Festivals that Change Lives

Abstract

There are countries in the world where ‘freedom’ and ‘democracy’ don’t have the same meaning as in our western European countries, especially in the street or in what is called ‘public space’. Even so, in some of these countries, street art festivals exist and they can change the life of the artists and of the population. Jürgen Habermas, in The Structural Transformation of the Public Sphere (1962), has defined this term. According to him, the bourgeois public sphere (which appeared in the 18th century) is the place between private individuals and government authorities in which people can meet and have critical debates about public matters. Whether debates are about culture, habits or law, in the countries discussed in this chapter (Iran, Belarus, Morocco and Kuwait), this barely happens. Critical debate is forbidden or simply inconceivable.