Bordering nowhere: migration and the politics of placelessness in contemporary art of the Maghrebi diaspora

Spaces of identity in the context of media images and artistic representations of refugees and migration in Austria

“…Nancy N. A. Demerdash (2016) examines the image production on the displacement and placelessness of the artists of the Maghrebi diaspora and explores the question of how they visually negotiate the figure and position of the migrant and the trauma of their – real and metaphysical – dislocation. The videos and photographs by Yto Barrada, Kader Attia, Zineb Sedira and others inscribe the personal experiences of existential in-betweenness and thus the paradox of place/placelessness, but also the transnational networks of empathy and solidarity.…”

“…The videos and photographs by Yto Barrada, Kader Attia, Zineb Sedira and others inscribe the personal experiences of existential in-betweenness and thus the paradox of place/placelessness, but also the transnational networks of empathy and solidarity. Demerdash (2016: 260) speaks of an aesthetics of placelessness, which is nevertheless grounded in and mediated through a politics of place. The works that make the authorial focus and agency of the migrant visible, as seen for example in Mapping Journey #1 by Bouchra Khalili (Demerdash, 2016: 259), have a special power.…”

“…Demerdash (2016: 260) speaks of an aesthetics of placelessness, which is nevertheless grounded in and mediated through a politics of place. The works that make the authorial focus and agency of the migrant visible, as seen for example in Mapping Journey #1 by Bouchra Khalili (Demerdash, 2016: 259), have a special power. The agency of refugees is also visualized in the films of the harraga , 3 as Brigitta Kuster (2018) points out.…”

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“…The same authors explored the world of illegal migrants through Tunisian popular music and found it mired in loneliness, pain, danger and submission to Providence. It is interesting to note in this context that most of the studies on illegal migration focused on the condition of illegal immigrants in host countries, in particular the issue of integration, alienation and exile (Ketz 2016, Demerdash 2016, Tarr, 2019. This article, however, starts with the world of illegal migrants at home.…”