Sites of Antagonism

SITES OF ANTAGONISM RE-DEFINING THE RELATIONSHIP BETWEEN DISPLACED AND GUEST COMMUNITY

PASSAPORTO

Contents

This passport is a document-in-progress to learn, describe and test a series of sites of antagonism.

0. INTRODUCTION

6

1. POLITICAL CRISIS

11

2. THE PARADOX OF COMMUNICATION

25

3. IDENTITY’S IDENTIFICATION

49

4. A NEW VISIBILITY

79

5. CONCLUSION

92

1.1 Citizens’ role: is more, better information?

1.2 Policies deadlock: a historical amnesia 1.3 Locating the crisis: threatening journey, invisible arrival 2.1 Communication and conflict 2.2 From the ‘Jungle’ to the Docks 3.1 Relational antagonism 3.2 Context and structure 3.3 Redefining the viewer 3.4 Viewing or seeing?

4.1 Demarcating exclusions 4.2 Necessary Insight

Bibliography List of illustrations Direct resources

16 17 20 26 30 50 52 60 68 80 88

96 100 104

4

1.

5

INTRODUCTION

‘Politics should not found itself on postulating an “essence of the social”

but, on the contrary, on affirmation of the contingency and ambiguity of every “essence” and on the constitutive character of social division and antagonism’. 1 ‑

Every day we receive information regarding the world's worst refugee crisis since World War II2, or at least depicted as such. In this historical moment immigration is a central issue for European countries, which are struggling to

deal with an extremely difficult and controversial situation3 . More than twenty thousand displaced people have reached the UK in 2015. Only 41% have been granted asylum4. They have been given basic shelter and aid, but will have to fight for a very challenging integration. In fact, while the media portray Europe flooded by immigrants, only a few citizens personally witness this condition. Refugees reception centres have been set up around European cities, such as Turin, Berlin and London, increasingly isolated from the labour and leisure machines of the country where they reside. Reception centres are limbos, non-places where immigrants are secluded without time limit or purpose.5 While all this takes place right around the corner of our houses, we are bombarded with infographics and occasional pictures that portray shocking images of a detached crisis.

Ernesto Laclau and Chantal Mouffe, ‘Hegemony and Socialist Strategy: Towards a Radical Democratic Politics’, (Verso, London: 1985) p.125 1

VICE News, by Charles Parkinson‘The Year Europe Buckled Under the Biggest Refugee Crisis Since World War II’ (31 Dic 2015, https://news.vice.com/article/the-year-europe-buckled-under-the-biggest-refugee-crisissince-world-war-ii) 2

BBC News, ‘Migrant crisis: Migration to Europe explained in seven charts’ (4 March 2016, http:// www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-europe-34131911) 3

Home Office, ’National statistics: Asylum’ (27 August 2015, https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/ immigration-statistics-april-to-june-2015/asylum) 4

AIDA, Asylum information database, ’Types of accommodation: UK’, (2016) http://www.asylumineurope.org/ reports/country/united-kingdom/reception-conditions/access-forms-reception-conditions/types 5

6

Overall, the two parties can’t control the media, they have no power over the image they give and the image they receive. Direct interaction is disrupted and any contact barely happens between them.

What would happen if this reality shifted, if the two parties came closer creating the conditions for a greater friction and misunderstanding to occur?

Could these moments of conflict create a productive exchange able to subvert the negative fate of the crisis?

In order to answer these questions, I will thoroughly analyse the current political crisis and the diverse aspects that it entails: the portrayed image of displaced people and the invisible reception centres, the paradox of communication in conflict condition and the issue of cultural identity.

In the first chapter I will begin my investigation by questioning the role and involvement of UK citizens in the crisis. Then, I will enquire whether more information allows beneficial and prolific exchanges or leads to confusion and biased opinions. I will argue in which way a distorted representation of the crisis can shift people’s opinion and further reinforce the nation’s own power.

In the second chapter I will investigate the relationship between communication and conflict. I will quickly mention the common misconception related to the power of communication in a conflict situation. Then, I will attempt to select a pallet of situations where UK citizens and refugees are involved, looking for the factors that lead towards intractable conflict from the once which lead towards collaborative and prepositive misunderstanding.

