„French police make woman remove clothing on Nice beach following burkini ban.“ These words transcribe an image that flowed over the media this past summer, crystallizing the tensions that underpin questions of identity, religion, and representation at a time where the only thing worse than globalized terror propaganda is the possibility of Donald Trump becoming the next president of the United States (and vice versa). In this context, the image of a veiled woman surrounded by armed cops and stared at by bikini- and speedo-clad onlookers became a symbol of the deep and wide-open wound of identity quid pro quo in a post- 9/11 world. Alternately romanticizing it and fomenting fear towards it, the mainstream representational system of the West preserves an idea of the Middle East as a „serious“ subject matter, burdened with religious and poilitical subtext. DIS This is probably why so many artists from the region have obsessively pursued struggle narratives and a rhetoric of the past, creating works that reinforced what Moroccan scholar Mohamed Rachdi coined as a „tacit commission“ from the ORIENTAL West, arbitrarily linking authenticity with trauma tic backstory and dramatic storytelling. Through three extensive interviews, a round table, two think pieces and a visual insert by art collective GCC, this section is dedicated to a new generation of artists who are bringing nuance to this fossilized system of ISM thought, mining the intersections of technology, culture and identity politics. Through the work of these creators—who, in confronting media stigmatization and tokenism, challenge the question of representation and the expectations placed upon their production, and refuse to act as „native informants“ or spokespersons for a whole region—alternative narratives and a new visual language emerge. Refusing to settle comfortably within the confines of a hackneyed „political art,“ these changers would rather foster a discourse that is playful and provocative, blending politics and pop culture with social satire and salutary self-deprecation. ASAD RAZA Sophia, earlier this year I invit- called „TLs“ between us, which stands for „The ed you to take part in the residency program Litany.“ We would see stuff in the world, just I was doing at the Boghossian Foundation, walking around in reality, and say „That’s a TL,“ held in the Villa Empain in Brussels. There, in because there’s so much information in each collaboration with Léo Parmentier, you edited of them. There’ll be like 80 photographs that over 100 videos which together form a work you grab off Google that will be yellow boots or SOPHIA called The Litany, which premiered in „Black a phobia or a certain type of shampoo, and so Friday,“ your ongoing solo show at the Whit- there’s all of this stuff flowing in less than a sec- ney Museum. I am now in Brussels with Léo, ond, pattering across the screen. It took a lot of so he can join us in this conversation. Since hand-cutting to get the litany to be as dense as it we last saw you in Brussels, editing the films needed to be. for the Whitney show, maybe we can start by discussing what led up to that. AR You and Léo seemed to work together very smoothly. I saw that in Brussels, and it AL-MARIA SOPHIA AL-MARIA Yeah. Over a year ago, I struck me that Léo comes from cinema, and had the wonderful idea to make over a hundred Sophia, you also have a double-life in art and videos, all of which would be played on the floor cinema. Did that help you to communicate? at the Whitney Museum. These videos would have to be hyper-dense in terms of information, SAM We have similar references, so that’s defi- and they would all have to relate to the underbel- nitely the case. I’m also not as skilled—I mean, I ly or the darkness behind the really pristine con- learned Premiere from Léo while we were in the sumer world that we live in. I’ve always edited ev- Villa. A lot of it was like hunting; we were hunting erything myself, and as you know, Asad, when I and gathering on the Internet, and towards the came to the Villa, I was freaking the fuck out! end, Léo was coming up with lots of ideas, too. So many of the TLs were things that I could imag- LÉO PARMENTIER I remember… ine but was unable to do myself—for example, there’s one I’d had a dream about, where it’s just SAM I was sort of having a major crisis, and my a hand on a screen, with spinning brands on the producer, Anna Lena Vaney, sent me a bunch fingers. So this strange thing starts to happen of CVs before sending over Léo. It was compli- when you’re working with somebody, where you cated, because I’d never used an artist assistant don’t really know where one person’s work ends before and felt conflicted about doing that, but and the other one begins. We’re just going back over a hundred videos is a lot. I’m really amazed and forth, helping each other get to the place that at the incredible collaboration with Léo that has needs to be reached. The work took a huge step resulted in the crazy work we’re about to mount when Léo just started going for it, going through here in its final form. That’s my side of the story. the rushes I shot in Doha and marinating in them.

LP When Anna Lena called me, I thought AR You went to Doha, and though you are it was just to help an artist with the techni- not a regional artist, your work deals with that cal details—video settings and stuff like region in a way that people have found signif- that—but no, it was actually a real collabo- icant. I wonder if that has significance for you, ration. I’m used to doing feature films, not and how that worked with Léo coming in? art films, so that was amazing, because I had to discover this other world. It was also SAM The main film was shot in Doha, but the really intense, because we edited more films on the ground were made almost entirely Through a collaborative search into the Internet’s than 60 videos in two weeks. It was kind of from the Internet. I think there’s a direct correla- underbelly, the Qatari-American artist stepped out of the a race. But in working together, we found tion to the Internet and the space of the mall be- that we have similar socio-political ideas of ing a sort of non-specific, global place. There’s Gulf into the global experience of the consumer world, the world and got along well in the work. specificity in each particular location the mall hunting for polarized extremes, paradoxes and ironies. has decided to land, of course, but basically, if SAM It’s funny, because a sort of slang lan- you’re in Hong Kong or Capetown or wherever, guage started to develop—like the works are you get the same shops and the same experi- Interview by Asad Raza Portrait by Mathilde Agius 67 DISORIENTALISM ence of being nowhere. So increasingly, I think, SAM Yes. Agreed. even though a lot of my work is shot in the Gulf, this project was a means of talking about some- AR The example of Drake, or other people thing—a more global experience of now—that who play different roles on different proj- feels like a trap. A lot of the works are based on ects—on one track, they put down a rap for extremities and paradoxes and ironies. someone else; on another, they produce the record; on another, they are the main person. LP Like seeing what people have to live That seems of our time. So Léo, what changed through on the other side of the planet for you over the working process? while other people unbox their new iP- hones … LP I learned a lot. This was a new kind of collaboration for me. Usually, I have the SAM Or doing their makeup. director sitting next to me saying, „You should try this or try that,“ or „I will be back AR It makes me think that perhaps identity in three days, just try some stuff.“ This was is less something that you have, that you’re different, because we were seeking some- unequivocally expressing in your work, than thing together. I think we agree that we something that you’re actually exploring—an were pretty lucky to be working together. undefined category that is being played with, It was luck. searched for, or otherwise investigated. SAM Yeah. It’s going to be interesting. We have SAM I will say that, having written a memoir, conversations about Léo being a „ghost artist,“ I’m tired of myself. Since then, I’ve really tried to because so many of the videos are his. I had a project into other worlds and think more broad- friend who worked for a very famous artist for a ly about things. The subject matter that we were long time, and in making that work, he ended up dealing with in this work makes one feel really with repetitive stress injuries that made it impos- misanthropic. That’s why having someone to sible for him to do his own. I didn’t want to just work with on it was great. erase the people working on this, which is why I’m glad that you were open to this being a three- AR Yeah, and it was interesting that when way interview. It was really important for me to you guys were here, it was a bit opaque as acknowledge this, and to be honest that a lot of to what was really going on. I would come in this work is not by my own hand. and see scraps of paper, the notes and all the stuff you were producing, and I would see Léo AR Art has always been about this individ- working feverishly, and it felt like something ual who is identified with the work—and in a different was going on here than the usual dy- way, it’s something criticism needs as well, a namic between an artist and a technician. figure to impute all of the meaning produc- tion, as though it’s an exercise of psycho- SAM And there was a lot of listening to Drake. analysis for one person to look into a work. Actually, I think the way that we work together is That’s always been a distortion of working maybe not dissimilar to the way that a producer processes in art and cinema. and musical artist work together. That’s more what this experience was like than just directing SAM Perhaps our ways of consuming art need someone. We’d talk about an idea or concept, to change. But I don’t know what I’m talking and Léo would go out gathering samples, ba- about, as usual. sically, making sort of visual beats that I’d then draw a narrative over. Sophia Al-Maria (American, b. 1983) is an artist who lives and works in London. She is represented by The Third Line, Dubai. Al-Maria's AR Seems like there was something pro- solo exhibition “Black Friday” is on view at the Whitney Museum, ductive about not having fixed roles, letting New York, through 31 October. Upcoming projects include her first solo show in the UAE at The Third Line in March 2017, and her the collaboration take place in the absence participation in the 2016 Biennial of Moving Images (BIM), Geneva. of fixed positions. Asad Raza is a producer, artist and the artistic director of the Boghossian Foundation-Villa Empain in Brussels.

