Representation, Victimization or Identification. Negotiating Power and Powerlessness in Art on Migration

• A commonplace idea, and worry, in much political art is the emphasis on how not to victimize the object/subject in artistic strategies, and the importance of portraying people as subjects with agency. The way to do this is it is often suggestedm is to allow for identification. This article asks if this strong idea might be shaped by an ameliorating guilt about victims, which in turn is partially informed by an inability to free the gaze from a hegemonic view of people as agents. Instead, the article looks at some contemporary artists who open for an opposite recognition, the radical lack of power for large groups within the global migration system, without attempts at temporary symbolic solutions. It will be argued that the recognition of powerlessness is and has always been a ground for political as well as artistic representation, mobilisation and solidarity.

Ämnesord

SAMHÄLLSVETENSKAP  -- Annan samhällsvetenskap -- Internationell migration och etniska relationer (hsv//swe)

SOCIAL SCIENCES  -- Other Social Sciences -- International Migration and Ethnic Relations (hsv//eng)

Nyckelord

Art

migration

refugees

representation

identification

Publikations- och innehållstyp

ref (ämneskategori)

art (ämneskategori)

kfu (ämneskategori)