co-founder of art lords and hum deli network He has been instrumental in establishing youth and social networks across Afghanistan and organizing grassroots campaigns around the country to enhance awareness and Advocate for the rights that often of those that are marginalized and unable to speak up Ambassador moheep has already mentioned this but really he's brought new life to Afghanistan new life to Kabul Especially with the drab city walls It's really energizing but underneath all that he's also Sending through very important messages to citizens to the government to civil society on issues such as tackling corruption Governance and countering violent extremism some of those themes that made is going to highlight In his presentation today And so I'll turn it over to me to kick us off and then I will also briefly introduce our other panelists as we go through Thank you I'm really humbled and honored believe me. I this is the first time I hear so many good words for myself. So it's It's really great Miss ambassador and me this is the the new Afghanistan if you have any picture of Afghanistan in your mind This is it. So the young generation. We have a young capable ambassador in in DC And then a lot of good examples in this room from young Afghans who have been doing great works Art lords is just one example a simple one that I had the opportunity to come here and share with you There are thousands of examples like art lords young groups starting their own initiatives taking responsibility That standing up for our own self. So that's so many examples out there. So I'll be Happy to share some of them when I had a chance to talk to every one of you So I will talk about as mr. Ambassador mentioned We are the positive lords and then we enjoy our work. We like our work and We are two years old right now when I still remember When the first time I received a good help from mr. Ambassador He called me and said I'm going to States, but I have this money And I want you to get it and a start painting. So that was like a great help Like mr. Ambassador, we have so many good people in Afghanistan who have supported us They're giving me from ten dollars to two like two thousand three thousand dollars and enabled me to go out there and paint So this is not only my work it's a great group of 25 people back there in Afghanistan and The wider community from from street kids to ministers who have been an ambassadors who have been part of this movement. I Will have a brief two minutes video if we can play that video and then I will have a 10 minutes presentation so Our work is volunteer work, and if I have the presentation We focus on On working on the streets, but painting murals is just tip of the iceberg What we usually do is we go to universities. We go to schools We really work with with the minds and hearts of this the the young generation. I Encourage them to think differently. I encourage them to ask questions because Critical thinking has been We have not been taught to to be critical thinkers in Afghanistan not in our education system Not in our universities and even not in our mosques because we are always stopped from asking questions So this work when I go out there and I work with these young people I encourage them to ask question I encourage them to take a moment and and and think about this So all the murals we do around Kabul is is in a way to encourage people to Ask questions and then think about why this is happening to them. Why he is supporting a warlord Which has been stealing from them for four decades. Why did the things are the way they are just just with themselves? We put the seed of doubt in their minds and let them go with it And this seed of doubt and this question will encourage them to to go and find themselves and eventually stand up for their rights So we are the voice of the white voiceless because whenever we work on the streets of Kabul everybody is welcome to join So in the next slide you would see that street kids Who are selling their voice as I say it they they usually work on the streets They wash cars and they are asking passengers to fill up the cars and they came like they get like 10 cents or 20 cents so they I Can do that so they if you see it they come in and they left their jobs for the whole week and they painted with me This is like Central Afghanistan in the heart of Kabul. It's a it's right beside the presidential palace So they were painting and next day they were showing it to their friends that this is my part that feeling of ownership That I am part of something and when this happens This becomes a platform where we share our concerns. We talk with each other. We connect with these people We connect with that police officer With that street kid with that woman who has so many problems in their lives But we for a moment of time we all stop there We get a brush and we paint and then we have this discussion We tell them about issues of Corruption why we are the most the top three most corrupt country according to transparency international Why we can't do something about this shame? So this is how all those discussion starts and they will take it up to their families their homes and then I go to their institutions and schools and Universities this discussion continues on different levels So university is a school. This is American University of Afghanistan where we talk with with students the Afghanistan scouts So different people there they've been calling us to to go there and then we start this process We then invite them to come over and paint with us if they have any ideas any thoughts any social causes That they're concerned about they can come out there and paint with us at the same time So doing this we had to select some themes What are those things that we want to focus on so the famous one and then the one which I am very very Proud to talk about this. I see you a pair of eyes. Miss ambassador mentioned it as well So these pair of eyes is all over Kabul and even right now There are jokes about ICU in the Supreme Court of Afghanistan judges are talking about it a young attorney the other day came to me and said You know what since these eyes are out there in the streets. We feel a bit scared like really They I get people when they talk and I have people who will like just cross on the street And they think I'm a foreigner because I had very long hair and they would say If you speak Dari like in our own language God bless you like in their own way of a driver wheel Person on working on the street. They all love it and they all want to be part of it We have different themes around corruption Like these police officers pointing their fingers that I know you're stealing my money I'll get to you if not today next time in a year or two. We will get you to justice So different parts of the city with different things But why I'm here today is to talk about countering extremism Radicalization is the biggest challenge in South Asia and in my country So what I do with this campaign is I'm humanizing numbers Last week around 500 people were killed and injured in an incident in a civilian protests in Kabul This is just one story. It's very painful when I'm talking about because all my life I was born raised educated living all my life in Kabul. So I've seen all of this pain with my my own Flesh and bones. So and every time it's just becoming numbers for people 10 