Opposite page: Sophia Al-Maria, The Litany, 2016 (details) 68 Courtesy of the artist and The Third Line, Dubai jokes—to find its proper place alongside the ensemble of „traditional“ politics. We cannot speak at our our at speak cannot We politics. it. with „traditional“ of audience—only ensemble the alongside place proper to its find generosity jokes—to certain a demands rumors, Humor whispers, collective matter. for infrapolitics—the the allowing and subject attentively by listening public, the smart wards very to Nasreddin, Molla questions stupid wise-man-cum-fool Sufi very asking 12th-century by the mascot, retroactive our from heed take We and rational the to opposed as philology, armsoflinguistics. analytical sexual) not (if sensual a towards turn a means it language, focus our on Given body. the from thought separating of metropolises. legacy major or Enlightenment the universities questioning our means in That taught be to to unlikely was those Tatars and knowledge, Slavs of founded we types other reasons the explore of One construction. on geo-political a is expectations it as idea specific imagined, an poetic are much as is there region given our area, that others and geographical ourselves remind must this we But on production. our focusing collective art an as course, Of (Baku). the pre-WWII oil half world’s sourcing mention to not respectively), Al-Khwarezm, Al-Beruni, Sina, (Ibn algebra and medicine, astronomy modern of founders the and (Babur) Empire Mughal the of founder the (Naqshbandi), tariqats Sufi largest the produced has region The rule. Chinese under Uighurs) the but of exceptionAsia the (with East never by influenced heavily Russia, not but Russian-speaking largely East, Middle the not but tion popula Muslim largely a with area an cracks: the between fall often too Asia Central and Caucasus The SLAVS ANDTATARS 70 an area east of the former Berlin Wall and west of the Great Wall of China known as Eurasia. as known China of Wall Great the of west and Wall Berlin former the of east area an to devoted Sharifi, Payam and Korczak Kasia of nucleus the around 2006 in formed collective Slavs andTatarsart an is DISORIENTALISM - - narratives and exist in an ambivalent state. They become real. real. become They state. ambivalent an in exist and narratives one-way oppose that things like I about. all it's what that's but clashing, is juxtaposition the Tehran, in conceivable been have not would obviously we Placed campaign did, which of images the the sexy-ish eyes. advertising alongside their under possible be should think I what for proposal a almost well—it’s as shop Berlin the in them put to decided I so portraits, their display must institution public and shop every Iran, In republic. the of Leaders Islamic present and former the Khamenei, and Khomeini lah Ayatolof a picture underneath showcased is underwear the shop, the In even Berlin, of globalized capitalism. in franchise Fard a perspective from sense make Do quite this doesn’t a endeavor an such of though opening all by make to discussion was of idea topic the a So Iran. on imposed were sanctions trade strict when talks, deal nuclear the before trade was This world of different. were circumstances the only if too, elsewhere, well really sell could stuff this that thought the had I point, some At sexiness. for tial say, Schiesser or American Apparel, with maybe even the same poten- have They Tehran. of,reminiscent of rather colors, candy nice in underwear cotton beautiful bazaar central the in shop little a in goods its ing Iranian sell years,an 75 nearly is for underwear Fard producing been Do has which brand product: existing an recontextualizing by simply shopkeeper.worksand projectentrepreneur female The a of that rate incorpoto artist an as roleusual my shifted project,I Fard Do the For she transformed the project space Uqbar into a temporary pop-up store for Iranian underwear. Iranian for store pop-up temporary a into Uqbar space project the transformed she Fard, Do With Berlin. in works and lives who artist Iranian German-born a is 1981) (b. Razmi Anahita 71

ANAHITA RAZMI DISORIENTALISM - - - On 23 June 2013, celebrations of a supranational nation. In the erupted across the Palestinian 1990s, Egypt began to lose its he- territories at news that a wedding gemonic position with the rise of singer from the Gaza Strip had Gulf-based Arabic satellite news won the Arab Idol TV talent show. and entertainment media. Since Mohammed Assaf, 23, came then, there has been an explosion ARABPOP ahead of two other final compet- of news, religion and entertain- itors following his rendition of „Ali ment channels, each serving as al-Keffiyeh“ („Raise The Keffiyeh“). mouthpieces for businessmen, BBC reported that traffic in Gaza religious sects, political move- City was gridlocked late into that ments and government interests night and that the city hadn’t seen in what Marc Lynch has called such an outpouring of emotion the sphere of the „new Arab pub- since the end of the last conflict lic.“ The Arab uprisings of recent with Israel in 2012. There were years were to some extent the fireworks, middle-aged men danc- outcome of a third media revolu- ing the Palestinian dabke in the tion, marked by the emergence streets and groups of youths in of platforms such as Twitter, You- cars cheering Assaf’s name. The Tube and Facebook. These tools sight was quite unusual for gener- proved invaluable in mobilizing al television, taking the opposite protesters and creating bodies of Westerners to question the san- view of a region that the world still public opinion in Bahrain, Egypt, ity and normality of Arab cul- seems to view through the singu- Syria and Yemen, just as they’d ture—among them, the freedom lar lens of failure and conflict. done in Iran in 2009. of women; restrictions on alcohol Nevertheless, popular culture Despite this, a certain tone of de- (a corporate indictment that ig- in the Arab world has been criti- rision continues to inflect Western nores the tradition of prohibition cal not only in both expressing discussions of Pan-Arab identity that persists in some areas of the and creating national cultures, at both a political and cultural lev- United States); and anti-modern but also in constituting Pan-Arab el. For a range of political and eco- clerics, even while all manner of identity. Unlike the political proj- nomic reasons, the leading West- religious antinomianism could ects of Arab nationalism, popular ern states have had little interest be cited as representative of culture, in its music, cinema and in a strong Arab bloc, unless it American culture. television, has been extreme- is to rubber stamp pro-Western These themes will often contra- ly successful in promoting Ara- policies in weak institutions like dict one another, and as such, one bism. Rather than fading with the the Arab League. The ascendan- alternately finds it suggested in regional conflicts of 1967, for cy of Gulf states as political and public discourse both written and instance, the songs and films of economic leaders of the Arab spoken that the Arabs are hope- the Nasserist era have been rein- world, along with the degradation lessly disunited, an ineffective vigorated via the Arab media rev- of states formed around historic failed nation (the classic example olution of the 1990s, as popular urban centers like Cairo, Damas- being Peter O’Toole’s rant against culture continues to keep the Pal- cus and Baghdad, has served tribes squabbling over a well in estinian cause alive while simul- these foreign agendas: to this day, Lawrence of Arabia), or that they taneously producing new modes Western narratives of Arab weak- together pose a singular threat to Often disparaged by cultural elites yet promoted by the of transnational identity. Through ness on all but the national level Israel, collectively driven by an Is- television, this common aware- span media, politics, even aca- lamic fanaticism. media as a symbol of the post-colonial dream of Pan-Arab ness of local politics, culture and demia. For this reason, the vibrant Arab media has proven adept at unity, modern popular culture integrates music, cinema and language has only grown deeper. Pan-Arabism seen in the Arab responding to these Western ste- The media became a powerful world’s popular culture passes reotypes through the transnation- television with a vast pool of shared classical references. tool in the hands of Arab states in largely unnoticed in English-lan- al popular culture it both enables the early decolonization period, guage discussions. and expresses. Pan-Arab talent integrating music, cinema and Middle East news coverage has shows have been particularly suc- by Andrew Hammond television to produce the culture established themes that allow cessful. Ahla Sawt, the Arab ver-

