Ganzeer: The Artist behind the Blueprints for the Revolution!

On the 27^th of January, 2 days after the revolution started, and one day before the famous Friday 28 (The Day of Rage), Western Media reported the surfacing of an Anonymous flyer that gives a blueprint for the revolution. This caught our attention later on, because it negated those who said that there was no “planning” and that the revolution was a spontaneous occurrence.

The presence of such a flyer suggests careful planning, and the full knowledge of what was going to take place. It is simply a recruitment and rallying communiqué and ultimately proves that there were schemers and plotters. Now we are not against the presence of those, but the important question is why didn’t they come out after the revolution? And why is everyone who was involved in the revolution trying to prove that it wasn’t planned?!!

Anyhow, we first picked up the news about the flyer on The Guardian.uk, which wrote of: “Anonymous leaflets circulating in Cairo” that provide “practical and tactical advice for mass demonstrations, confronting riot police, and besieging and taking control of government offices.”

The booklet/flyer was titled “How to revolt cleverly” (كيف تثور بحدائة) and it consisted of 26 pages of tactical advices and black & white illustrations (probably to facilitate photocopying), arranged in a neat and straight layout, the booklet is signed only by: “long live Egypt”.

The booklet also includes aerial photographs with approach routes marked and diagrams explaining crowd formations. It advises demonstrators to wear clothing such as hooded jackets, running shoes, goggles and scarves to protect against teargas (a piece of advice which we received over facebook and proved very handy on the 28^th of Jan), and to carry dustbin lids – to ward off baton blows and rubber bullets – first aid kits.

A key point which highlights the degree of preparation was that the booklet instructed recipients to redistribute it by email and photocopy, and not to use social media such as Facebook and Twitter, which (supposedly) were being monitored by the security forces. The booklet asked protesters in Cairo to gather in large numbers in their own neighborhoods first, to avoid getting detected by police forces and state security, and then move towards key installations such the state broadcasting HQ on the Nile-side Corniche and try to take control of it, “in the name of the people”. Other priority targets listed were the presidential palace and police stations in several parts of central Cairo.

We researched further, and found news of the booklet on many other western news networks, but as usual no mention of it on the national or Arab news networks.

On the same day The Atlantis published a translated version of the leaflets, which it said, it had received from “2 sources” but didn’t disclose who sent it to them, or whether they knew who was behind it or not. On February 16, Foreign Policy mentioned the flyers in it’s article “Revolution U” and attributed the booklet to April 6 movement, but also did not offer any clue on who designed the booklet.

We were very intrigued by the leaflets and wanted to know who were the people behind it, and we researched it extensively for the past months, but with no luck. Until we had a breakthrough two weeks ago.

On May 26, 2011, Twitter was on fire with the news of arrest of three activists for hanging a poster titled “Freedom Mask”. Among those three activists was the artist who designed the poster, a graffiti artist & graphic designer named Mohamed Fahmy, who goes by the net alias Ganzeer. Mohamed Fahmy was released on the same day, but already he had caught our attention.

We researched his work extensively, and immediately we were stricken by the close resemblance between his graphic design and the “Revolution Blueprints”. Fahmy has a very distinctive style in his graphic design and illustrations, and the Revolution booklet bore the trademark of his style.

But what really closed the deal for us and made us 99% certain that he was the artist behind the “How to revolt cleverly” booklet, was his flyer designs, and particularly those two posters prepared after the revolution for two graffiti workshops and an older lealflet he designed in 2009.

The above mentioned works are identical to the revolution booklet (see pictures below), not only do they have almost the same illustration work, but they also had the same fonts, layout design and the black & white clean-cut style of the Revolution booklet.

After we concluded our research, and were 99% certain that Mohamed Fahmy, is in fact the artist behind the “Revolution Blueprint” booklet, we decided to contact him on twitter, and get further information on why he designed the booklet, however, when we asked him if he was the person behind “How to revolt cleverly” booklet, his response was “Shuuush!” and then followed with: “It is not important!”

Oh… But it is Mr. Ganzeer, it is actually very important!

And the more important question is, who else was involved in this Booklet with you?
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Update 1 (14/06/2011):

Ganzeer responded to this article on his twitter account, denying his connection to the “Revolution Blueprints” and claiming that Black & White designs and the use of similar typefaces is not a proof that he is responsible for the blueprints.

Despite the fact that this is true, however, other than the identical design layout, the style of illustrations in the booklet carries the impeccable finger prints of Ganzeer’s craft.  Not to mention that the graphic designer who designed the leaflets must be an activist involved in the pre-revolution political scene.

It is highly unlikely that there is another activist, who has the same style, design skills & illustration skills of Mohamed Fahmy, and who operates in the same way as he does.

Thus despite his denial, we are still convinced that Mohamed Fahmy is the creator of the “How to revolt cleverly” booklet.

 

Update 2  (30/07/2011):

Ganzeer published a new “Revolutionary Stencil-Booklet” on his blog, the new book features stencils against the Supreme Council of Armed Forces (SCAF), and contains instructions for easy use by the public.

This booklet however has Ganzeer’s signature on it, and it proves beyond doubt that Ganzeer is in fact the artist behind the Revolution Blueprints “How to revolt cleverly” (كيف تثور بحدائة).

Update 3: The Huffing Post have quoted this article

On August 2 The Huffing Post published an article by Travis Korte, titled:
Cairo’s Street Art: The Obstacles To Urban Renewal
where he wrote:

“In June, Egyptian blog AnarchitexT asked Ganzeer whether he was responsible for “How to Revolt Cleverly,” a widely-distributed instructional pamphlet. The artist tweeted back, initially saying only, “shuuuuuuush.” Ganzeer has since denied involvement, but the fact remains that whoever did design the pamphlet doesn’t yet feel comfortable enough to admit it.”

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هذا المقال متوافر بالعربية أيضاً على: أناركي تكست
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Sources:

News of Ganzeer arrest, Al Ahram Online
News of the Revolution Blueprints, The Guardian
News of the Revolution Blueprints, The Atlantic
Ganzeer website

View the complete of the revolution blueprint: How to revolt cleverly” (كيف تثور بحدائة)

Update 1: 20:30 – 14/06/2011

Ganzeer responded to this article on his twitter account, denying his connection to the “Revolution Blueprints” and claiming that Black & White designs and the use of similar typefaces is not a proof that he is responsible for the blueprints.

Despite the fact that this is true, however, other than the identical design layout, the style of illustrations in the booklet carries the impeccable finger prints of Ganzeer’s craft.  Not to mention that the graphic designer who designed the leaflets must be an activist involved in the pre-revolution political scene.

It is highly unlikely that there is another activist, who has the same style, design skills & illustration skills of Mohamed Fahmy, and who operates in the same way as he does.

Thus despite his denial, we are still convinced that Mohamed Fahmy is the creator of the “How to revolt cleverly” booklet.