Firstly, I will compare the contrasting needs and interest of UK citizens and refugees who are seeking asylum in the UK. Secondly, I will analyse opposite option of the current crisis from the point of view of four UK citizens living or working in London. Finally, I will consider the actions and reactions of French and UK citizens to the illegal settlements surrounding Calais.

In the third chapter I will closely follow the work of tree artists and one psychologist who, by reverting conventional spatial conditions, have designed new scenarios to create relational alterations. I will assess the methodology used to conceive conflictual relationship among different parties, and question 7

whether this can become a tool to understand rather than exacerbate the friction itself. I will compare the physical limitations demarcated by Santiago Sierra’s ‘Wall Enclosing a Space’ to the social clashes imposed by Thomas Hirschhorn’s ‘Bataille Monument’. I will juxtapose the role of the audience in the performance 'The Privileged' of Jamal Harewood and in the video ‘Look Beyond Borders’ of Amnesty International, and question the interaction among the mediator and the audience.

In the last chapter I will propose a possible solution to answer my questions: the creation of a series of sites of antagonism where different parties collide together, forcefully or unintentionally, to stimulate direct interaction. The moments of encounter would be based on different degrees of fiction and reality, construction and causality. My search for new modes of communication will aim to overcome what appears as intractable conflict and to lead towards a proactive exchange between the UK citizens and the refugee guest community. To this extent, I will try to criticise the conception that the solution of a conflict resides in solving the conflict itself. I will investigate whether cultural identities and personal memories could be maintained and shared, while creating the base for a more holistic conception of misunderstanding.

8

9

33. Displaced people walking along a railway track between Serbia into Hungary. Image captured when loaded at 10% from: Independent, by Jon Stone, ‘Suspected people smugglers arrested on Austrian border as 200 migrants recovered in one night’ (31 August 2015, http://goo.gl/LDymny)

POLITICAL CRISIS Invisible refugee reception centres in the UK

1

12

2.

13

14

3.

15

1.1 • Citizens’ role: is more, better information?

Arab Spring, Dublin Regulations, Mare Nostrum, Operation Triton, a photo of drowned boy, Germany open borders, Eu Turkey deal, EU Referendum… All these words echo in our heads, in our hands, sparking questions and worries.

But what really is the refugee crisis? Where are immigrants coming from and why? Where are they going? ‘Thankfully’ we can quickly find an answer through ten quick and easy charts that can be found on several news channels and papers.6 Lots of lines, arrows, numbers and data. All information is directly available through our phones. We swipe, we read, we make a sad and/or worried grimace, we move on.

As the crisis involves nations and powers, people become figures, numbers that move along the cartesian plane. Equations tell where they come from and where they go, where they are more likely to be accepted and where they are more eager to be included. At first glance we see massive arrows pointing directly towards our doorsteps. From the cathartic countries where conflict has exhausted natural and human resources, across waves of our seas that do not forgive, towards our shores and lands, eventually into our cities and towns, eventually…

‘Subjective factors have always played an important role in history, now a dominant role with the global diffusion of mass media’.7 We quickly realise that since 2011 the number of refugees seeking asylum in the EU and in the UK have increased substantially.8 But what role are we playing? Does more information allow us to get a deeper understanding of the situation, to form a sharper opinion? Walter Benjamin praised the newspaper BBC News, ‘Migrant crisis: Migration to Europe explained in seven charts’ (4 March 2016, http:// www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-europe-34131911) 6

Felix Guattari, ‘On the production of subjectivity’, ‘Chaosmosis: an ethico-aesthetic paradigm’,(Indiana University Press, September 22: 1995) p.3 7

The Week, ’Refugee crisis: Cameron in child refugee U-turn’ (5 May 2016, http://www.theweek.co.uk/refugeecrisis/64108/refugee-crisis-cameron-in-child-refugee-u-turn) 8

16

as, containing a letters page it involved the reader’s comments and opinion.

He argued that the reader is at the same time a describer and a prescriber, becoming a writer, gaining access to authorship.9 On the other hand, Clair Bishop argued that even if we can freely comment, newspaper/news channels remain the editors, and the letters page is but one among many other authored pages10. For this reason we need to question the viewer’s role and involvement in the crisis.