72 DISORIENTALISM 73 DISORIENTALISM sion of The Voice, follows rough- Modern Arabic music ranges wide- ly the same format as the Dutch ly, from a canon of mid-20th-centu- original and its American offshoot. ry classical singers known across While presenters have come and the region to Arabic pop formats gone, the four judges remain the that first emerged in Egypt of the same: Iraqi singer Kazem al-Saher, 1980s, to North African raï in Al- Egyptian pop star Sherine, Leb- geria and Morocco, to a series of anese pop singer Assi El-Hellani smaller musical cultures which re- and Tunisian singer Saber Rubai. ceive less attention in mainstream A similarly popular program is Ar- media: among them, Berber mu- abs Got Talent, the Arab version of sic, pop music restricted to its na- the global franchise, which began tional borders in countries like Iraq airing on MBC in 2011. Currently, or Sudan, Western-influenced rock its three judges include Lebanese music and „dissident“ musicians singer Najwa Karam, who has such as Ziad Rahbani or the late been on the show from the begin- Egyptian duo of Sheikh Imam and ning, Egyptian actor Ahmed Hilmy Ahmed Fuad Negm. „Arabpop“ is and UAE academic Ali Jaber. Sulayman and Egyptian journalist after one week when Islamists often disparaged by cultural elites This shared pool of cultural refer- 19th century, under the influence Game shows took off in the early Fawzia Salama have been fea- protested against it in the host as symbolic of the collapse of the ences, spanning cinema, music of European Orientalist scholars 2000s on Arab satellite channels. tured since its inception. Octavia country of Bahrain. Star Acade- post-colonial dream of unity and and television, is vast. It embrac- who deployed the term „Arab“ The biggest success was the Ar- Nasr, a Lebanese presenter on my was slammed by Saudi Ara- strength in the face of imperial- es, just to cite some examples, the widely and often pejoratively. In abic version of Who Wants to Be CNN who was forced to resign bia’s Grand Mufti Sheikh Abd al- ism. „When political and econom- Egyptian classical singer Umm the 1930s, ideologues were giv- a Millionaire?; others included al- over tweets in commemoration Aziz Al al-Shaykh as „an open call ic stability is restored in our soci- Kulthum; Algerian director Lakh- ing specific definitions for these Fakh („The Trap“), al-Kursi („The of Shi’ite cleric Hassan Fadlal- to sin,“ though the kids were still eties and our conditions flourish, dar Hamina’s Waqa’i’ Sanawat al- concepts, which formed the dom- Chair“), Waznak Dahab („Your lah’s death, has since become a mobbed whenever they headed the original song will come back Jamr („Chronicle of the Years of inant ideological language of the Weight in Gold“) and Deal or No co-host. Celebrated Syrian actor into Beirut malls. The Arabic Big because it represents ourselves Embers“), the only Arabic work to decolonization period across the Deal. Presented by Lebanese Duraid Lahham chaired his own Brother began in February 2004, and our heritage in a true manner,“ win the Palme D’or at Cannes; Gulf Arabic-speaking region, whether host George Qerdahi, Millionaire chat show on MBC for some but despite huge media fanfare Sabah Fakhri, Syrian composer of poetry show Sha’ir al-Milyon („The within nation-state structures or was a runaway hit for over two years. Lahham rose to promi- did not last beyond a few weeks classic Andalousian songs called Poet of Millions“); Ahmed Adaw- as unification projects. Arabism years in the Arab world, with Qer- nence in the 1960s as part of a because of protests in the Gulf muwashshahat, once said. iya, the late Egyptian singer of a was, in a sense, an Orientalist no- dahi’s version of the catchphrase TV and film comic duo with Syri- over unrelated men and women Yet Arabpop’s connections to the working class sound known as menclature internalized by the in- „Is that your final answer?“—jawab an actor Nihad al-Qalie. Following living under the same roof. classical tradition are deep: its sha’bi, capturing the zeitgeist with tellectual elites of the Middle East niha’i?—entering the popular ver- the Arab defeat in the 1967 war, With origins in Egypt and Algeria basis is the Arabic music scales „Zahma,“ his classic song of urban and North Africa in the Nasserist nacular. Other shows did not Lahham moved into theater with in the early 20th century, cinema known as maqamat, which em- traffic and pollution; Nour Sherif era, such that, as Leila Ahmed translate quite so well. Lebanon’s writer Mohammed al-Maghout, also holds an important place in ploy tonal intervals smaller than as the polygamous husband Met- writes, „arab“ became „Arab,“ just Future Television ran an Arab ver- plays being one of the few outlets Arab popular culture. The huge the half-tones used in Western walli in the famous Egyptian soap as in the States, empowerment sion of the BBC quiz show The for political criticism available in billboards that dominate the ur- music. It is also insanely popular opera of the same name; Moroc- in the face of oppression had Weakest Link, with presenter Rita ‘70s and ‘80s Syria. ban landscape in cities like Cairo as a genre. Egyptian music pro- can pop star Saad Lamjarred, turned „black“ into „Black.“ From Khoury mimicking BBC host Anne Reality TV hit the Arab world in give an indication of the space that ducer Tariq al-Khashef worked who rose to fame through Arab that time on, for all the problems Robinson’s overbearing style. But the early 2000s but was met with cinema occupies in the collective with Libyan singer Hamid al-Shari’i Idol; and singer Latifa, from the of Arab nationalism (and they are Khoury offended viewers in Arab limited success. Most of the re- psyche of the Arab world. Syner- in perfecting the Cairo-based first generation of Arab pop stars, many), popular culture has been countries, with male contestants ality programs were copies of gies between music and cinema pop sound, using a beat that telling her Lebanese television the prime vehicle through which sometimes pleading with the sta- internationally patented shows, meant that the golden age of cin- worked in tandem with the hip hosts that she’ll switch from Egyp- it was transformed into a mean- tion to edit out some of her re- such as Star Academy and Big ema—the black-and-white period shimmies of belly dancers. Mu- tian to her Tunisian Arabic since ingful vector of identity describing marks in order to save face. Brother; only one, Al-Hawa Sawa of the 1940s to the 1960s—went sic is such an Arab obsession, he Lebanon and Tunisia are, she as- millions of people. Talk shows have also proven pop- („Together on Air“), was an indig- hand in hand with other popular says, that it’s „coming out of the serts, Phoenician-origin outposts ular. MBC1’s Kalam al-Nawaem enous product. Star Academy, media. Today’s output is unfavor- taps.“ But the crossover between of liberalism in the Arab world. („Sweet Talk“) has been running which ran from December to May ably compared to the works of classical styles and modern pop Pop culture helps us define what since 2002 as an Arab version 2004, was regarded as the most that era; it’s often said that with the is striking, as the success of sing- it is to be „Arab.“ Arabism (‘uru- Andrew Hammond is a doctoral researcher of the US show The View; while successful, in that it drew the least emergence of color cinema, the ers such as the late Algerian diva ba) and Arab nationalism (al-qa- in Islamic history at St Antony's College, Oxford. its lineup has changed over the opprobrium from critics, while golden age died as crass com- Warda or the contemporary Syri- wmiyya al-‘arabiyya) were devel- He is the author of The Islamic Utopia: The Illusion of Reform in Saudi Arabia (2012) and the years, Saudi presenter Mona Abu Big Brother was forced off the air mercialism kicked in. an star Asala indicates. oped by thinkers from the late forthcoming Popular Culture in the Arab World.

