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Challenging Orientalism Pt. 1 | Norient.Com 27 Sep 2021 19:16:03 Challenging Orientalism Pt Challenging Orientalism Pt. 1 | norient.com 27 Sep 2021 19:16:03 Challenging Orientalism Pt. 1 PLAYLIST by Berit Schuck Six international curators from the Norient community have researched contemporary music videos that re-imagine, parody, or deconstruct Orientalism. The final selection is presented in the virtual exhibition «DisOrient: Welcome to the Hall of Mirrors», which is part of the German festival Mannheimer Sommer. Here is the shortlist by the curator and researcher Berit Schuck, who focuses on videos from Morocco, Egypt, and Lebanon. Since the Age of Enlightenment, the relations between the Orient and Occident have been shaped by that which the Palestinian researcher Edward Saïd calls «Orientalism», a set of beliefs and stereotypical narratives to which belongs the idea that Oriental culture is unbound by reason, cruel, and simultaneously disempowering and sexualizing women. Now, these narratives have not only impregnated how Oriental cultures are presented outside of their context until today, they have also affected how they see themselves. Since the liberation movements of the 1960s, however, a growing number of contemporary artists and thinkers have participated in a critical reflection of imperialist or Orientalist stereotypes, developed counter-narratives, or opened themselves up to completely new ones, eventually creating artworks about home and history, desire and estrangement, isolation and exile from dis-Orientalist perspectives. The following seven tracks and videos, all produced between 2016 and 2020, are examples of this shift. They explore, criticize, and re-imagine a variety of the most popular Orientalist narratives: the idea of the subaltern who needs guidance from someone outside his or her context to achieve a goal; the idea of the cruel, unimaginable rich pasha who under threat of his life transforms into an insightful politician; the stereotype of the veiled, dark-eyed woman and the particular places she inhabits for the pleasure of men. Created by media artists, composers, and musicians in Egypt, Iran, Iraq, Lebanon, Morocco, and the Netherlands, the eight works offer a variety of perspectives and contexts for encountering how Orientalism still manifests in ways that too often go ignored and unquestioned, and how this can be exposed, criticized, and re-framed. https://norient.com/berit-schuck/challenging-orientalism-pt-1 Page 1 of 9 Challenging Orientalism Pt. 1 | norient.com 27 Sep 2021 19:16:03 Music: Marwan Pablo Video: Kareem Ali Track: Free (Egypt, 2020) «Free» is a good example of the kind of music the Alexandrian songwriter and rapper Pablo Marwan, «Egypt’s godfather of trap» (Vice Asia 2019), has been producing in different constellations over the past few years; the song produced by Molotoff features hard-hitting, trip-inducing hip hop beats, minimal electronic music, melancholic melodies, and always poetically performative, yet sometimes erratic lyrics. Compared to Arab folklore and international pop, trap reaches a relatively small segment of the Egyptian public. Moreover, Egyptian trap does not succeed yet in addressing big international audiences, unlike electro sha’abi or California-style rap. Thus, «Free» was written from the margins and for the margins, despite its immediate success, reaching No. 1 on Egyptian YouTube upon release. Moreover, the song discusses and reflects on marginal practices from a Dis- Orientalist perspective. For example, the refrain of the song may be a complaint, but listening to the lyrics and Marwan’s performance makes clear this complaint is not addressed to those in the center. It’s a call for self-liberation. Using free verse and accelerating the speed of the performance, showing off his skills, the singer is basically telling his followers: «When you are losing it, you are free». Also, the video created by Kareem Ali supports this strategy to be free, which we can call «fugitive planning» (Harney and Moten 2013). Divided into three sequences and preceded by an intro announcing the title, the video considers Orientalist stereotypes such as the idea that talented people in the South would (want to) copy music productions from the U.S. and seek access to the global culture industry (that encourages reproductions rather than experimentation) to negate these stereotypes. All of the sudden, inhabiting the margins of hegemonic discourse is a possible way to be free. The opening shot shows the singer roaming around the wall that separates Alexandria from the sea, and Egypt from Europe, and while this image seems to say he is trapped, his free movements betray the first impression, underlined by the graffiti behind him that simply says «free», quoting the title of the song. What follows are images of the singer and his crew sitting on the top of a Mercedes Benz or leaning out of its windows while driving across the city and down Alexandria’s sea