1.2 • Policies deadlock: a historical amnesia After flicking through some more charts, strangers become familiar enemies, shaped by pictures and figures that one after the other reinforce the flow which might affect our culture and life, children and work. We see them as masses walking through train tracks, getting onto boats, jumping on lorries and ferries, crossing borders and camping at the outskirts of our cities. There is a massive mobilisation of people who is vaguely localised, identified by a nation of departure and one of arrival. We seem to grasp this reality through infographics and data, a medium used to represent the invisible. A tool guided by countries and numbers instead of people and stories, too difficult to locate, to empathise with and relate to. We seem to understand journeys and fluxes, but we don't really know what happens in our council and neighbourhood or how we have been, but we don't really know what happens in our council and neighbourhood or how we have been directly affected by these shifts. These intangible and constantly changing events affect our stability, attacking our certainties and security.

Our land is described as the sweetest goody available, which all kids desire and fight for. Even though Europe is portrayed as a full cake, craved by many, in reality it’s only a partial slice, only one of the many affected locations by the influx of refugees. Observing the situation from a global perspective, Europe Walter Benjamin, ‘The Author as Producer’, ‘Reflections’, (Harcourt Brace Jovanovich Inc., New York: 1978), p. 225.

9

10

Claire Bishop, ‘Antagonism and Relational Aesthetics’, October 110, Fall 2004, pp.51-79.

17

appears removed from the centre of the crisis. In fact, Most refugees fleeing from conflict zones like Syria, Ukraine, Afghanistan, Somalia do not leave their own countries but are internally displaced (2/3 of the world refugees in 2015).11 Many million in size reside in camps and cities across the neighbouring countries12 and just a smaller percentage actually makes it all the way to Western Europe.13 Here the refugees who are legally accepted are unequally distributed. Germany and Sweden in 2015 have hosted 1M and 2.5M14 respectively while the UK just 12.000, only 41%15 of asylum seeker’s requests.

Our screens are filled with disturbing images, which saturate our eyes as well as our mind. Predicted disastrous futures, current problematics and past events all merge into one endless timeline. We no longer distinguish what was in the past from what is in the present. Even if flows have not been consistently increasing we begin to perceive them as constant. Each crisis relates to an international conflict (second world war, 1990 Yugoslavia, 2011 Arab spring and Eritrea conflict, 2014-15 Syria conflict) but begins to melt into one seamless steady stream. Even if the Syrian refugee flood hasn’t yet reached the Balkan peaks, we already perceive it as its continuation rather than a separate event. We often fail to remember what history has showed us, refugee numbers will sink back to historic lows once the conflict has stabilised.16

The Guardian, by Patrick Kingsley ’10 truths about Europe’s migrant crisis’ (10 Aug 2015, http:// www.theguardian.com/uk-news/2015/aug/10/10-truths-about-europes-refugee-crisis) 11

The Globe and Mail, by Doug Saunders ’ The migrant crisis: here’s why it’s not what you think’ (4 Sept 2015, http://www.theguardian.com/uk-news/2015/aug/10/10-truths-about-europes-refugee-crisis) 12

13

Ibid.

The Guardian, by Patrick Kingsley ’10 truths about Europe’s migrant crisis’ (10 Aug 2015, http:// www.theguardian.com/uk-news/2015/aug/10/10-truths-about-europes-refugee-crisis) 14

Home Office, ’National statistics: Asylum’ (27 August 2015, https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/ immigration-statistics-april-to-june-2015/asylum) 15

The Globe and Mail, by Doug Saunders ’ The migrant crisis: here’s why it’s not what you think’ (4 Sept 2015, http://www.theguardian.com/uk-news/2015/aug/10/10-truths-about-europes-refugee-crisis) 16

18

DEPORTED

2,898

5,903

4,965

n rty

5,433

1,791

2,535

4. Map of the UK showing the amount of refugees residing in every region.

19 UK asulum seekers per region, January 2014

1.3 • Locating the crisis: threatening journey, invisible arrival Nonetheless most information we receive about the crisis reflect the policy making in the UK. Opinion making becomes therefore a tool for decision making. The more information we read, the more contrasting views we come across, the harder it becomes to shape our own opinion. Increased data is more likely to lead to confusion and desensitisation. Few individual speak for themselves, still their abstractly perceived actions shift the public opinion and policy making. Regardless what our opinion might be on whether or not we would like to open our border to the unknown flow, we still don’t know where refugees actually reside in the UK.17 At the end of the journey there is supposedly an arrival. This arrival however is more unknown than the preceding journey. We are terrorised by hordes of displaced people attacking our country’s periphery but we often neglect what happens next to our homes.