74 DIS-ORIENTALISM 75 DISORIENTALISM With a mix of well-groomed critical irony, qualitative BIDOUN content and an eclectic roster of contributors, the magazine created a sort of „vernacular disorientalism,“ decongesting the stigmatized visions of the region.

Interview by Myriam Ben Salah Portrait by Tim Schutsky In an article titled „The Social Turn: Collabora- MBS How would you define a Bidouni today? tion and its Discontent,“ published in Artforum’s February 2006 issue, art critic Claire Bishop NEGAR A Bidouni is so many things. It’s not describes the media’s selective production really an either/or condition, but more of an and dissemination of images from the Middle ambiguous ETC. It’s not quite a rootless cos- East, stating that „the typical Western viewer mopolitan, though it may well capture that. It seems condemned to view young Arabs either encompasses just about any state of hyphen- as victims or as medieval fundamentalists.“ As ation: a suburban kid in the diaspora; an Irani- Bidoun’s art director Babak Radboy once con- an obsessed with metal; an Indian dreaming curred in an interview, from the general media’s of Fidel. Above all, it’s a sensibility that refus- perspective, one might have a hard time pic- es to sit nicely within the confines of inherited turing anyone from the Middle East doing any- ideas about culture and place. When it comes thing as normal as sitting down for dinner. This to debates about identity, a Bidouni tends to re- is where Bidoun came along. For more than ten ject two extremes: the market-orientalist who years now, the magazine has published pieces blandly celebrates culture and the academ- about Gulfiwood, Hafez Al-Assad’s Iron Blad- ic/activist/anti-Orientalist who is above all... der, Cat Stevens, Naguib Mahfouz’ white linen grouchy. You know? suits, Egyptian gangsta rap, Pakistani horror porn, Iranian pop music and Larry Gagosian’s MIKE Not exactly synonymous with Bidouni, Aremenian origins among many other gems but note superstar (Bidouni) Sophia Al-Maria’s that one can now access online. coinage of the „chicken nugget“ as a „person Decongesting the stigmatized visions of the who has no command over their native language, region in a post-9/11 context, Bidoun offered having been raised by a domestic worker.“ stories from the perspective of almost (but not totally, or maybe not at all) native informants— MBS Do you think there is already a „heritage“ or an or at least those „who grew up speaking multi- influence from Bidoun in terms of art production with- ple languages, maybe all of them badly,“ as Bi- in the younger generation of artists? If so, how would doun’s Senior Editor Negar Azimi puts it. characterize it?

MYRIAM BEN SALAH What did it mean to run a NEGAR I think we nurtured the practice of a magazine/project about art, culture and ideas from lot of artists this last decade—by writing about the Middle East post-9/11? What does it mean to run them, by producing their quirkier, more quest- it now, at a time of Syrian war, global terrorism and ing artist projects, and simply by being a psy- ISIS, when brown is definitely not seen as "beautiful"? chic „home base“ of sorts. When it comes to arts production, there’s definitely a Bidouni sen- BIDOUN There are very few words, very few sibility, but it’s hard to define in words! Let me images that are produced and circulated with- try. The work I’m thinking of is irreverent, very out a clear reason—especially when they’re often funny, surprising and almost always per- about the Middle East. We found ourselves sonal. It doesn’t take itself too seriously, and between two arch-narratives that seemed it doesn’t fulfill preconceptions we may have to compliment each terribly well: the post- about the Middle East. That’s not because it’s 911 mainstream politics of terror on the one purposefully or self-consciously transgressive hand, and on the other, its supplement in cul- or nuanced or whatever, but rather because the tural production: an open-call for Arab per- Middle East itself is a mixed-up pastiche of a ge- spectives which coincided neatly with the ography. There are as many experiences of it globalization of the art market. That’s not a as there are people. conspiracy, it’s a current, and we were car- ried along with it—even if we were facing the MBS How do you rethink the production of imag- wrong way most of the time. But I think it’s es at a time of high-speed circulation of content? a bit different today. I think far fewer people Babak, as an art director, being in charge of the vi- care, and maybe the stakes are higher. As you suals, do you experiment towards a shift in terms of said, brown is not beautiful. politics of representation?

