Between individual and collective commitment : Signature, art and activism in Genoa and Yaoundé

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In Genoa, Italy, the ruins of an old convent have been occupied for six years by a collective of individuals with professional skills and backgrounds. In Yaoundé, Cameroon, street artists have begun to federate several artistic disciplines (mural painting, body painting, fashion design) in order to occupy the public space in an ephemeral way (through a fashion show) and in a durable way (by painting walls). Based on these two case studies, this article seeks to understand the different forms of art that are mobilized, as tools of political expression by activists and as activist claims that are expressed through art. The search for individual and collective recognition, the desire to reach a certain artistic level and the will to express political claims in an artistic way invite us to rethink the dynamics in situ, in order to better understand the complexity of professional, political and activist artistic engagement.