While we are terrified by violent images of the refugee camps (Calais, Lesbos, Lampedusa) around the world we don’t realise that more than half of the displaced population in the world resides in urban areas (60% of the 20 million refugees). When they reach our doorsteps they finally disappear, becoming invisible.

The UK government has stated that ‘People arriving in the UK in need of protection usually have to apply for asylum - and if this is granted they get "refugee" status’.18 This apparent straight forwards statement is in reality much more intricate. Refugees who might not immediately fall in the ‘refugee category’, have to go through an incredibly straining process in order to get recognised asylum in the UK. The bureaucratic and often faulty system does not provide enough aid for the guest community to even get hold of the necessary information to apply for asylum.19 Almaashi Ibrahim, ‘Communication between communities in a modern war paradigm’,in SEA Practical Application of Science Volume III, Issue 2-8, (The Bucharest University Press, Bucharest: 2015) 17

BBC News, ‘Migrant crisis: What is the UK doing to help?’ (28 January 2016,http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/ uk-34139960) 18

Asylum information database, ’Types of accommodation: UK’, (2016, http://www.asylumineurope.org/ reports/country/united-kingdom/reception-conditions/access-forms-reception-conditions/types) 19AIDA,

20

UK REFUGEES TIMELINE C L A I N A S Y L U M

CLAIM ASSESSED

CLAIM DECISION

CLAIM GRANTED

SUCCESSFUL

most times up to 1 year

LEAVING LOCAL AUTHORITY ACCOMODATUION 28 days

CLAIM REFUSED

APPEAL

DEPORTED

UNSUCCESSFULL

UNABLE TO LEAVE THE UK

SECTION 4 SUPPORT

A C C O

Volunteer warehouse Auberge du Migrant

M O D

HOME OFFICE PRIMARY AID

A T

Detention centres

Emergency accomodation

Disperse accomodation

NGO LEGAL

NGO PSYCOLOGICAL

NGO HOUSING

Help refugees

Helen Bamber Foundation & Freedom from turture

Citizens UK

Reception centres

Own property

I O N A I

JUNGLE BOOK

D

5. Above a diagram showing the legal journey of a refugee applying for asylum in the UK. Below a diagram show- 21 ing the accommodation and aid provided by the state and other non governmental association during this period.

While waiting, refugees are provided by the government with poor

accommodation and basic benefits. Initially, there is an emergency accommodation, managed by the Home office, a full board reception centre that usually hosts about 200.20 As places run out very quickly, most people reside in hotels/hostels, having little access to the centre’s facilities. Such temporary ‘emergency’ accommodation additionally delays their access to the support system and other welfare services to which they are entitled. Without a proper access to legal advice, completing an application for asylum support gets harder. After 19 days, asylum seekers have to move into disperse semitemporary accommodation, that since 2012 are managed by large private companies under contract from Home Office.21 Refugees are randomly allocated around England, most times of the times far away from family and friends who might already be in the UK. Furthermore, houses procured by the private companies are affected by local markets and policies, most times located in fantom undesirable areas. Overall, living conditions are poor, failing to provide security, respect for privacy and basic levels of hygiene and safety; they neglect people’s needs and diverse conditions, such as single mother with children or mobility and health issues22 .

On the contrary some other European countries have reacted differently to the crisis. In particular, some examples, such us the Red Cross Centre in Turin and the refugees homes in Athens23, are truly inspiring and positive.

Even if with different level of visibility, all these characters are at stake in the current crisis. We are communicating more or less indirectly. If communication itself can be defined as a transfer of information through a variety of different

20

Ibid.

21

Ibid.

Rayah Feldman, et al. ‘When maternity doesn’t matter - Dispersing pregnant woman seeking asyluum’ Refugee Council & Maternity Action report (14 Jan, 2014, https://www.refugeecouncil.org.uk/assets/0002/6402/ When_Maternity_Doesn_t_Matter_-_Ref_Council__Maternity_Action_report_Feb2013.pdf) p.30 22

Croce Rossa Italiana, ’Relazione sull’accoglienza ai profughi - Centro Polifunzionale C.R.I. “T. FENOGLIO” Settimo T.se.’, (Corpo Militare Ausiliario delle FF.AA. I Centro di Mobilitazione Torino, 28 Jun, 2015) 23

22

channels24, a greater degree of accessibility to communication does not necessarily improve it. In fact, regardless of the wide accessibility to information, the current crisis has been emphasised, sprouting into a multiplicity of intractable conflicts. Is it possible to get rid of the impediments that conceal our vision and interrupt our hearing? Are these dependent on our location; on the adjacency to the beating hart of the state or to the convergency to its periphery? Are the multiple needs and interests fundamental to understand the lens through which we perceive any incoming information?