78 Rubrikentitel 78 DISORIENTALISM 79 DISORIENTALISM BABAK Representation is a very misunder- racial context in the US and in light of your past collab- stood phenomenon—or maybe I misunderstand oration with Transition: An International Review? it. I’m not interested in who is in front of the cam- era—or, at a certain point, who is behind the cam- MIKE All of that is maybe a little heavy. But in era. For me, it is about who we assume is looking any case, what originally brought me to Bidoun at the picture or reading the text. As the maga- was in fact Transition, which was somehow on zine progressed, I tried to imagine a kind of read- their radar. Transition might seem to have been er and work in solidarity with that person. a very different animal—it was founded in Afri- There were also just some random decisions— ca in the 1960s and had academic cache, not pure experimentation and risk-taking and intu- least because it was based in the Department ition. I was never really invested in the values of African-American Studies at Harvard—and that define art direction and design as disci- yet, in a curious way, editing Transition was an plines. Bidoun is very messy and inconsistent. exemplary preparation for editing Bidoun. The key thing about Transition was its sensibility. MIKE Incontinent. The content could be all over the place; it was more in the mode of a literary magazine, with BABAK We were willing to abandon every- fiction and travel writing and long argumenta- thing from issue to issue to find something tive essays, all presented in a fairly fixed design worthwhile. As for the high-speed production template. The writing could be funny, angry, of content, I think it’s created a deeply retro- elegiac, grotesque, wry, perverse and/or rue- grade environment. It may last forever, but it’s ful—sometimes at the same time—but it was not the future. almost always irreverent. Impious, even, what- ever your piety. So our guiding principle was a MBS Do you think the laughter, the levity, the self-dep- diffuse yet highly particular notion, which we recation and the kitsch that is so characteristic of signally failed to define and ended up calling Middle Eastern culture is making a comeback? „Transitionliness.“ Part of what appealed to me about Bidoun—and vice versa, I think—was that treasured childhood memories is eating kibbeh TIFFANY Oh, I don’t think that levity ever left— the Transition-ly and the Bidoun-ish blurred into nayyeh at the Lebanese neighbors’ house.) It’s it was just never circulated in or recognized and bled all over each other. That shared sen- one of the epicenters of 20th-century black cul- from the outside. It just doesn’t get represented sibility has something to do with what Tiffany ture, obviously, but it’s also a border city, set in in English. The default tenor when writing about was saying about lateral space. To see clearly, the shadow of Canada, which had a fantastic the Middle East is explanatory, which assumes sometimes, you have to look sideways. and worldly public culture and media. Detroit a certain audience, a certain set of hierarchies. As to the first part of the question, it might suffice was and is a place nearly completely subsumed Making a joke about what’s around you means to say that I doubt anybody’s going to be deliv- by its hopes and impediments, to misappropri- that you can really see what’s around you. The ered—from racism or America or history—any- ate a phrase of Chinua Achebe’s. All of which world doesn’t allow for the possibility that peo- time soon. But if one wants to get into these sorts seems like a fine vantage point from which to ple in the Middle East can see what’s around of questions, you could do much worse than to approach the Middle East. them. It’s all top-down, which leaves no lateral go back to James Baldwin, whose 1972 memoir space.—and I think that’s the only space where No Name in the Street recollects his black expe- funny can happen. Bidoun operates on a differ- rience in 1950s Paris and his encounters with Ar- ent set of assumptions; our default tone is not abs at the height of the Algerian war. explanatory, and so we have the potential to be From 2004–13, Bidoun magazine was a distinctive, critical and funny. We don’t always hit the mark, but when MBS Mike, you might be the most representative original voice in the arts and culture coverage of the Middle East. Bidoun Projects is now a non-profit organization whose activities we do, it’s really special. team member of what an enlarged Middle East can encompass curatorial initiatives, educational programs, artist be. What brought you to Bidoun? commissions, talks, performances, books, an itinerant library, and an online archive of avant-garde media. MBS In Transforming Anthropology (2006), anthro- pology scholar Lanita Jabos-Huey studies the motif of MIKE I like the idea of being the exemplary Bi- Myriam Ben Salah is the newly appointed Editor-in-Chief of KALEIDOSCOPE. A curator and writer based in Paris, she has been the „Arab“ as the New „Black.“ She particularily refers douni, as opposed to a henchman of an Irani- coordinating special projects and cultural programming at the Palais to Comedian Ian Edwards’ line about Middle-East- an art mafia—though I will note that I was born de Tokyo since 2009. Parallel to this theme survey, she has curated the group exhibition “We Dance, We Smoke, We Kiss,” currently on view at erners delivering African Americans from racism by and bred in and around Detroit, which is one Fahrenheit, Los Angeles, through 10 December. Other recent projects taking over the burden in a post-9/11 context. What of the great Arab-American metropoles. (For as an independent curator include “Cool Memories” at Occidental Temporary in Villejuif; “Shit and Die” in Turin; and “Dirty Linen” at do you think about that assumption, given the current a long time, too—one of my dad’s sisters’ most Deste Foundation, Athens.

80 Rubrikentitel 80 DISORIENTALISM 81 DISORIENTALISM Although we are Western artists, as we we as artists, Western are we Although gaze. colonial the of side out of worth sense and pride our retrieve and reclaim to want we culture, and edge knowl to contributions indigenous and brown black, denigrates persistently that world a In aesthetics.’ diasporas, ‘decolonial digging tastes, while technologies and standards beauty identities, struggles, hustles, powers, Eastern Middle and docu celebrating andfashion, African mentary art, culture, digital through resist and communities marginal empower to is purpose Our world. art otherness the in prevalent of mechanism the and gaze exploitative the away from us to lows strip al it canons; Western the of outside exist that wisdoms and knowledge the an to ode is Malaxa curriculums. the in didn’t it make that places and people of the stories celebrate to space white a from and relief academia a other each in found and Martins Saint Central at met We al. wasbornout oflove „Malaxa surviv and 82 - - - - - MALAXA gonna come to you if you spread your your spread demonizing you stereotypes.“ if is you Twitter to come now gonna that is changed What’s process. the in dehumanize ultimately recipe: modifying fetishize, eroticize, and proba com the gaze,foreign it—the of are part bly we and ‘Orientalism,’ old of kind same the embraces world art The o thrive which interests ital are bodies seen as commodities, serving white brown cap and Black tainment. enterreceivedis as pain consumed and our how about rather but upon production, our placed expectations the about ily necessar it’snot art, termstheofIn lent. preva still is that domination of history a of reminder constant a are bodies poric es o dsnrnhsmn. u dias Our disenfranchisement. ofa sense and discomfort without the world Western navigate to enough white is not are we what ‘matters,’ that passports those of one own and West the in up grew both Danish artist TabitaDanish artist Rezaire. French-born and Mersy Guyanese/ Alicia artist Lebanese isaduocomposed oftheMALAXA French Canadian/ DISORIENTALISM