people killed 20 people killed Every 24 hours an average of 30 Avon army officers are killed. So it's just Those numbers. So we are putting faces on those numbers humanizing those numbers This campaign says, who are you killing? This is a young girl 21 years of old her name is Kutsia and she was killed right on the street of parliament in a suicide attack So this will be all over Afghanistan. It's depressing. I know but what we have to be very aggressive we have to be in their in their faces and Just not murals. We will do songs and we will do Other multimedia as well because if you see Taliban in the south of Afghanistan, they they have their their own Songs that they send it to Bluetooth Which glorifies suicide attacks which glorifies killing other people I will have the same songs with the same poems, but I will I will glorify peace I will ask these young people that why are you doing this and my songs will be handed over in these Bluetooth mobiles So this is countering them in their own thing in art lords. What we do is we solve problems Find creative ways to solve those problems if there's a challenge if radicalization as challenge We'll find the solution within that problem Transitional justice Miss ambassador just mentioned about 37 or 40 years of war that we have been true Nobody's sorry They have killed so many people they even they will you they are very very happy about that they are proud of it So this is sort of a reverse psychology where a kid will come and say I'm sorry. I apologize for the 35 years of Killing and stealing and doing all those atrocities to you At least this could encourage these people To to stop Glorifying their their their shames and their their brutalities to come and say sorry that will be the start that we can go forward for having a Peaceful society and then later on I will have even animals will come on the walls and say sorry like like dogs Say I apologize somehow we have to be very aggressive. We have to be in their eyes to do this And if you walk on the streets of Kabul Everybody is depressed. I don't blame them Because we have been in conflict all four decades and what conflict that's to you That's what we know in Afghanistan. So nobody smiles So this was the idea that we would come up with with murals on the streets to encourage people to smile So we have a famous singer. This is our Elvis Presley Ahmad Zahir. We have like different ethnicities They would you would just cross a road and this ugly wall out there And you would see a person smiling and then this will help you to smile My solution for this is we cannot change the attitudes and behaviors with force What my people needs is love empathy. That's what we have to give them With love with the smarts with a good hug. I've changed so many people. I've seen that they are they are they are changing So that's our way forward and that's what we are going to do and then why I did this to This ugly walls of miss ambassador mentioned I escaped like I cut my story out of it because Cobble looks like a present as he said I Used to walk all those streets. I used to go to my school, which was across the presidential palace I could ride any street in Kabul. It was a beautiful city. That's my city But right now every single place like if it's an embassy a government institution Even business people who own businesses. They're blocking the streets They've put all these ugly blast wars and they're growing it used to be two meters now It's five meters high. So that was the point for me that I wanted to bring down these walls and What we do is we put paint on them and we become that bridge that bridge between the ordinary citizens of Afghanistan And the people who are protecting themselves behind those walls They have armored cars when they're walking or driving the streets and they have these big blast walls But as we don't have anything out there on the streets, we will become that bridge and we will connect with them So, thank you very much. Thank you. I made that was extremely inspiring And I really appreciate it. I know when I was in Kabul a few months ago I Could see everything popping up and it is certainly getting a lot of attention And I think it's really good to see something positive and uplifting on the streets Okay, perfect. So what I want to do next is turn it to Samantha We're very very fortunate to have Samantha here with us I have to actually plead a bit of ignorance because I learned of Samantha's work through colleagues And I have to say I'm absolutely fascinated by the work art is doing. So I do want to give a shout out there Samantha's the founder and executive director of awareness prevention through art Art and as I should also mention as everyone was walking in we had some of the work that Omade was doing as well as Some of the work that art is doing Out in the lobby. So do take time as you're exiting if you haven't already to look at some of the exhibitions that we have up She also works with artists and activists dedicated to sharing artistic experiences with conflict Specifically working with marginalized communities throughout the world a lot of work done with refugees, which is very very timely Since 2011 she's coordinated workshops with youth resulting in large-scale Public art across Jordan, Syria, Iraq, Palestine Cambodia, Burma, Turkey, DRC, Mozambique and the list goes on We just didn't have enough space to showcase all the amazing work that you're doing. So with that I will turn it over to Sam to talk about the work that they're doing and then the importance of murals Okay, hi, thank you so much for being here today And supporting a slightly unconventional idea in this field like art I'm the founder and director of apt art And together with a team of dedicated artists and activists from literally all over the world We work with conflict affected and marginalized communities to amplify their voices We use street art and public art to build awareness about the issues affecting their lives The geopolitical climate at the moment is not encouraging The media is constantly spouting statistics of death and displacement alongside horrifying tales of terrorism and destruction But we cannot lose our humanity in the statistics nor can we lose our logic in fear When I speak to people about going to a lot of the countries that I do such as Congo or Syria or Iraq I met with extreme concern and asked if I'm going to be beheaded or kidnapped or Plethora of other concerns The reality on the ground generally is though that I met with an endless supply of hot tea more than I can ever Consume and invited into people's homes and the average people that live in these places are here to make human connections And children the world over if given the opportunity will write their name as large as they possibly can across a wall No matter where you are in the world They will probably try to smear paint across their their friends face and They always steal spray paint always There are undoubtedly terrible things that have happened to people and children across the world But I'm not going to focus on that today What I'm going to focus on is how we can move forward and how we can understand one another And how we can create human connections and work to ensure that the next generation is Defined by real progress towards peace and not by violence and hopelessness If we want peace in this world And we want sustainable