Arts and Refugees: Multidisciplinary Perspectives (Vol. 2)
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1. Introduction
Published in 2019, the Special Issue entitled “Arts and Refugees: Multidisciplinary Perspectives” gathered together a set of articles exploring the role of art created and performed by refugees settled in urban European contexts. More particularly, the articles studied the ways in which artistic practices foster the multidimensional integration process of refugees in the contexts in which they live, and how they inform and support solidarity movements and claim-making processes. The Special Issue adopted a broad conception of refugees—including forced migrants with or without legal status, coming from different countries of origin, having gone through diverse migratory trajectories and life experiences. All shared the performance of art and gave it specific meanings in their new living contexts. Similarly, the notion of art was understood in a broad sense, including diverse cultural and artistic practices and domains, and not only institutionalised ones.
2. Arts and Migration
Researchers’ interest in issues linking arts and migration is recent but is growing rapidly. The starting point for studies exploring this link is that artistic practices, in all their forms and irrespective of whether they are professionally practiced or not, play an important role in the lives of individuals and are a means by which migrants act in different contexts and achieve certain goals.
It is also interesting to study the gender dynamics involved in refugees’ artistic experiences. These dynamics are of different types, involving different modes of participation according to gender, and different meanings and outcomes associated with these experiences. In particular, the intersectional perspective allows for a deeper study of gender dynamics, as well as the issue of racism, operating in the cultural and artistic field, focusing on how these dynamics are manifested, experienced and addressed by social actors.
Furthermore, the scientific literature as well as various field experiences point to racial inequalities in cultural and artistic sectors, which operate in various ways and affect the artistic representation of racialised people. Migrant and refugee artistic practices can become effective means of combating racism in the arts and beyond, by challenging cultural hegemonies—that is, situated and standardised aesthetic norms and values that structure the production and consumption of the arts, and which are both the result and the indicator of power imbalances. The norms and values associated with minoritised populations are often excluded from the cultural hegemonies operating in given contexts, resulting in structural barriers that prevent their meaningful participation in artistic and cultural life. It is therefore interesting to show whether and how refugees’ artistic practices challenge the cultural hegemonies operating in the countries where they live, i.e., by proposing alternative aesthetic norms and values or by challenging the existing ones. This approach is even more important because the literature shows that the production (and negotiation) of borders, differences, hybridisations and belonging often involves cultural mechanisms, in which the mobilisation of (and thus access to) symbolic resources on the part of individuals impacts social relations.
In many countries, culture and arts are also the subject of public policies, to varying degrees according to the context and the priority given to them in each society. Specific policies may concern the participation of minoritised populations in the cultural and artistic sector, both as consumers and as producers. Attention to these policies also makes it possible to assess whether they effectively promote the participation of migrants and refugees, whether they respond to the needs and difficulties encountered, whether they trigger processes of inclusion or whether they maintain processes of exclusion.
3. Overview of the Articles
Within this overall theoretical framework, this Special Issue covers a set of crosscutting topics (and related research questions). It deals with the issue of arts and racism/anti-racism, contributing to the scholarly literature as well as to varied experiences from the field that point to racial inequalities in the cultural and artistic sectors, functioning in diverse ways and affecting the artistic representation of and by racialised migrant and refugee individuals. However, arts and cultural practices may also become a space for resistance to inequalities, challenging the system in place. The article by Rosaria Ruffini explores the importance of performance practices in the informal camps and shanty towns of southern Italy, where many sub-Saharan migrants live. Performance expressions in these camps take a variety of forms and are supported by local associations. The article looks at the critical issues raised by these artistic experiences, including the role of migrants, the dynamics of appropriation and action, and power relations with local associations, professional artists and political activists, also taking into account self-representation, artistic legitimacy and strategies of authorship. The article also analyses how performative practices are becoming an essential political tool in the fight against spatial segregation and racial discrimination.