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LAWRENCE ABUHAMDAN 83 MADANI - - DISORIENTALISM

MARTHA KIRSZENBAUM Your recent solo ern African visual culture and the globalized show at New York's MoMA PS1 comprised a pop culture that you are using in your work, large immersive video and sculptural instal- such as songs by Rihanna or Justin Bieber. lation. How did this project come together? MB Those elements coexist in my work be- MERIEM MERIEM BENNANI First of all, it was a very cause they coexist in real life. There is no more quick decision, and I had very little time to pro- separation between these two cultural aspects duce the exhibition. Jocelyn Miller, the curator of today. If you’re in Morocco and you visit a place the show, contacted me just before I was leaving recommended by Lonely Planet, you will hear Ri- New York for a two-week trip to Morocco, and hanna’s „Kiss It Better,“ the song covered by the the exhibition opened one month after my re- fly at the end of the film. They exist together, but turn. I already had a sense of the space I would they also become these global signifiers or refer- be occupying at the museum, so while in Moroc- ences that make you feel comfortable, which is co, I was able to shoot videos with that space in what pop culture is about. I like the idea of estab- mind. I tried to work intuitively during my trip and lishing internationally recognizable elements— film everything without a preexistent intention. I such as the grain of an iPhone video, a pop refer- was able to isolate some patterns, such as the ence or cultural symbol—to create a systematic constant use and presence of cellphones. I went consensus between the piece and the spectator. to very modern parts of the city, where the ad- ministration or telecom companies are now lo- MK Music and dance seem to be important cated, as well as to more traditional parts of the elements of your video work. I’m thinking about medina, such as the holy mausoleum of Moulay the animation iButt (2015), where you see an Idriss in Fes. The omnipresence of cellphones apple shaking to the sound of belly dance mu- was the same everywhere. sic; there’s also a fantastic scene with wedding The cellphone becomes a texture that can be dancers rolling on the floor in FLY. found everywhere, one that is very referential for us as a fetishized, slick and sexy chrome ob- MB I am very emotionally attached to music ject, a symbolic piece of technology used even and dance. It is connected to my Moroccan back- in contexts that seem far away from its image. It ground, but also to my family’s habits. Music, par- is also revealing how much people are constant- ticularly pop music, inspires me because it is the ly connected and documenting everything—for most direct way of looking at something. When instance, at the weddings I attended, which are I use Rihanna in my work, it indicates a moment featured in the film. I did the same thing, using my in time and represents an instant cultural locator, iPhone to film my visit to Morocco in an almost which I like to play with. In FLY, there are women BENNANI encyclopedic way—women in my family and dancing at a traditional wedding. I replaced the women on the streets, private spaces and public original, culturally specific music with Philipp places, contemporary aspects of everyday life Glass, so that the scene loses some of its geo- and more touristy shots of historical spots. graphical explicitness. I chose Glass' work „The Grid“ (part of his score for the movie Koyaanis- MK The PS1 installation feels very personal. qatsi) because it has this very universal sound to it and focuses on a feeling rather than on a cul- MB Yes, the videos deal with the private, fa- ture. In this particular video work, there is a lot of milial sphere, and the exhibition design bears a dance because I documented a wedding. What very domestic vibe with carpets and couches. is really interesting in this footage is the relation- The piece is partially about going back home, ship of these Moroccan women to their bodies. With wry humor and a subtle ability to misappropriate and the images are indeed personal, but there It reminded me of when I was growing up in Mo- the clichés of Middle-Eastern culture, the New York-based is also a distance that appears the moment I rocco, at a very different time in the world, and the start using special effects. way Islam was portrayed and practiced. artist interlaces references to the globalized pop and the vernacular representation of her native Morocco. MK What struck me while watching the vid- MK Could you say a few words about Fard- eo FLY (2016) is the tension between the ver- aous Funjab, the online reality TV show you nacular, traditional representations of North- produced last year? Interview by Martha Kirszenbaum Portrait by Sam Clarke 95 DISORIENTALISM MB It all started as I was watching the 2007 first MB I feel a responsibility that I am maybe not season of the Kardashians (laughs), and I was fulfilling. It is something that I’ve been thinking thinking that everything they do, all the tricks and about a lot recently, especially in the context of devices, are in fact completely transparent and the racial killings in the US and the development obsolete. We are so used to watching reality TV of Black Lives Matter. In my artistic community, that it ages really fast. So I decided that I would people have been extremely vocal, particular- do my own reality TV show, with the theme of ly after the assassination of Philando Castile. It the hijab as a central element. I was actually a made me think about how to be active and en- bit judgmental and ignorant about it, because I gaged today. There are so many crazy things didn't grow up close to anyone wearing it, and I happening right now in the Muslim world, and considered it as the result of a patriarchal soci- I feel like my position as a Muslim female artist ety. In the past ten years, at least twice as many living in the US could make me an amplifier for women have started to wear the hijab in Moroc- these voices. I think my work is political in its co—a real change of landscape. I had very vio- own way; it’s not aggressive, but my humor is lent, supposedly feminist reactions against it, tender. I believe that you can say a lot with gen- but I also wanted to get closer to this phenom- erosity and sweetness. enon. So I imagined a project that, instead of pushing this reality away, would be immersed in MK I think that the tools you are using its representation, and would turn the hijab into in your work, such as humor and détour- something fun and treat it with tenderness and nement, are actually very political ways of humor. In a way, I think that treating the hijab with- dealing with these subjects. Distance and out judgment, embracing it as part of a culture, self-derision are definitely part of the fight. is the result of living in the US. Yes, it is a very Could you imagine showing Fardaous Fun- American point of view (laughs). My previous re- jab in a Muslim country, or would it provoke actions were more clearly the product of French a scandal? education, where any apparent religious sign is banned in public space. I decided to transfer the MB I think the reception of Fardaous would element of the hijab into a TV show, focused on be very scandalous. I’m very conscious of its the life of Fardaous, a successful hijab fashion political content and social critique. From my designer. I spontaneously shot the first two epi- perspective, I am not even doing anything sodes at my parents’ house in Rabat, casting my critical and provocative towards religion, but mother for the role of Fardaous and my aunts to rather towards the Moroccan bourgeoisie, its play her friends. I really wanted to use my family social codes and lifestyle. I wish people had house for the set, as its design could be read as the distance to laugh about it, but I had an inci- reflecting a certain Californian lifestyle. dent after the New York Times article about me came out. A Moroccan website attacked me MK What’s quite interesting in the dialogues because of my work and because I showed at of Fardaous Funjab is the constant entangle- the Jewish Museum, and they wrote that play- ment of French and Arabic languages. ing with the hijab was a lack of respect. They posted the article on their Facebook page, and MB Yes, but it is not intentional—it is just the I read all these violent and inflamed comments way people talk in Morocco. The coexistence about my work. I felt deeply sad and discon- of both cultures and languages is constant. I nected from my home, as if there was culturally imagine Fardaous becoming an endless proj- no way back, but I also thought that it was a ect, with further episodes but also a commer- shame a project like this couldn’t be welcome cial, a book, a performance. I feel that I can use where its jokes and cultural subtleties could its character to say something about the world read best. around us, because she is a Muslim woman.

MK Do you feel certain expectations be- Meriem Bennani (Moroccan, b. 1988) is an artist who lives and works in New York. Her work is currently featured in “We Dance, We Smoke, cause you are a female artist and from the We Kiss,” curated by Myriam Ben Salah at Fahrenheit, Los Angeles. Middle East? Martha Kirszenbaum is the founding director and curator of Fahrenheit, an exhibition space and residency program in Los Angeles.