change we need to focus on the next generation and not just their physical But their mental well-being and youth are an investment and they're an invest investment that we can't afford to squander They emulate the actions and the experiences around them And so we must teach them and not just our words but in our actions and in our policies that Every child and every person is important and every person deserves a voice and deserves to be heard In the globalized world that we now live in Coexistence must be taken to a level unimagined by past generations Where you can encounter a Bedouin man in the desert wearing Bob Marley pants Listening to Beyonce on his iPhone 6 Discussing with you the intricacies of camel racing But beyond in this globalized world beyond Beyonce Bob Marley and iPhones We are faced with ideas of terrorism. We're faced with ideas of fear We're faced with Cultures and we're exposed to cultures that have very different beliefs than ours and religious beliefs that contradict the very fabric and foundations of our own But in times of extreme change It is more vital than ever to think on a global scale of humanity a global scale of equality and a global scale of voice And the most integral part of equality is providing platforms for people to speak for them to create and for them to be listened to in Art we aim to share a voice with the next generation a voice that cannot be ignored One that is so bright and so powerful that you can't help but look at it and we want to make these voices available to everyone So we do this by coordinating workshops like the one you see here with youth from marginalized communities and They discuss the different issues that are affecting them with the artists and activists in our team and concepts are created the art and the workshops focus on coexistence positivity hope and the future pieces like this one I'm gonna go back this video is gonna need to play for just a second and this shows the creation of a piece In Iraq Okay, and this was a school in a camp for IDPs internally displaced people And it was a time when Mount Sinjar was being Attacked Mosul was being invaded and other parts of Iraq. So you had Yazidis coming from Mount Sinjar. You had Christians coming from Mosul and you had Muslims that were coming from just all over different areas And those are communities that sometimes do not always interact well, but they were all housed in one camp And so we collaboratively painted with these children To highlight the importance of coexistence If this oh, there you go, okay, and we worked with over 200 children on this Which was a big task. So in order to give them all an opportunity they painted the bricks of this is was their school With their names and where they come from in all different colors and they all came from different places And they all had different backgrounds, but in doing this they created a mosaic of of diversity and They're all different, but together they create something beautiful and then across the skyline was painted a Yazidi temple a Muslim a mosque and a Christian church And that was the final piece and that's where they get to go to school every day. So they could be reminded of the coexistence Okay, now one of the most interesting groups we get to work with is in a refugee camp called Zaatari and that is on the border of Syria and Jordan to the north in North Jordan and These kids are rough boys. They smuggle goods in and out of the camp past security guards and a circumference of tanks and They air conditioners or whatever they want to smuggle into the camp and they smuggle out a lot of donated goods to sell and They are notorious for doing drugs getting roughed up by the security guards and for smoking cigarettes And when we first proposed working with this group, we were told that it was an extreme challenge But we appreciate a challenge. So we went for it anyways And what we found was after working with them they were entirely capable of participating in the activities with respect and courtesy and we had cues all day of the kids lining up to paint their wheelbarrow and it gave them a sense of identity where they each got to put their Names and the kid who was famous He was about nine years old for always smoking cigarettes painted a hot pink wheelbarrow with flowers on it and his name On another day, we painted at the entrance to Zaatari and this is a girl and in one hand She's holding the cities in Syria that the children came from and in the other hand where they would like to rebuild And they painted the messages inside her face and it says the future is in my hands and one of the boys Mohammed was painting on that wall and He was painting what looked to us to be a rocket spewing weapons out into the world and Oh, no, no, I mean we don't want to paint weapons. We like scurried over and Actually when we intervened said Mohammed He told us that he was actually painting a cement truck and it was pouring concrete Because he was going to rebuild beautiful buildings in Syria when he grows back We often are asked why these projects are important and why there are Have value and wouldn't people rather have Hygiene kits or food and and water and yes food and water and hygiene kits are very important But the answer comes to me with projects like these when we watched a group of boys finish their wheelbarrow Workshop and go out to see their parents and for about 15 to 20 minutes They said are they stood around with iPhones taking pictures of something that is individual and that is created by them And they send them back to all their family One more piece is a piece by Street girls in kinshasa and it says we are all children of the same family and street kids have it really rough in kinshasa and particularly street girls and it's the idea that regardless of Where you come from that they're all children and that they're all from the same family and they need to be respected So the nature of street art is that it is for everyone and can create be created by anyone And we try to highlight the issues that are affecting people who are living on the margins of society in refugee camps And on the streets and that anyone can see it from a President driving by in their motorcade to a prostitute who walks the streets to a morning commuter on their way to the office So we take the ideas of graffiti and street art and we share with those people I'm going to leave you with a quote from Banksy who is a Graffiti artist or street artist who often provokes the status quo and he says Imagine a city where graffiti wasn't illegal a city where everybody could draw Whatever they liked where every street was a wash with a million little phrases We're standing at a bus stop was never boring A city that felt like a party where everyone was invited Not just the estate agents and barons of big businesses Imagine a city like that so I invite you to imagine Not just a city but a world like that and grab a paintbrush grab a can and hit the streets Great. Thank you, Samantha. That was really moving and I appreciated all the visuals and the narrative the visuals and the narratives attached It brought a whole new life to it to what you had sent us earlier. So thank you for that I want to turn it now over to Nadia who Has the daunting daunting task of bringing our conversation together and then opening the floor up for q&a We're we're cognizant of time