The images from Tunis, Cairo, Istanbul or Beirut sent out into the world via mass media have the character of anomalous moments. Burning barricades, tanks and cars destroyed by bombs form the visuality in the evening news and on magazine covers, and thereby also the image for those without the privilege of experiencing their own impression on site. Even in times of the greatest political tension, people have an everyday; they buy and sell food and other goods, they meet and exchange, they drive through the city on their way to work or take care of other practical things. Like every other region of the world, the Middle East is an area where „things are not only decided by the elite, the military and foreign intrigues, but by the influence of perfectly normal people.“ (Bayat)
Recording from Tahrir Square in Cairo, on 1 November 2013.