Crossing Bio-political Borders through Aesthetic Works (original) (raw)
Related papers
The Role of Art in Subverting the "Ungrievability" of Migrant Lives
Parse journal, 2020
This article presents a critical reading of necropolitical strategies put in place in relation to unauthorised sea crossings in the Mediterranean. The loss of lives of people on the move and the management of those deaths in European territories testifies to the indifference towards migrant bodies, which are by definition "ungrievable". From the perspective of this article, we need to make an effort to identify alternative narratives that can promote what Iain Chambers has called a "critical mourning", with the potential to develop a new understanding that, as outlined by Ida Danewid, acknowledges the "connected histories" that place the current Mediterranean passages within a continuum of anti-blackness and racism. The article suggests that art has this potential, by opening up new visibilities and subverting the current necropolitical discourse. The analysis focuses on two artworks which revolve specifically on issues of recovering, identification and grievability of migrants' bodies, Maya Ramsay's Countless and Max Hirzel's Migrant Bodies.
2019
Themes and Perspectives BERGGREN, E. − Representation, Victimization or Identification. Negotiating Power and Powerlessness in Art on Migration, 113-136 MORALLI, M., MUSARÒ, P. & PARMIGGIANI, P. − Borders Kill. Tania Bruguera’s Referendum as an Artistic Strategy of Political Participation. 137-160 GOMIS, E.C. − Counteracting Dominant Discourses about Migrations with Images: a Typology Attempt, 161-181 PETERSON, A. − Ai Weiwei and JR. Political Artists and Activist Artists and the Plight of Refugees, 183-202 AHLGREN, K. − Art as a Trigger for Reflection in Sociolinguistic Migration Research, 203-222 Comments and Debates DEL GADO, J. & GOMIS, E.C. − A Conversation on Cinematic Representation and Resistance in the films "Altered Landscapes" (2016) by Juan del Gado and "The People Behind the Scenes" (2019), by Elsa Claire Gomis, 223-233 MASULLO, G. − Invisible Affections and Socialization to the Sexuality of Lesbians. A Case Study in Italy, 235-246 Reviews and Reports PADILLA TEJEDA, C. − Review of Picarella L. & Truda G. (eds.), Fundamental Rights, Gender, Inequalities. Vulnerability and Protection Systems, Gutenberg, Baronissi (SA), 2019, 247-252
The Social Expulsion of the Migrant: Aesthetic and Tactical Interventions
The Journal of Social Theory in Art Education, 2017
In this article, I focus on the social expulsion of the migrant. Social expulsion refers to the multivalent ways in which those in power demean, vilify, exclude, displace, and strip people of hope for the future. Specifically, I write about fault-zones—the material realities of borders and border crossings—that render the lives of immigrants precarious, such as draconian U.S. immigration policies and actions that result in the death, criminalization and mass incarceration of migrants. I contend that in the present climate of hate against immigrants, artists’ interventions provide a means by which to create social awareness of dehumanizing social conditions and foster community engagement to mobilize resistance movements against injustices across geo-political and cultural locations.
European Posthuman Border Image: Performativity, Creativity and Beyond
Creativity Studies, 2018
To artists, border is not just a physical reality imposed on the landscape by political forces, but also a subject for imagination and creativity, representation and visualization. Presentation of migration, refugees and growing new ethnic and religious communities is important for visual arts. Our task is to discuss the correlativeness between the new form of city bordering and reterritorialization and their materialized visual image, to reflect the balance between claims of difference and sameness and the dynamics between dominant perceptions and refugees’ self-representations. Nowadays in the media, we deal with the Debordian spectacle which reduces reality to an endless fragmentation, while encouraging us to focus on appearances. Thomas Neil notes that the migrant has become the political figure of our time, and migrant phenomena invite us to rethink the fundamental political, cultural and art philosophy. It is important to reveal the interconnections between new discourses and ...
Imagining Europe’s Borders Commemorative Art on Migrant Tragedies
This chapter draws on theorization of the border and the practice of bordering in connection to two publicly displayed art works that touch on undocumented migration by boat in the context of European southern sea borders. The notion of the border is examined by following Étienne Balibar’s (2002) thinking on European citizenship and difference and Edward Casey’s (2011) work on place and space. Both of these philosophers point to the constructed nature of borders and to the ways in which borders have become increasingly dispersed within contemporary globalized societies. Moreover, the chapter examines critical potential of art in the intersection of European border regimes and mediatized societies.
Putting the Boundary at the Centre – a Place Where Contemporary Art Meets Politics
2014
This article focuses on the question of the involvement of contemporary artists in the public debate concerning boundary issues relating to migration and the treatment of immigrants. The aim of this essay is to take a closer look at some of their strategies for making the boundary issue more visible and their ability to draw our attention to the situation of excluded minorities, such as “clandestines” and refugees. The object of the study is, in particular, the way in which these artists address the question of the international migration process in the modern “open”, “ostensibly borderless” world, and the socio-political problems it generates. The effect of the border-crossing experience on the life of an immigrant, the image attached to him or her by the “host” society, as well as the artistic reflections on EU institutions and the hospitality of contemporary European societies are also included in the author’s analysis. Keywords: migration, border studies, visual culture, contemporary art, European Union
INTRODUCTION // TAKING POSITIONS ON THE 'REFUGEE CRISIS': CRITICAL RESPONSES IN ART AND LITERATURE
FKW: Zeitschrift für Geschlechterforschung und visuelle Kultur, 2019
The recent rise in global migration movements and the simultaneous attempts to prevent migrations to the Global North in general and Europe in particular have produced numerous images and narratives that try to record and convey these events and their actors. Many of these representations depict migrants as suspects and border crossings as uncontrollable. The (bilingual) 66th issue of FKW examines a range of artistic interventions in European ‘refugee crisis’ rhetoric from the fields of literature, visual art, film, and theatre and reflects on the ways in which these art-works do – or do not – succeed in providing new grammars and alternative imaginations of the present. Have a look at the complete issue or the separate contributions on: www.fkw-journal.de
Politics and Aesthetics of Suspension: Gazes on Migrant Borders
2017
In December 2015, German Chancellor Angela Merkel, praised around the world for her refugee politics, claimed that "Multiculturalism leads to parallel societies and therefore remains a 'lie'." i It is more than obvious that the German opening of borders was primarily geared toward an influx of qualified workers who should, like everyone in Germany, be required to speak German "in public and in private with their families," according to Merkel's party, the Christian Democratic Union. Similarly, the French Prime Minister, Emmanuel Valls, addressed the need to "build a French, European, Occidentalised Islam, with our traditions and values." ii These statements emphasize a political and moral ambiguity, central to current political discourses: multiculturalism failed, so it would only be possible for different populations to live together within European borders as long as they adhere to the superior European values. A more thorough analysis of these statements would reveal not only the Western cultural arrogance, but also and more significantly the lack of distinction, as we will see, between the private and the public lives of the accepted refugees. The consequences of such a non-separation between private and public spheres touch directly upon the question of basic human rights.