and we'll make sure we leave room for that Nadia is currently a public policy fellow at the Wilson Center in dc She's also an independent writer and researcher Based in islamabad and looking at issues related to foreign aid local flanthropy civil society and education in pakistan I should also put a shameless plug on behalf of nadia She had a piece come out which she'd been working on for quite a while on the education sector in pakistan So for anyone interested in that, please do have a look at it. It is now available Nadia moved to islamabad in 2012 where she worked with usip And prior to that she worked as the pakistan desk officer at us aid and national security aid and the us senate She has also taught us foreign policy at national defense university in islamabad in 2014 And this is a niche area for nadia Looking at public art and graffiti and murals and how to reclaim that in public Reclaiming public space. So I will turn it over to nadia now Okay, great. Thanks, hatha So samantha left it at a good place because we're going to go to that city where everyone can write whatever they want on the walls So I moved to islamabad in 2012 as usip's first country rep on the ground So my job was to look at what we were doing and see, you know, what's more interesting that we can do The first thing that I wanted to do was see what pakistanis are already doing So I didn't come to this with my own ideas. I want to go out there and see what are they doing And how can we support it without hurting it in any way? and I stumbled across lots of public art first of all in a lot of work happening in public space and So this expanded and became kind of a niche of our work because we found a lot of people doing it Once I left usip After about two and a half years This may actually so four years have passed This has become an area an area where we support artists at usip And usip asked me to go back and take a deeper look at this What does do all these murals does this art? What does it actually Achieve or do or have impact in terms of conflict and peace? so You know, whatever I say in this presentation is kind of a self critique and it's a critique of my own assumptions And it's really actually great of usip to let me talk about that openly So I spent a month in karachi at eight students who helped me We did about a hundred surveys in 13 neighborhoods, not elite neighborhoods And I interviewed about 25 artists as well These were all open-ended conversations that I coded and so these were I'll share some of my conclusions So in order to you'll see the title of this is visual space and power in order to understand You know where our murals or where our art was entering You kind of have to understand what else is going on in visual space And what's the root of conflict in karachi? I would say it's violent groups that are political criminal I don't think the average citizen is is violent or perpetrating this violence as much as they are a victim of it Oh, and so this is banksy If graffiti changed anything it would be illegal graffiti is illegal So When one thing up front that is kind of counterintuitive is that the change that happens because of art is sometimes not in the place Where the graffiti happens graffiti is removed very quickly in well-governed spaces Graffiti artists today do graffiti for social media You take the photo it circulates. They're great photos And often it's gone or destroyed deteriorates where it is Oh and two things graffiti in in art Two things that they have in common if they're effective is one it's visual grip That can be the message or the image you notice that you stop and secondly it engages provokes it can annoy you It can make you feel good So that's why but graffiti is a predominant because it's cheap. It tends to be predominant Oh, and I wonder if we can turn the lights off if I'll I'll leave that for tech to consider A visual space reflects power um You know someone an american who was new to karachi kind of commented on this and said Because I asked him why does everybody mark their space here? And he said, you know, this is a way Kind of a dog marks his space It's a way of you know, the person who is doing graffiti is making a statement to say I have some kind of controller social domination over you And that is the way that graffiti has been used in karachi. And again, this is contextual Okay, so this is not karachi. This is the karakoram highway And why isn't this working? There we go. Okay, so this is up north Um So and what you'll see over there is the seppai sahaba, which is a sunni militant group has marked All along this highway And this you see more of this in areas where there has been pretty brutal violence Um, you might remember some hikers were killed in pakistan a few years ago This type of marking is what you see around there. Um, there have also been buses of shias that have been attacked This is what you see in that area increased markings. So when you drive through this area, um, when you talk about influencing behavior You know, I was with a friend who's a pretty brave journalist and when she saw these markings She was like, I'm scared now. You know, she kind of covered her head. But um, on the other hand you have the the semi-state force gilgit baltastan boy scouts who mark counter mark the space This one says the beauty of pakistan is gilgit baltastan. It's a pro pro national statement But you also see a lot of basically sectarian contrasted with pro peace and pro tolerance graffiti That the state is doing. This is what garachi looks like. Um, It's sprayed up everywhere Posters and you see a difference between freehand graffiti and the stenciled graffiti Um, what this says is Which one is this? The mom. Oh, this is um Actually, the this is some authority is saying that during the burial do not raise slogans or flags Um to prevent violence So this is some authority figure who's put it up there. Uh, you see mqm graffiti Which is a political party and then you see an advertisement for a spray artist So you have to hire people to do this stuff Um, so garachi is marked by this kind of competition over the city that's reflected on the walls um, it's The city is kind of it's marked by political violence criminal gangs political parties are Engaged in this competition for land and resources. They have armed wings And they are involved with mafias So and they've kind of divided up the city. So if you go into neighborhoods You'll see certain flags marking each area and these are linked to ethnic groups. The state is incredibly weak Which is why this type of graffiti is rampant Um, and violence really got out of control commercial advertising as well as also, you know trying to influence people billboards are humongous and garachi And then you see this type of stuff just left behind, uh, which I think again points to weak governance Um So what happened in 2013 is that the military entered in garachi did military operations targeted political workers and the city stabilized Um, a lot of human rights concerns around this, but the city is more peaceful today for the average citizen Um, what the city did is that they whited out all the graffiti And pretty poorly you can still see through it. Um, but this is an assertion of the city's power To say we are in charge. The walls are clean. Uh, you can't just do this But somebody has sprayed over it or not sprayed but stenciled