For almost 10 years of political protests, unrest and war since 2011, the unfolding political realities of the Arabic speaking region has pushed artists to work around and through censorship, exile and economic deficit, creating unique aesthetic propositions, institutional critiques and new discourses on political change. Other than their artistic excellence, what is important about these practices is the new methods and tools they offer to Middle East Studies and political scientists. These artistic propositions carry with them ample knowledge about the region, with visceral urgency and subjective personal nuances, all giving rise to new agencies and singularities that challenge normative grand narratives on recent political phenomena. So, what artistic forms and institutions have emerged over the past ten years that could allow us to understand Arab contemporary politics differently? Building on Ziad Adwan’s scholarship on theatre and nation states, Peggy Phelan’s work on marked and unmarked bodies, and Diana Taylor’s performance studies and politics, and based on extensive fieldwork and interviews I have conducted for over ten years, this presentation will look at key artistic projects including the feminist old women choir Haneen (Syria/ Germany) working on PTSD and the war, the revisitations of Islamic heritage and critiques of vilification of Muslims in exile seen through the work of choreographer Radouan Mriziga (Morocco/ Belgium), Adam Kucharski’s Extra Territorial Ministry of Arab Culture (USA/ Saudi Arabia) and the political role of cultural institutions in post-socialist Arab states, Lamia Gouda’s performative ‘Blood Protest’ on the absence of a discourse on female sexuality within political strife (Egypt), and Ismail Fayed’s queer critique of Nasser and Um Kolthoum’s genealogy of Arab chauvinism through his performance “Shams El Assil” (Egypt). This presentation will survey the social, economic and political contexts of these projects, the artistic tools of intervention, concluding with a discussion on the necessity for performative responses to critique dominant regimes of power, allowing us to unfold interdisciplinary platforms of reconsidering the second wave of revolt in the Arab world, through a performance studies scholarship and intersectional positions.