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# Street Artist Paints Away a Wall in Tahrir Square
- URL: https://hyperallergic.com/street-artist-paints-away-a-wall-in-tahrir-square/
- Published: 2012-03-21T20:12:18.000Z
- Updated: 2025-11-24T16:19:15.000Z
- Description: LOS ANGELES — The image above has been making the rounds on social media this week. What you're looking at is a wall in Cairo painted to look like it's not a wall, like it goes through and enters into Tahrir Square.
- Author: AX Mina
- Tags: Opinion, Cairo, Egypt, Street Art, #wp, #wp-post, #image-position-hidden, #Import 2025-11-24 06:51 (2012, 2013, part 1)

![The Sheikh Khan mural remembers the day when the wall didn't exist in the first place. Image via Mosa'ab Elshamy on a Creative Commons License.](https://storage.ghost.io/c/51/f8/51f871d8-b6be-4a73-b958-0ca4fff0110a/content/images/hyperallergic-newspack-s3-amazonaws-com/uploads/2012/03/6977793211_43d6ae8ce8_z-e1332347443770.jpg)

The Sheikh Khan mural remembers the day when the wall didn't exist in the first place. (image via Mosa'ab Elshamy on a Creative Commons License)

LOS ANGELES — The image above has been making the rounds on social media this week. What you’re looking at is a wall in Cairo painted to look like it’s not a wall, like it goes through and enters into Tahrir Square. According to the [*New York Times*](http://thelede.blogs.nytimes.com/2011/12/23/tahrir-square-walled-in/?ref=hyperallergic.com), in December, the Egyptian military erected a number of walls to divide the streets that connect to government power centers. [A recent report in France24](http://observers.france24.com/content/20120313-egypt-cairo-street-artists-no-wall-campaign-paint-military-barricades-protest?ref=hyperallergic.com) says more walls have been put up since then.

![One mural depicts silhouettes of children and families.  Image on a CC license by Mosa'ab Elshamy.](https://storage.ghost.io/c/51/f8/51f871d8-b6be-4a73-b958-0ca4fff0110a/content/images/hyperallergic-newspack-s3-amazonaws-com/uploads/2012/03/6831303438_24ab40ed3f.jpg)

One mural depicts silhouettes of children and families. (image on a CC license by Mosa'ab Elshamy) (click to enlarge)

Here’s what[ photographer Masa’aberising](https://secure.flickr.com/photos/mosaaberising/?ref=hyperallergic.com) had to say about the[ Sheikh Rihan mural](https://secure.flickr.com/photos/mosaaberising/6977793211/in/set-72157629572134779?ref=hyperallergic.com) and the larger project:

> Egyptian graffiti \[sic\] artists arranged a No Walls protests last Friday (March 9, 2012), where they painted the walls away into stunning murals to commemorate the dead and protest the obstacles built by painting eye-deceiving, virtual continuations to the blocked streets (Trompe-l’œil). Almost every wall around the area was painted on by young artists who joined hands and brushes for over three days, turning the area into a lasting memorial.

Other walls were painted with silhouettes of children and families playing under a rainbow, and another includes [large-scale portraits](https://secure.flickr.com/photos/mosaaberising/6977749841/in/set-72157629572134779?ref=hyperallergic.com). All of these repurpose the wall and humanize the struggle. But perhaps the trompe l’oeil mural is the most powerful, in helping passers-by remember the days when the wall didn’t exist at all.