In the next chapter I will select three different conditions where host and guest community are involved and analyse them through theories on social psychology of communication in relation to conflict, in order to grasp and further question the relationship between guest and host community within the refugee crisis.

Krauss and Morsella, Communication and conflict, ‘The handbook of conflict resolution: Theory and practice’ (Jossey-Bass Publishers, San Francisco: 2000), p. 134 24

23

34. Displaced people walking along a railway track between Serbia into Hungary. Image captured when loaded at 40% from: Independent, by Jon Stone, ‘Suspected people smugglers arrested on Austrian border as 200 migrants recovered in one night’ (31 August 2015, http://goo.gl/LDymny)

THE PARADOX OF COMMUNICATION Misunderstanding

2

2.1 • Communication and conflict After a thorough analysis of studies on the complex interplay between communication and conflict, we can argue that the solution of a conflict resides in consciously addressing the complexity of the conflict faced rather than in solving the conflict. In other words, communication is intrinsically a cooperative activity, incredibly dependent by its context and communication’s enemy is misunderstanding. Human nature works cooperatively especially when in need of defeating a common enemy. Therefore, in trying to defeat misunderstanding, humans might reduce their differences.25 Throughout the next chapter I will try to better investigate this concept, applying it to the crisis at stake. Firstly, I will quickly mention the common misconception related to the power of communication in a conflict situation. Then, I will attempt to select a pallet of situations where UK citizens and refugees are involved, distinguishing factors that lead towards intractable conflict from the once which lead towards collaborative and prepositive misunderstanding.

Communication corresponds to the idea of information transfer.26 Informations is an idea, or mental representation that originate in a part of a system and is then turned into a message and transmitted to another part of that system.

Even if it is common to wrongly simplify communication as a linear process that primarily involves this transfer of information, it can be better described as a transactional process in which meaning is influenced by cultural, societal and individual forces27 . Ideally better communication solves conflict, but this is almost never the case. Most of all, it is highly inaccurate to think that communication will always solve conflict, while It can be viewed as a neutral instrument that conveys threats as well as offers reconciliation.

26

25

Ibid.

26

Ibid.

27

Alberts, Nakayama, Martin ‘Human Communication in Society’ (Pearson, London, 3rd Edition), p.15-30.

y

PRODUCTIVE CONFLICT

INFORMATION EXCHANGE

CONFLICT COMMUNICATION

PASSIVE CONFLICT

x

CRISIS

6. Graph showing the possible outcomes of the relationship between conflict and communication. As it can lead 27 to a crisis, a productive conflict, a passive conflict or an information exchange.

A ‘good’ communication does not assure conflict resolution while ‘poor ‘communication is very likely to exacerbate conflicts. In fact, as we have previously mentioned, consciously addressing the difficulties behind the conflict is more powerful than trying to solve it. Thus, while sharing a common aim to defeat equivocation, discording individuals might shorten the gap that separates them. It is interesting to consider as an example the sub-institution of the kitchen at La Borde28 , where psychotic patients live in a climate of activity and responsibility. Here everything is set up to accept moments of antagonism imbedded in society, forming a conflictual ambience that can be addressed through direct communication. This new sites of opposition create centres for collective ‘Subjectification'29, transversally open to the outside world. At La Borde, the scope is not to find solutions, but rather using questioning to spark curiosity; to turn destructive, violent conflict into a constructive learning experience.

To further understand the complexities of the conflict between the host and the guest community, I will describe and analyse three different existing situations. Through the study of Krauss and Morsella’s models of communication in conflict condition30, I will try to select factors that either emphasise or ameliorate the intricate interplay between misunderstanding and communication. I will analyse how different aspects of the interpersonal play affect the interpretation of meaning. I will consider the different roles, needs and interest, rights and duties of the parties, hoping to gather factors that affect the relationship, leading to a constructive misunderstanding.

