Between A Rock And A Hard Place: Performative Politics And Queer Migrant Activisms
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Date
2018-11
Authors
Lynes, Krista
Journal Title
Journal ISSN
Volume Title
Publisher
Fembot Collective
Abstract
In June 2017, the refugee rights group LGBTQI+ Refugees in Greece abducted a participatory artwork from the global contemporary art exhibit Documenta 14, held in Athens to highlight the city’s centrality to European imaginaries of crisis. They then released a ransom note and accompanying video in social media, in which they addressed the artist, Roger Bernat, condemning the fetishization of refugees by Documenta, and highlighting the precarious conditions queer migrants face on a daily basis. This paper takes up this action to examine the performative potential of such cultural interventions, their use of embodied actions which draw from the aesthetic languages of feminist and queer artistic practice, the forms of alliance their gesture enacted, and their careful negotiation of the tricky boundary of visibility/invisibility. It concludes that the strategic appropriation of urban space and digital platforms—a strategy it names “displacement”—served to interrupt Documenta’s more narrowly defined public sphere, forging a new space in which to appear publicly.
Description
22 pages
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Citation
Lynes, K.G. (2018). Between A Rock And A Hard Place: Performative Politics And Queer Migrant Activisms. Ada: A Journal of Gender, New Media, and Technology, No. 14. https://doi.org/10.5399/uo/ada.2018.14.4