This Special Issue also addresses possible ways of challenging cultural hegemonies, intended as a set of situated and standardised aesthetic norms and values structuring the production and consumption of arts, both resulting from and revealing power imbalances. Norms and values associated with minoritised populations are often excluded from the cultural hegemonies operating in given contexts, leading to structural barriers that prevent their meaningful participation in artistic and cultural life. Challenging these barriers and these norms contributes to the production of forms of belonging through the arts. Chrysi Kyratsou’s article explores the dual role of music in expressing cultural differences induced by borders and in promoting other forms of belonging. Drawing on ethnographic research, including participant observation, documentary research and interviews, the author examines auto-ethnographic recordings involving interactions with refugee musicians. Through vignettes describing musical encounters between refugees and between refugees and the host society, the article examines how music serves as a mechanism for coping with estrangement and as a tool for articulating narratives of belonging. It focuses on how refugees defy stereotypes, seeking visibility and audibility. It argues that their narratives offer a perspective on reality that challenges linear constructions of nation-state borders and displacement-induced ruptures, highlighting the role of music’s mobility and its intersections with human movement, informal networks and the cultural industry. Ana Mijić and Michael Parzer use fiction to examine the processes of refugee arrival in Austria. Drawing on the results of a participatory project, the authors explore how artistic practices in the fields of literature, music and photography can foster alternative viewpoints on the integration of refugees beyond assimilation. The analysis contributes to debates on how refugees’ artistic practices can serve as tools for cultural and social transformation. The study involves the creation of artworks in a real laboratory and the acquisition of knowledge about how artistic practices reveal and challenge the common hegemonic expectations that shape the arrival processes of refugees and migrants.
Furthermore, in many countries, culture is an object of state or other government level policies targeting different aspects of the cultural and artistic life of its population, as well as different rules concerning the production of culture and arts. These policies vary depending on the context, and on the priority given to culture and arts in each society. Specific policies can address the participation of minoritised populations in the cultural and artistic sector, both as consumers and as producers of culture, by encouraging the participation of refugees to varying degrees and focusing on its outcomes. Elena Marchevska and Carolyn Defrin undertook a collaborative practice-as-research study project involving ‘non-British’ citizens in the UK. Over three years, working alongside refugee and migrant artists in a non-hierarchical dynamic, the collaborative team produced four films exploring the concept of home in the context of government policy, social integration and intergenerational relations. The article focuses on two films created in collaboration with a participatory theatre company and a conceptual artist. Through an analysis of the use of comedy and visual representations, the article discusses how these artistic approaches resist simplistic views of migrant and refugee narratives. The authors also explore the creative and ethical processes involved in making films about artists’ work, highlighting how their aesthetics challenge prevailing migration norms and policies in the UK and Europe. The article by Jaka Repič examines the role of visual arts and literature within the Slovenian diasporic community in Argentina, established by post-Second World War refugees and at the beginning of the communist revolution in Yugoslavia. Drawing on ethnographic data and biographical interviews, the article explores how the cultural production of the diaspora, enriched by social memories and themes related to war, violence, post-war mass executions and exile, is influenced by three levels of cultural politics: the Argentinian framework of cultural pluralism that integrates migrant communities into the national identity; the diasporic level institutionalising themes crucial to diasporic ideologies, particularly those related to violence, exile and mass executions; and the transnational level, facilitating the integration of diasporic artists into Slovenian and international art scenes. The article highlights the often contradictory nature of these cultural policies, which require artists to integrate into both Argentinian and diasporic artistic fields, leading to partial social exclusivism.
Finally, the gender dynamics involved in refugees’ experiences with the arts are of different types, including distinct ways of participation depending on one’s gender, as well as different meanings and outcomes associated with these experiences. The intersectional lens allows the study of gender dynamics, as well as the issue of racism, to be expanded upon. In relation to arts and refugees’ issues, attention is drawn to the gender and intersectional dynamics that operate in the cultural and artistic field, focusing on how they are manifested, experienced, and addressed by social actors. Moreover, this Special Issue explores the extent to which a gender and intersectional approach to arts and refugees’ issues can bring about broader methodological changes to research in this field, as well as new policy challenges. The article by Stella Grace Conard and Elena Horton explores the experiences of women participating in a Danish arts-based integration project, in which migrant and Danish women engage in craft activities such as knitting, sewing and crochet. The study, based on ethnographic fieldwork and interviews, examines how factors such as gender, social class, ethnicity, family status, employment and the perception of craft as a hobby or a source of income influence the participants’ roles, self-perception and expectations within the project, highlighting the importance of social recognition in the integration process. Artistic practice enables women to respond to discourses on integration and refugees while situating themselves within these frameworks. Yafa Shanneik and Elisabeth Sobieczky explore the use of body mapping and augmented reality as artistic methodologies for refugees fleeing war in Syria to express their emotions through active participation and to co-create research results. This approach challenges the gendered narratives associated with Muslim refugee women, opposing representations of vulnerability and victimisation. The project, including research conducted in the UK, Germany and Jordan since 2017, critically examines the use of art as a sensualised medium to generate knowledge, discussing its impact on viewers at exhibitions.
4. Conclusions
This second Special Issue is a complement to the first Special Issue published in 2019, concerning all the many dimensions of the complex relations between arts, migration and refugees worldwide. More research and publications will be welcome in the future to continue exploring this fascinating topic.
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