The relationship between murals and revolutions: Iraq as example

Political and artistic history tells us that murals often have a vital message as a form of claiming rights and as a form of social and political criticism; In addition to the fact, murals play a very active role in expressing the rights of people, it also aims to show how mural art can be an act of protest, that is a visual expression of the demands for freedom, equality and a cessation of violence. The literature review shows that there are no studies examining Iraqi murals in the context of their relationship with the revolution. The lack of work on this subject is a problematic situation in terms of understanding the demands of Iraqi artists and understanding the murals produced in Iraq. Depending on this problem, the answers to the following questions will be sought: How relevant are Iraqi murals to revolutions? What social and political issues do Iraqi murals focus on? How do Iraqi murals express social and political problems? The study aims to investigate, clarify and shed light on the importance of revolutionary murals in communicating the issues of the Iraqi people. However, at the stage of conceptual discussion and literature review, the researcher will try to explain the relationship between murals and revolutions by examining the murals from different countries and societies in this context. This study was planned as qualitative research. Qualitative research methodology plans to examine and interpret social phenomena within the social context they are connected to, with an approach based on theorizing. The study is consists of four parts: In the first part; The problem, purpose, method, importance and limitations of the study will be described. In the second part, the theoretical framework is created: The history and development of mural art and different murals techniques are examined. In addition, masterpieces and pioneering artists focusing on revolutions, social crises, social and political criticism will be examined. In the third chapter, the history of and tradition of the Iraqi mural is examined. The fourth chapter focused on murals produced in Iraq after 25 October 2019. After the aforementioned date, e-mail, phone calls and face-to-face semi-structured interviews hold with the 10 (ten) most influential young artists living in Iraq. The data obtained through the interviews is dictated and the meanings attributed to the murals by Iraqi artists are determined by analyzing the content of these texts. The fifth chapter included study results and recommendations from data collection and analysis. The findings show that there is a relationship between murals and revolutions and the artists chose the wall to express their thoughts freely, to serve the revolution and to have a role in the liberation of the country. The murals had a positive impact on the square and the protesters alike by turning the square into an art gallery full of life and making the protesters claim for change for the better, by spreading cultural, political and social awareness among people. Keywords: Mural, Iraqi art, Iraqi October Revolution, Iraqi muralists.