Opposite page: Meriem Bennani, FLY, 2016 96 Courtesy of the artist 98 written and performed. and written of being tradition history long a has very that poetic and literary rich a from and East, Middle the in years of hundreds for evolving been have and existed have that practices cal musi from inspiration equal takes been it ’70s, and ’60s the in region the has of production cultural the practice by shaped our „While power one has in narrating their their narrating story.“ own in has one the and power self, the of reading ferent dif a projecting of matter a more It’s us. of have ‘West’ so-called the stereotypes the challenging or ing correct to opposed as ourselves, view we how of sense the in types stereo in interested more are Athens. We to City Mexico to guson Fer from everywhere felt equally is and power, of machinery global oppressive the Palestine of product in the is experience we that precariousness The from. are we where to secondary be to seemed concerns our where frameworks but also by refusing participation in producing, are we work the of ture na very the in foremost and first categorization, this ac resisted have tively We role. certain a form one per and fulfill to expected artist, often is „Arab“ or a as „Palestinian“ that, fact the with time some quite for struggling been have We experience. and time of layers unfolding between juncture dis and resonance the on working definitely are we and history, living a from isolation in practices porary find it very hard to think of contem We al-Safâ’. Ikhwân of name the by went that Baghdad and Basra from group a by music about text tury 10th-cen a reading been have we example, for projects, current our Ruanne Abou-Rahme and musician Muqata'a. musician and Abou-Rahme Ruanne and Abbas Basel artists together brings installation which groupPalestine, from Ramallah, Tashweesh DISORIENTALISM is an audiovisual performance performance audiovisual an is TASHWEESH

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99 RAED YASSIN ------er a tribe. as genre onym instead to complete the ‘dude’ picture. Might even paidmore, get whoknows?“ picture. ‘dude’ the complete to instead onym Yamaha. So I should probablyusing a Fatima start male pseud pseudonym the has using producer been male a that recently I out as found anymore, work doesn't that even But an. name, in an attempt to highlight that I'm a wom my real under why to I music write chose That's male. = producer music that always presumption this There's ‘bro.’ ‘dude,’ ‘man,’ as me ing address years the over great messages a of received volume 've I goes, hand, gender other as the far On as pond. that in dip toe low haveseldom as best, takenI more shal thana at amusing find I which ‘arabesque,’ sounding as music my to referred who've people across few a came I Gulf, the from woman a Being on. so And spective. Chinese from an ongoing colonial Westernidentity per dimensionless and oppositional of an dissemination and construction the about er-pcfi Xperience Genre-Specific instance, For identities. tribal and/or opposing of construction the and narrative of sense sive perva a is nature. thread major the in that say would I semi-autobiographic is work „My Fatima Al-Qadiri Fatima lives andworks inBerlin. FATIMA DISORIENTALISM

(b. 1981) is a Kuwaiti musician and visual artist who who artist visual and Kuwaiti a is musician 1981) (b. Asiatisch (2014) was partly partly was (2014) (2011) examined AL-QADIRI ------In a work called Auge/Maschine the world. It looks somewhat like was visible were less images than (Eye/Machine, 2002), Harun Faro- Stonehenge, only it’s 6,500 years shards of images, flying around cki coined the term „suicide cam- older, and instead of one massive after huge explosions. era.“ Auge/Maschine shows cam- stone-pillar circle there are around The term theater of war, as defined eras mounted to the tips of twenty, most of them unexcavat- by Carl von Clausewitz:

missiles during the first Gulf War. ed. Many of the pillars bear exqui- Such a portion of the space over which war The camera would broadcast live site carvings of scary animals. prevails as has its boundaries protected, MEDYA: and thus possesses a kind of indepen- until it exploded. But it turned out that the relief I dence. This protection may consist in for- But contrary to all expectations, was looking for is not visible on tresses, or important natural obstacles pre- sented by the country, or even in its being the camera was not destroyed in site. One can only see the pillar’s separated by a considerable distance form this operation. Instead it burst into back side; the relief itself is hid- the rest of the space embraced in the war. Such a portion is not a mere piece of the billions of small cameras, tiny lens- den. The only way I could see it whole, but a small whole complete in itself. es embedded into cellphones. was on a cellphone. One has to The camera from the missile go online and Google it. Of course The term theater also refers to a AUTO exploded into shards that pe- you can do that almost every- staging of military action. The hills netrated people’s lives, feelings where. In so-called reality, howev- around Kobanî for a while turned and identities, skimming their er, it is not accessible. very literally into a theater: a drive- ideas and payments. But it was not only me who in cinema for tanks and other by- The camera on the missile tip was watched the image. My cellphone standers. supposed to identify and track was also watching me, my loca- We saw flying objects, clouds of object. But as it self-destructed, it tion and my activities. smoke, flashes of light. On cell- multiplied. It is now not only identi- In January 2015, the rumble from phones, one could also see head- NOMY fying and tracking objects, but the the battle of Kobanî in northern less people in Daesh videos. devices embedded into them, their Syria could be heard at Göbekli All this was just as incomprehen- owners, their motions and emo- Tepe. In October 2014, the city had sible as the relief on the Göbekli tions, as well as most of their ac- come under massive attack by Tepe pillar. tions and communications. If the Daesh (or ISIS) and was expected The vulture hovering over the de- cameras in the tips of the missiles to fall any day. Hundreds of by- capitated person. I saw it on my were suicide cameras, the ones in standers were watching from the mobile phone. In fact you all can cellphones are zombie cameras, Turkish side of the border, trying see it on yours, too. Just Google OF cameras that failed to die. to catch a glimpse of the fighting „Göbekli Tepe“ and „vulture pillar“— But what if not only the cameras raging on several fronts around it will come up. You will see that exploded but also the images and inside the city. Countless eyes someone added red lines to the they produced? What if this creat- were observing the events with guys without a head, maybe in or- ed a situation in which images military-grade binoculars and all der to make the shape more visible. were broken to the point of being sorts of cameras. This is how machines „under- unintelligible? But even though there was a mul- stand“ images, too. They project This image to the left apparently titude of eyewitnesses to the battle lines and boxes onto photographs IMAGES shows a vulture flying above a of Kobanî, what did they see? Or to track and analyze objects. headless person. At least this is rather, what did I see? By adding lines and boxes to im- what archeologists claim. It is dif- On the border with Syria, onlookers ages, machines allegedly become ficult to figure out just from looking were using my camera viewfinder more autonomous. This especial- at it. You can’t really see what they to try to identify Dasesh positions. ly goes for recent weapons sys- In this text originally conceived as a lecture-performance, are talking about. It looks like a ra- They claimed to see ISIS cars mov- tems that are called autonomous dioactive chicken. And the strange ing in the distance. But to be hon- to convey the idea that they are the artist and media theorist stems from cult filmmaker shape below is supposed to be est, I couldn’t recognize a thing. becoming gradually more inde- Harun Farocki’s idea of suicide cameras to meditate on the guy without a head. I saw smoke, clouds, houses. May- pendent of human supervision I wanted to see this relief in person, be cars, or maybe just glints of and control. image circulation, visual blindness and contemporary war. on a pillar dating back 12,000 sunlight in the distance. Among But images are not decoded by years. So I went to the Göbekli the hundreds of bystanders, few machines just to prove their intelli- Tepe complex near Urfa, Turkey, knew what they were actually see- gence. They are used as models to by Hito Steyerl the oldest known ritual structure in ing. I certainly didn’t. Whatever trigger actions and to create reality.

