ABSTRACT
Taking the severe controls on art and culture production during the Sisi regime as its starting point, this chapter traces the ontology of cultural censorship in Egypt genealogically from its inception by the colonial authorities and the monarchy through its elaboration and militarisation over the course of the republic. A tutelary approach to public culture has created an elaborate architecture of art and culture education, licensing and syndication that has produced generations of artists, intellectuals and bureaucrats eager to man the barricades of allowable and “authentic” art and culture while independent and amateur production and performance have been effectively criminalised.