Con out there here, which is is this is this a box for writing is this an open writing box And then also blocking out graffiti, so it's pretty messy, um, which again Kind of invites I think more type of marking. It's not the same as a clean space Um, so while the main thoroughfares have been cleaned up the inner inner neighborhood still look like this During elections, you have a surge in political party flags In the top left corner Bottom left you also see groups like the bachasan fisherman folk forum, which is a labor union essentially Which advocates for environmental and water rights. Um, I'm not sure if it's this one But it says they write things like give us water take our votes So it's not just divisive or violent or criminal or commercial messaging There's also a social activism that happens on the walls of garachi Trash is the most distinctive feature Of these neighborhoods Oh, I have five minutes left. Okay um When we did interviews, uh, most the majority of people in garachi said that infrastructure economic problems um and pollution and Trash were their biggest problems actually more than violence and crime The military has started marking its base In garachi Walls alone don't change power I think it's the people behind them. Is there a constituency behind the art that people recognize and can join? This is a local politician Who paints spray paints the chief minister's face On potholes and trash and other sorts of city problems Yeah So, but this is I mean last time I checked he's one of the most popular Kind of art campaigns with about 270,000 likes on facebook Um, and I think because people can identify the constituency behind it And this is I think a question for donors when we support initiatives for the mural For the outcome or is it about the people who are behind it and for me it was always about the people behind it Widening the aperture So this is I heart garachi. This was a campaign and or actually it was graffiti in 2009 that that went viral And people you'll still see it copied today but This is the reality of of you know these kind of campaigns that promote Citizenship and identity I don't think it matters to those kids that it says I heart garachi right next to it. That's the reality of What's going on in the city the trash so the mural basically or the graffiti doesn't trump misgovernance There's another one and again these are photographs So these are still art and the way that we're sitting here and perceiving them is very different than what It's like for people who who live around these things This was the stencil So I'll just tell the story of this one Sometimes elites go into neighborhoods and paint things that just don't fit there and For example, even this Which I think is a pretty clear message people Someone else told me well It could be get rid of your guns or it could be hide your gun in a trash can if you see the police coming So you never know how people are going to take things, but it's best to fit at least fits So you saw these images outside I went back. So this was a group led by an artist. They went into the neighborhood. This is liari, which was the heart of violence in garachi The artist worked with kids in the community to come up with the murals So they did this workshop In the end Nobody understands this mural Not even the project leaders Unfortunately But it looks nice, but that's what it looks like today Um, it's either deteriorated. It's I think a mix of being destroyed And being deteriorated either on purpose or by kids People might have been offended by the face. That's the photo you saw That's what it looks like I mean, it's just it's a trash dump. The trash is the problem These these areas are misgoverned And I don't think these murals necessarily make a lot of sense to the people there I asked a friend an academic who has a lot of connections in liari And she said that, you know, people weren't bothered by it, but they just thought it was a little frivolous They're concerned with questions of daily survival This is a transgender woman on a motorbike and women don't ride motorbikes in pakistan This one stayed up again This this says something about power because the landlord wanted it to be there Even though the guy who runs a car wash in front of it wanted to destroy it In front of us actually when we showed up But What the feedback on this one was that the woman said, you know Bubbly is her name people in this neighborhood already support us and protect us We wish this was in a place where it challenged people One of the artists who participated in the Murals did this on her own. It says no more extremism and this is the park in lehor that was Bombed recently a few months ago And lehor is very different lehor is much better governed People are used to seeing artists doing random things on the street And I think this mural fit the space a lot better It's also in a park in a place where people can pause and consider What's there on the wall rather than just driving by Don't confuse art with public space So This wall this is the wall of a school that was painted It was a mechanic shop and we went back and spoke to the mechanics They removed their shop when these people when these girls showed up girls and guys and They said oh, we thought they were going to do something great for the neighborhood So we moved and then they spent all this time doing this and then they left And we don't understand why they did this Because we thought they were going to build a garden or do something for us And they just painted this mural and they left so we put our mechanic shop back So in the end, I think we assume a lot about what public space is And often even the trash below the mural This does not necessarily create public space This is the one intervention that I saw that made a big difference in terms of security This was a regular street in garachi And basically the customs collector transformed it into a piazza So this there's nothing else like this, especially not for regular people And this was the customs house in front of it. He teamed up with an architect and They not only developed this area where people can sit And you know people look a lot calmer Women and families come out at night now But there's also It's not just transforming the space there's security on either end of the street and there's street lights And creating public space in a place like garachi, you still need security for women and families to feel safe there And you can see these little blue trash cans The biggest liability for any infrastructure project in garachi is that people spit their bun Which is like spitting tobacco Everywhere and so in the beginning they were power washing this constantly Um But they ended up kind of enforcing this rule that you have to spit your bun in the trash cans And people do it And so I asked one of the vendors, you know, like why do you guys do this now? And he said because we know that if we don't do it we're gonna have to answer to the customs collector So it's not just that you created a nice space It's that there's governance now And there's actually a hindu temple within this premises that they also renovated Um, and this was done privately by citizens everything Uh, everything in this was done privately by citizens except for the um murals that I pointed to that we supported Um, I can make this the last one So this is graffiti that says, um