Tahrir

November 2019, protesters and police clash night and day. The young Baghdadis, armed with slingshots and Molotov cocktails, are trying to reach the al-Ahrar bridge: one of the axes that lead to the Green Zone, an ultra-secure district where the country’s embassies and main institutions are located. On the other side, the regular authorities, supported by militiamen, fired live ammunition and used tear gas grenades of extraordinary weight. In total, more than 600 people were killed and 20,000 injured.

In this series, I was interested in the ambivalent postures adopted by the youth of Tahrir in the face of all this violence. We see joy, fear, camaraderie, excitement, or sadness. Each body seems to protect itself from danger in its own way. Some face it. Others don’t care. All of them stand up to the risks that the quest for a better future presents.

These bodies and these emotions, finally, allow a glimpse of the passing of time. They tell of the first moments of a revolt until the next day that breaks down. They go through the calm of the dawn, the warm afternoons and the fading days.