ABSTRACT
While contemporary artists in the Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC) countries understand how the thematic and aesthetic limits imposed on their work can lead to various forms of censorship, their widespread, deliberate self-censorship and blatant avoidance of certain content is perhaps more worrying. But not all creative productivity is whitewashed. Blurred lines and unclear constraints may yield unsuspected ingenuity, enabling artists to circumvent the censors, while many adopt conceptualist aesthetic choices as a means of pushing boundaries on freedom of expression, amidst an already complex matrix of governments, sponsors, patrons, ideologies, and alliances. With information and communication technologies, and other social media platforms permeating the region, artists can access otherwise unheard communities, gain new followers, and initiate important conversations. Such changes happen gradually and spaces for criticality are therefore pivotal. The nuances and contradictions of artistic censorship and self-censorship in the GCC region are explored, focusing on key actors and interlocutors.