We're with the police The red spray paint says this is a province for mojars, which is one of the kind of ethnic groups And someone's written do I really own garachi? And I own garachi was a campaign in 2009 that the mayor Of garachi initiated and I mean what this says to me is just because we can write on the walls Doesn't mean that we own the city or that we're responsible for it or that we take care of it or doesn't need more So I think that's it. Oh last point marking space is thrilling graffiti artists are addicted to graffiti There's something thrilling about marking public space about putting your name up. This is maryland. Monroe borca What are you breeding? This is anonymous artists who have a lot of political freedom because of their anonymity Uh, should I stop or should I? I can stop. Okay. I'll really quick. Sorry. This is too tempting. Um The one on the right is a bunch of political parties and at the bottom you see wtf This stayed up For I think years The way that they measure the way that they have a conversation through the walls is to see what stays and what gets removed Um That one was the longest standing because people simply didn't know what to do with it. Uh, that's zardari's head If you he's the former president of facasun, uh, that one also stayed up for a while Should I stop? Um, I'll stop. I'm mindful of time and um, of course, um, there's more photos again to illustrate the exhibits outside Which some of which nadia covered Um with that I do want to open up the floor for um q&a because I know Several of you probably have good questions for our panel By virtue of sitting up here next to our panelists, I do want to kick off with the first question Although I have many but I will hold back and hope I can catch them sideline So my question is and I'll open it up to the to all three of you But what is government perceptions you slightly touched on it? But I'm curious to see on some of this graffiti in the countries that you've worked Does the government respond positively? Is there overall support by the government or perhaps not and why? Yeah, um, we work with uh, governments depending on where we are. I think it's a very fine line Um between what you can and cannot say obviously a lot of times we're in those countries And we're able to paint the walls at the acquiescence of the government And if you push the line too far like in jordan for example with human rights and the syrian refugee Issue if you push the human rights issues too much with the syrian refugees You're gonna irritate the jordanian government quite severely. So you have to be very careful um, so I think you just have to Be delicate, um With with your words and I think also there's out like you discussed this before but there's a distinction between graffiti and street art Um, and what we're doing is street art and most of the artists that we work with in a box Almost the whole organization has a background in graffiti and a lot of them are graffiti writers Um, but when we do the work there's been this transition in the art world from Uh graffiti to now in like 2000 all of a sudden it wasn't graffiti anymore It was street art and people were commissioning you to do it and governments were commissioning you to paint walls When previously they were arresting you and so there's like this this kind of where all of a sudden graffiti became cool and socially acceptable And so it's kind of a strange position to be in as a graffiti artist Yeah, just quickly right now. I have to take permission for all the murals we do so But sometimes it really depends on the individuals within the government Some some might like when the our ambassador was in the government. He was very enthusiastic He was supporting but for one ugly wall One month ago I had to wait for like three weeks To just get the permission to do a mural on on issues of illegal immigration and brain drain And then that this guy didn't give me permission So I had to call office of the president of Afghanistan and then it everything happened in one hour So I get troubles like that But the other side of the story is as well right now ministers are like competing with each other To like this ministry calls me to do a mural on their wall And then the other ministry called me to do theirs first or the attorney general That just asked me twice to do it and he's like forceful. I'm afraid of him. So these are the sort of things that happen What I would say is my government in my part of the world, they don't have any other option But to let me do this Because what I do I stand for is I fight corruption. I do issues of woman's rights I stand for for issues of transitional justice these issues are sort of Favourite to international community as well and we are getting a lot of aid from from all the world So if they don't let me do this, they will look very bad in front of your eyes So they they have to and I am taking that advantage of them. So I always Do that But I think with with the new administration we have in Afghanistan and somehow some sort of in pox and I've visited the Islam but recently So things are a bit changing and then they they really like to to go back to citizens They're not doing everything themselves. They cannot solve all the problems So they will come back to you and and ask you for help And we can bring people we can bring creative solutions to the problems that we all face I'll just say quickly. I think the reason I was showing those The graffiti at the end there's a trade-off between political support and freedom To say what you want and to challenge the status quo so You find that a lot and sometimes messaging that is supported by the government that you have government permission for it can become very devoid Of a message and that can compromise on how much it engages people as well. So I think yeah, there's a place for both as well I would agree with that one Great. Well, thank you. And with that I'll just open up the floor to questions We have two colleagues that have mics so do raise their hand and they'll usher it over to you We'll take one back there and then the gentleman in the third row Thank you everyone. Can you hear me? And I'll I'll also mention for the sake of time. We'll just take two questions at a time if that's okay, and then We don't have to have all our panelists respond. But if you feel like jumping in, please do I'll keep my question quick. Um, when I was in Kabul and our lords were still uh, was first starting up I remember being in a taxi cab and he remarked. Oh Matura, maybe I might see you. What does that mean? How is that going to help? What is that going to do? So I my question is for omate. How do you address that skepticism among? Afghans and how do you answer it into what extent do you think it is useful? My question to us for omate. My name is michael alban. I'm an independent researcher As you spread out around the country, are there areas of the country where you will not go or that it's dangerous to go? Are you welcome in kandahar and ghazni and As well as herat and mazhar and so forth. Thank you So thank you. Yes, uh, when I go back from states, uh, in mid july, I will go to helmand Uh, we're starting a campaign against polio Because afghanistan and pakistan are apparently the two countries that we have still cases of polio. So I'll do that The the the the good thing about art lord says like I get calls