100 DISORIENTALISM 101 DISORIENTALISM Just as humans used plans and There was no writing and there is This is posthuman documentary: strikes. The signals from phones An artist colleague from Ukraine evolved the sensors predicted by maps to change the world, so do no oral history. But we still live light and radio waves permeating were intercepted and turn into told me a story. His name is Oleg Oleg? Can he or she already figure machines use machine-readable within their consequences: within every space unseen, whole lives fighter jet attacks, killing in one Fonaryov, and he made a beautiful out posthuman documentary im- communication to do the same. states, societies marked by pri- transformed into patterns that case more than thirty civilians. photography project around it. ages? Is he or she hiding her new Autonomy, however, has several vate property and class inequali- must be translated to be percepti- Look at your phones. See if you He asked one question: What if organs under a balaclava? different meanings: The battle of ty, societies in which everything ble to any human. Images that, can find the vulture on the pillar at human evolution responded to the I finally saw the birds and the head- Kobanî itself was a fight for auton- belongs to someone. again, become models to create Göbekli Tepe hovering over the change of light sources around less people with my own eyes. omy, not for machines but for hu- In his work Riding on a Cloud social reality. decapitated person. Which lines us? For millions of years, the only In a refugee camp in Suruç, across mans. Autonomy means some- (2013), Lebanese artist Rabih Look at these two guys walking and boxes were added to this pho- light on earth came from the stars the border from Kobanî, teenagers thing different from the perspective Mroué claims that his main protag- through ruins holding their lap- tograph while it was squeezed and the sun, maybe some fire or were rehearsing a dance directed of Kobanî’s defenders: It means onist—a character based on his tops like divining rods on the next through the circuits of state sur- candles. Now there are a lot of by a young girl in a guerilla uniform. autonomy from statehood as brother Yasser—lost his ability to spread. They weren’t looking for veillance? Which objects were electric lights and tons of screens. They were vigorously romping such. Not only the state of Syria or recognize or understand images water, but rather for a Turkish identified? On grounds of which Not to speak of those posthuman around to traditional music. Turkey, but from the state per se. after being shot in the head by a cellphone provider’s signal, to calculations were they considered documentaries flying through the But suddenly they all dropped to Autonomy is not separatism, not a sniper. Since he sustained brain send their own signals from the for intelligence use or discarded? bones of the dead and the living. the ground, as if they had been hit taking over or occupation of the damage, images have become battlefield. Which actions were triggered? In the history of evolution, organic by falling bombs or some other le- state, but the creation of parallel meaningless compositions of I spoke to them on the day of the Which flying objects launched? bodies have changed to deal with thal violence. At one point, their structures within existing ones. lines, colors and materials for him. city’s liberation. They were journal- Machines show one another unin- changing environments. What heads were covered by the scarves The images on the Göbekli Tepe He cannot recognize anything of ists for a Kurdish news agency telligible images, or more, gener- senses, what organs will people used as belts in the region. Under pillars mark an important junction images. The sniper’s bullet has de- who had spent a couple of weeks ally, sets of data that cannot be grow to pick up invisible images? my eyes, they transformed into rep- in the process of creating the stroyed his faculty of identification. inside the besieged city. Some perceived by human vision. They To decode data streams that we resentations of corpses. state. They were produced at the Images for machines look differ- evenings they tried to crawl out of are used as models to create real- cannot presently detect? How will But one by one the bodies were very beginning of statehood. In- ent from images for humans. In the city underneath the barbed ity. But what kind of reality is creat- people evolve in order to adapt to picked up by the choreographer deed, some archaeologists claim their purest form, as transmitted wire but were shot at by Turkish ed by unintelligible images? Is this an environment modeled on unin- girl, who was playing a flying bird. that the production of these imag- data, they are incomprehensible, border guards. So they returned why reality itself has become to a telligible imagery? All the bodies on the ground slow- es itself created a precursor to even imperceptible to humans. to the ruins, looking for a signal to certain degree unintelligible to hu- On the night of Kobanî’s liberation, ly morphed into birds—not vul- statehood, in the Stone Age. Ex- They may be coded as pulses of file their stories. But this was not man consciousness? the projection didn’t work proper- tures, but cranes. And then they perts used to think that agriculture light or magnetic charges or long so easy. The Internet changed What kind of state will be created ly at the big celebration party on flew away. preceded statehood and orga- lines of seemingly random letters. with the weather, they said. And as a result of these operations? A the Turkish side of the border. Migratory cranes have been in the nized religion. Göbekli Tepe sug- If we were able to see them, they every evening, they had to find an- state that shrouds most of its op- There was a big screen hung from region for at least 12,000 years. gests that it might have been the might have as little meaning for us other shelter in the midst of the erations in secrecy, retracting be- a mosque. But there was no input They appear on Göbekli Tepe’s other way around: Cult created art. as any picture might have for a destruction as they followed the hind secret legislation; a deep to the projector. Then a desktop pillars. But conservationists in Urfa Art created the division of labor. person shot in the head by a snip- migrant, unpredictable signal state in which inequality is simul- image appeared. have been waiting for the birds in Some people had to produce food er, more abstract than even lines wafting across the border. taneously on the rise? It showed a masked guerilla and a vain the past few years. Because for others. Agriculture seemed to and boxes. We are as challenged But obviously, every bit of data If models for reality increasingly couple of flags. But that was not of the war in Syria, they stopped be a solution. Scientists think that to see an image made by and for transmitted by cellphones in this consist of sets of data unintelligi- the interesting part. The interest- coming. Now the choreographer the complex building and carving autonomous machines as some- area is collected; and we know ble to human vision, the reality cre- ing part was the array of icons on girl had brought them back. process brought about social hi- one hit by a sniper is challenged where and by whom. An article by ated after them might be partly the desktop, for communications Her name is Medya. erarchy to enable the necessary to see images made by and for Laura Poitras and others analyz- unintelligible to humans, too. software, image-processing tools, infrastructure. In producing sculp- other humans. ing documents provided by Ed- Images in which whole lives be- encryption software, FTP clients. tural images of a flying vulture hov- Maybe the art history of the twen- ward Snowden reveals that all cell- come patterns that autonomous Though it was meant to be the ering about a human without a tieth century can be understood phone data in the region is machines use to gossip about you backdrop of the celebration, it ac- head, state-like structures were as an anticipatory tutorial to help monitored at a NSA listening sta- or pull the trigger. tually became a document in itself. created, perhaps, as a sort of by- humans decode images made by tion near Ankara and then passed Images that, if applied, create a It showed a workplace and its product. The images on the pillar machines, for machines. Look at on to Turkish intelligence services. reality that looks in part as if your tools. It was a document of an au- perhaps became a model for cre- this Mondrian painting to the right, These signals are then used by brain was damaged by a sniper, tonomous production of images. Excerpt from a text originally published in ating a different, and likely more for example. The colored grid typ- Turkish authorities to intimidate, one readable only by machines. What kind of reality will be created Astro Noise: A Survival Guide For Living Under Total Surveillance, a volume accompanying the unequal, social reality. ical for Mondrian is perhaps an indict and incarcerate journalists A reality consisting of dead lines using these tools? Will they help solo exhibition by artist, filmmaker and journalist As I said, no one knows what the unconscious exercise for humans and activists, or even worse. and kill boxes. In which you don’t realize autonomy for humans? Laura Poitras held at the Whitney Museum, New York, in spring 2016. images on the Göbekli Tepe pil- trying to learn how to see like a ma- Several Kurdish militants but also understand your own eyes. And then again: Why is the person lars mean. There are no captions, chine, for acquiring the posthu- civilians have been killed when this Images that might create corpo- on the desktop wearing a mask? Hito Steyerl is a Berlin-based filmmaker, video artist and writer. She is a professor of Art and soundtrack or explanations. man vision that abounds today. information was acted upon, by air rate states as a byproduct. Because he or she has already Multimedia at the University of Arts in Berlin.

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