road. However, the singer doesn’t seem to need the fancy car for more than the film shoot. The more images you see, the more the car appears like a vehicle that anyone can pick up anywhere to have some fun, and not as a status symbol. The last sequence of the video finally shows Marwan on a horse and in a villa surrounded by artifacts from Alexandria’s golden era, including Art Deco furniture and Modern Art paintings, such as Picassos’s Blue Period portrait of an absinth drinker. Again, instead of celebrating this moment that speaks to intellectual wealth and https://norient.com/berit-schuck/challenging-orientalism-pt-1 Page 2 of 9 Challenging Orientalism Pt. 1 | norient.com 27 Sep 2021 19:16:03 white privileges, Marwan leaves us with the impression that all of this is not that desirable. The images look dim and foggy, the scene outdated. Losing it and becoming free is all you could ever want. Music: Wegz Video: Hatem Tag (Director), Ahmed Thabet (DOP) Track: Dorak Gai (Egypt 2020) «Dorak Gai» written and performed by Wegz, another young rapper from Alexandria, engages with a different music genre, but attempts something similar with regards to Orientalist stereotypes. Again a Molotoff production and one of the most popular songs that came out of Egypt in 2020, «Dorak Gai» is an Egyptian rap song combining hip hop beats with experimental electronic music and sha’abi elements. The lyrics, however, straightforwardly dismiss Orientalist tendencies within the rap scene, such as the appropriation of underground rap and exploitation of poor people in commercial productions. Moreover, what at first seems to be a critical comment on the success of California-style gangsta-rap in Egypt, soon appears to be a disguise for a vitriolic critique of the Egyptian state and its dependency on Western allies. The video introduces Wegz planted in the middle of a garage in a poor Egyptian neighborhood, surrounded by followers wearing gas masks, which is a direct comment on the failure of the Egyptian government to stop the spread of the Coronavirus in these neighborhoods. Next you see Wegz standing in the middle of a crowd dancing and cheering to the music while facing a Coronavirus task force that has blocked the street. Wegz may be talking about a fight with another rapper, we understand, but what we see is not only this fight, but a grotesque, comic representation of the ineffective measures taken by the Egyptian government to fight the pandemic. Music: ISSAM Video: Issam Harris (Director), Essadik Asli (DOP) Track: Trap Beldi (Morocco, 2018) Two recent tracks and videos by the Moroccan rapper and composer ISSAM offer new perspectives and contexts for encountering the ways in which Orientalism often goes hidden. According to the online music magazine Scene Noise: https://norient.com/berit-schuck/challenging-orientalism-pt-1 Page 3 of 9 Challenging Orientalism Pt. 1 | norient.com 27 Sep 2021 19:16:03 Inarguably, one of the best rap tracks to come out of Morocco in 2018 was ISSAM’s «Trap Beldi». Released on November 19th, the song went viral not only because of how catchy it is both lyrically and musically, but in part due to its visually stunning video which currently holds over nine million views on YouTube. The Adam K produced beat (...) complimented ISSAM’s witty, self- assertive lyrics and it all tied in with the videos vintage inspired theme, which didn’t stray far from home with the rapper and his clique sporting retro Moroccan, Tunisian and Algerian football jerseys, and loitering around town on Motobécanes in colorful tracksuits. (Adel 2019) The review gives a full account of what you can hear and see in the video, however, the «vintage inspired theme» must be read both ways: The football jerseys and colorful tracksuits may trigger memories and a sense of nostalgia for all who have visited or live in Morocco. They are a distinct part of popular Moroccan culture. One should nevertheless keep in mind that they are also a trace of French colonization, and when ISSAM uses them in a music video that talks about the struggle of Moroccan youths for independence, it is equally possible to see them as part of this struggle. Music: ISSAM Video: Issam Harris (Director), Essadik Asli / Mohcine Aoki (DOP) Track: Makinch Zhar (Morocco, 2019) «‹Makinch Zhar› capitalizes on the same formulae that made Trap Beldi a smashing success», says Scene Noise (Adel 2019), but the track focuses more on the struggle of Moroccan artists and culture workers, both at home and in the world. «Makinsh zhar» in Darja literally translates to «there’s no luck». The lyrics of the song exemplify what this means for artists in the post- colonial Moroccan context. They tell us a Moroccan artist would have to wear nice watches and clothes from abroad and pursue an international career in order to be recognized at home. Meanwhile, the symbolic use of eyes in the video reflects on Moroccan culture’s superstition of trying to achieve something while people watch closely.
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