In the awake of the “Arab Spring,” we have seen a renewed interest in artistic production from the region, one which revolves around the relationship between art and activism and an interrogation of the role of artist during times of revolution. This paper will examine some of these questions as they pertain to the Egyptian context, by focusing on the Egyptian Pavilion at the 54th Venice Biennale. The platform honored the memory of the 32 year old multi-media artist and musician, Ahmed Basiony, who was killed by gun wounds during the violence in Tahrir square on January 28th, 2011. The exhibition, 30 Days of Running in the Space, combines both a multimedia project exhibited a year earlier and unedited video footage from the demonstrations in the days leading up to the artist’s death thus simultaneously presenting Basiony as an artist, an activist, and ultimately a martyr. Much of the work draws on the technologies that we have come to associate and celebrate as part of the “Arab Spring.” However, in this paper I suggest that the emphasis on Basiony’s martyrdom throughout the exhibition threatens to restrict our reading of his work to the tragic events leading to his untimely death. In doing so, this raises larger questions about our restrictive expectations, and perhaps dated understanding, of artistic production within the context of contemporary revolutions.