from general lozak in kandahar He's a powerful warlord. So he calls me that he will provide all the protection But I have to travel to kandahar to do murals. So this is a sense of A support among those warlords and drug lords that I don't know why they like it Maybe they don't get it yet, but because it's uh, yeah, I think that's the case. They don't get it But I I do I do get calls That I have to travel we will go out there in the provinces And we will start this The the only thing is in the provinces I cannot do these murals. I have to make these stencils These murals some of them took me a month to complete in Kabul But the stencils are very easy. You you just go there Be like for half an hour spray it and just leave and we have decided me and my my partner's name is kabeer So we'll have we will buy a motorbike And we'll just go there put these graphic stencils half an hour and just leave the area. So we will do that Belal to your question Yes, I I do receive as well some of these ministers even I know that these are corrupt people and I I know them personally They laugh at me and say that okay, it doesn't make sense. Okay, you you will see me every day but but I believe people have a conscience and and we can really Wake wake them up wake their conscience up that And I will give you examples of Ministers one of them called me to appreciate my work and say every time I cross these eyes I list with myself all those corrupt officials which is working in this government At least it's a reminder for some people that okay. These are all those corrupt officials which is working in your government and At one point last year these eyes In the cabinet meeting apparently ministers talked with each other that if you have eyes on your walls It means that your institution is corrupt So suddenly in the morning our spy agency the nds They just cleaned out my eyes And it was like this was one of the first that I did and I called it soul of sharan now I loved it. It was like my kid. So people called me saying that they they just Painted your mural. I started three months of Lobbying to put back that mural. So one day the nds the spy agency called me and five guys Gods were standing there. They took me in and this guy big guy asked me what what do you want? I said I want my my mural back In the same place with the same message and you have to pay me because it cost me 500 dollars And he was like he thought I am kidding But my message out there with it with whenever I was going to Media organizations to private parties. I would I would always say Taliban destroyed buddhahs of balmyan and our spy agency destroyed art lords eyes So this is my message out there They were afraid believe me we managed to force our spy agency in Afghanistan To let me paint the same eyes in the same location and they apologized for it as well So for your question, they are well at the moment they thought like minister of our minister of telecommunication He gave me permission to do a mural on telecommunications But I did couple of pair of eyes and he was so pissed off. He was so afraid He thought that it means that his ministry is corrupt as well So it's really making a progress and an impact on on the minds and attitudes of people Two more questions. Um, the two ladies in the back, please Hi, thank you so much for Today and all that you all are doing my questions go back to me. I'm sorry everyone is asking you questions But um, you mentioned that you go to schools have and I've studied in afghanistan and from afghanistan And I know that there's not much critical thinking, but are you thinking of in the future? Creating art in the school so that that would encourage critical thinking and my second question is very Good and that is why are some of the messages written in english because our formal languages are daryan pashto. Thank you My name is jackie lock haljin. It's for a mate. I have to nice to have you here. My question is an extension of her question Um, have you approached the universities in a larger scale to get to start a movement so to speak? Thank you um None of the messages are in english. So this was for an english speaking audience So I had to yeah, all the messages are either in pashto in dary uzbiki So, uh, the two official languages of afghanistan and the other we have a very good diversity in afghanistan So I'm always mindful of that. So nothing in english In schools, yes, uh, once I go to I went and work with the avalanche scouts and in some of the schools So I first I asked them to draw something And uh, then based, uh, we start a good competition among them and then if we have a good, uh, concept We invite them to paint that with uh on a wall of the school or a university And and the good thing was one day the first time I went to a school And I asked them to draw two of the students draw the pair of eyes that I had in the walls So it meant it reached all the way to those kids in the schools And they just brought two eyes and said I see you month or maybe no So it was beautiful to see our work reaching out to all the schools and everything um To universities. Yes, in in ten years circular john I think I want this to be a movement for accountability and transparency. I'm connecting with those people I have a bigger vision for this. So We will go out there In in may I did a one day, uh, an art activation day against brain drain and illegal immigration So in one day I did nine murals on the walls A street theater a movie screening and a debate in into a low tv So and all of this was possible in eight hours and we did it with the help of cobble university So the the volume, uh, and then the skills that I need are there and we are reaching out to them And uh being a volunteer organization They love to to connect with us and now that we have a bit of fame out there Everybody likes to work with us. So we are using that taking advantage of that and reaching out to all those schools and universities Great, we'll take two more questions. Um, we have two ladies in the back on the other side Uh, thank you so much. Uh, synthia schreider from georgian university I want to congratulate you for getting an apology and getting your mural back You know, all the murals were painted over from the egyptian revolution and they're gone So that's quite um, that's quite an accomplishment Um, I wanted to follow up actually on what you just said, but with the question for everyone About any examples of links between the participation in your projects and then civic activism Or even a sort of greater sense of agency in their own lives I've just come back from london where I saw the performance of syria trojan women the queens of syria syrian refugees performing On stage their version of uripedesis trojan women and these are women whose lives have been completely transformed by participating in this theater project So I wonder if there are examples of people who participate in your project then becoming Involved in you know governance activities or civic activities or education or something. Thank you One more question to them. Yes back here. Um Right here. Yep. Thank you Hi, I'd like to direct this at omaid and samantha specifically My most recent job was in a country where the government had undertaken peace building as a very Directed and top-down Project and anything that civil society were to do To aim at creating a culture of peace would