In doing so, Palestinian and Arab cultures may be able to venture on a post-post-colonial exploration of self and collective identities. In this sense, and through such reading,( Afro) futurism can offer diasporic cultures a way to deconstruct and reconstruct history in a manner that infiltrates territorial and mental borders.
It is not too astonishing, then, to find a small online proposal in artist Sulaiman Majali’ s Towards Arabfuturism / s Manifesto, published in
Notions of belonging are constantly challenged … there is no homogenous culture or identity … The use of“- futurism” here is not intended to reference Futurism as movement, neither is it an explicit reference to the“ futuristic”. Instead“-futurism” is anticipating a future, it signifies a defiant cultural break, a projection forward into what is, beyond ongoing eurocentric, hegemonic narratives … these ideas can contribute to a growing counterculture of thought and action that through time will be found and used in the construction of alternative states of becoming.
While this may be a first utterance of Arabfuturism, unproclaimed Arab futuristic expressions have been increasingly surfacing in recent years.
In a tedious online search for glimmers of Arabfuturism, leading to distant corners of the Internet, an unusual image pops out. Helmet( 2016) by Lebanese artist Ayman Baalbaki is an unsettling but beautifully mesmerising artifact from an indiscernible past / present / future. The impeccable design of Arabic calligraphy, engraved on hard-crafted metal, conjures themes that relate to Islam, militarism, and even astro-science. The mixing of the ancient with the futuristic makes any possible representations automatically paradoxical.
Furthermore, interest in Arabfuturism seems to be picking up through a number of conferences, art exhibitions, and various discussions on Arab sci-fi in literature, film and other forms of expression – whether in the West or in the Arab world. A slightly off-the-subject but rather amusing example is this alternative history project, titled The Life of the Wandering Sufi Al-Hajj Vladimir Lenin. Even sci-fi B movies are beginning to appear: