Sighting: Via Salaria, Rome
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Curator's note: This poster by Laika is a political/satirical remix of an original Egypt tourism poster, possibly this one, and it parallels the origins and later remixes of the popular Visit Palestine poster which may be viewed here
ROME - The Roman street artist Laika has returned to the capital with a new poster on via Salaria, put up on Wednesday morning near the entrance to the Egyptian embassy, entitled "Don't Visit Egypt."
The work is a revision of a vintage poster promoting tourism in Egypt, but in the foreground one can see the silhouette of a soldier beating someone up, and in the corner and advert for a '45 days special offer' - a reference to the case of Egpytian student Patrick Zaki whose unlawful detention in Egypt has just been lengthened by another 45 days.
Laika said, "Patrick turns 30 today. He has spent the last year and a half as a prisoner, serving an inhumane sentence, in agony, punctuated by hearings that every 45 days postpone the start of his trial. We recall that Zaki is accused of threatening national security, inciting illegal protests, subversion, spreading false news and propaganda for terrorism. All this just for writing some posts on Facebook.
"It is unacceptable that such a situation should be tolerated, that Italy, after the murder of Giulio Regeni, with all that is happening to Patrick and knowing of the continuing violations of human rights that take place in Egypt, continue to have political and economic relations with this country. My provocative invitation is therefore (if they were to relax the restrictions) not to go on holiday in Egypt, not to be simple citizens, accomplices of that regime."
Source:
http://www.italianinsider.it/?q=node%2F10317&fbclid=IwAR2t3-4RzT9-oOQzuL...