have to be in direct collaboration Or under the awareness of the government. Um, so my question is um in Not um in cases where your um work may conflict um with what the government is doing but in cases where Objectively the aim is the same. How do you navigate that relationship? Um when you're working towards the same goal? but on parallel planes We'll go for that. Um Yeah, the first question, um Where we've seen people that we've worked with uh take on activities in their community I can think of two examples one was in um the Kurdish region of Iraq We worked with an artist um, and I had previously taught in Iraq for a year So I lived there and had a lot of connections in the community. Um, but this one particular artist named Saphine who we worked with Um was really inspired by the idea of painting collaboratively and and particularly in refugee camps and taking people from outside Um the refugee camps into the refugee camps and humanizing refugees Um because I think a lot of the issues happening is when people arrive and resources are scarce there becomes this othering Um, and he created his own organization called art plus Uh, and now he goes in and works in the camps independent of us and does his own projects Um, and then another example is a two artist in Gaza and it was the same thing where they started their own they didn't Certain organization like Saphine did but they um, they work Alongside one of our partners mercy core and they apply for their own funding from the european commission or from us aid And they do their own projects now without us And I think the idea of sustainability is a really hard one. Um, but what you can't do is you can inspire people Um, and inspire them to do Something they really believe in and and I think those are two cases Did you want to answer that question? I don't know. That was the first question. Yeah, the second. Yeah, there was a second question. So the The lengths yes, uh from the artists who work with us, uh The the idea behind our work is to encourage people to to stand up and take responsibility and start their own initiatives So I have artists who have Started initiatives like there's a one called Afghanistan needs you they were like working with us and now they are Very good successful campaign illegal against illegal immigration and brain drain, which is going very well for them. So And then we have groups in the universities who have started doing work on environment protection and Our friends are also started another network called hamdili or empathy network where we have festivals music festivals and for citizens in the provinces so What we did at art law says we are connecting these islands different islands of Young groups which are working, but their influence is not very big So we really want to bridge among ourselves and become this big island with with force and then also invite and encourage people to start their own work And there was a question about uh, yes on in the issue of the The usually what I'm trying to convince my government is that they cannot do everything by themselves And this is like in our parts of the world That has been the way this how the citizen perceive that everything should be done by the government And the governments when they come to power, they're also controlling everything So I'm trying to convince them that they can really let us do some of the work for them Especially the issues of when it comes to outreach raising awareness and educating people so Whenever like our governments show that the issues of fighting corruption or issues of peace building or their priority But sometimes actually they get so involved in other things We have an actual war in Afghanistan that they forget these issues. So us being there Pushing these ideas and putting it in the agenda and putting it on the on the the disks So that really helps at the same time if they forget it We will be there to to pick it up and say okay corruption peace issues of like that. So that really helps It's supporting the government agenda at the same time Just quickly on the participation question. Um, it's a really important question What I found is that art is very empowering for those who participate in it Especially marking public walls and public space So you have the artist on one end who is very empowered by this experience And then you have a spectrum of participation and sometimes and we've done stuff where we worked with a group for six months Um, and even then when I went back it becomes a memory for them a positive memory of positive relationships But it's still a memory. Um, and then on the other end you have event driven Kind of artwork where you engage you pick up these kids and you engage them You know, they do something for a few days and then it's done Um, and I think that's where you know, we need to pay more attention because we can definitely overestimate the effects Of just this event on this group of kids. Um, it's like any event or any memory affects any of us Sometimes it can change your life, but most of the time we have a lot of these types of memories and experiences Can I just say one thing on that? Um, I think that that's like a very valid point Um, but those experiences and those events like you said they can make a huge difference And one thing one just an anecdotal example is we worked in uh, mafrock Which is a community in north jordan on the syrian border and we were painting about coexistence the similar idea and uh, it was uh, slam and hold peace and love and um We painted with syrian, uh new arrivals and jordanian host communities And we did we usually work in a community for like a week and after the first day We left and we came back the next day and it was graffiti. They're tagged over all of it saying syrians go home Um, and so we brought in um, some representatives from the syrian community and the community The jordanian community and they sat down and they had a discussion about why the syrians were there and where they had come from and That a lot of them had lost their homes and their families and that they weren't here necessarily because they wanted to steal The resources or take the land from the jordanian people but that they had to um, and we fixed and we worked together to fix the mural And and we painted and finished it and we went back two years later and the mural was still there untouched So I think like this in some circumstances. It is just a memory But in some circumstance I think can be quite impactful for a community and for those kids who might sometimes in some experiences here Oh, the refugees are stealing our jobs are stealing our resources But then they remember the experience that they had working with one of the syrian kids or the jordanian kids And then that uh humanizes them a bit um, so I want to Ended here. I'm mindful of time. Um, and first start off by thanking our panelists and before we do give them a round of applause, which is very well deserved This was an amazing event. I do also want to thank the afghan embassy for their support and helping bring this event together And I also want to thank our us aid and inal colleagues some of who might be with us and others maybe Watching this live, but um, a lot of our work wouldn't be happening without their support So we want to thank you for that. Um, and without further ado giving our colleagues a round of applause. Thank you