28La

Borde is an innovative psychiatric clinic founded by Jean Oury in France (Cour-Cheverny) in 1951. The clinic was established to empower and liberate patients by setting up a structure that allowed freedom of movement and behaviour, while being primary participants in running the facilities.

Felix Guattari, ‘On the production of subjectivity’, ‘Chaosmosis: an ethico-aesthetic paradigm’, Indiana University Press, September 22: 1995) p.69 29

Krauss and Morsella, Communication and conflict, ‘The handbook of conflict resolution: Theory and practice’ (Jossey-Bass Publishers, San Francisco: 2000), p. 131-143.

30

28

Factors determining degrees of communication in conflict condition

PARADIGM

DON’T ENHANCE

ENHANCE

1.

Direct Channel

Indirect Channel

2.

High Signal To Noise Ratio

Low Signal To Noise Ratio

3.

Same Ground

Different Ground

4.

Same Code

Different Code

5.

In Group

Out Group

6.

Same Interests

Different Interests

7.

Both high or low context

High to low Context

8.

Individual

Mass

9.

3rd Party = mediating

3rd Party = replacing

ENCODING/ DECODING

INTENTIONALIST

PERSPECTIVE/TAKING

DIALOGIC

INTERACTIONIST

10. Peacefull

Violent

11. High Visibility

Low Visibility

7. Diagram showing the factors that comprise and affect the communication in a conflict condition among two 29 or more parties. From one side the factor that can ameliorate the conflict, from the other the factors that can worsen the conflict.

2.2 • From the ‘Jungle’ to the Docks Firstly, I will consider the relationship between UK citizens and refugees described in the previous chapter, comparing and contrasting both needs and interests as they are commonly generalised. Secondly, I will select a specific neighbourhood in London, where I will question four different typology of people and analyse their point of view in regard to the refugee crisis. Finally, I will try to describe the polarised reaction of citizens to the refugee camps in Calais. Volunteers from one side, violent neo-nazi from the other.

The relationship between UK citizens and refugees can arguably be defined as detached, indirect31 and interrupted by external ‘noise’32 . In fact a direct channel of communication has been replaced by a third party, who can be either media or politicians. On the one hand UK citizens see data, charts, images regarding people attempting to reach the island, but they rarely hear people's voice and never directly interact with them. On the other hand people who leave their country in search of a better future, use social media as primary source of information. This tool allows them to travel through fences and obstacles along the way, to contact family or friends and to get legal and bureaucratic information on national asylum regulations. Both parties are constantly asked to take decisions that might influence each other’s paths, but they never get to argue their point of view, needs and interest directly. Most information, is mass-tranferred to each other, through indirect means of communication managed by intrusive third parties, who do not act as facilitators but replace direct messages, advocating their own agendas.

As explained by the Encoding/Decoding33 model, meaning can be defined by the property of the message. In this specific situation messages are UNHCR & IKEA foundation, ‘What design can do - Refugee Challenge - Research’ ( Jan, 2016, whatdesigncando.com) p.40 31

By noise I refer to the signal-to-noise ratio, defined by Krauss & Morsella comparing the level of desired signal to the level of unwanted noise. According to the encoding decoding paradigm, from a favourable signalto-noise ratio sparks an effective communication. The opposite can lead to great misunderstanding as the listener will fill in the gaps of the noise making approximate interpretations.

32

Krauss and Morsella, Communication and conflict, ‘The handbook of conflict resolution: Theory and practice’ (Jossey-Bass Publishers, San Francisco: 2000), p. 131-143.

33

30

REFUGEE

MEDIA

UK POLITITIAN

UK CITIZEN

8. Diagram showing the indirect relationship between UK Citizens and refugees which is interrupted by UK 31 politicians and media.

32

BASIC NEEDS

• Involvement in provision of donations and support • Apprehensive of the effect of allocating social housing to refugees

HEALTH

• Improve awareness of rules and regulations regarding refugee care and insurance • Deal with growing demand • Deal with language barriers and cultural differences

TRANSPORT

• Impressed by groups of refugees strolling around their neighborhood • Set up private initiatives, for instance to offer tools for mobility or ‘welcome’ tours to refugees

FINANCE

• Address fear that refugees are taking advantage of national welfare systems: refugees are perceived as an economic burden and not a resource •Donate

WORK

• Job seekers fear competition from refugees on labor market • Opportunity for the creation of new jobs to take care of the growing number of refugees

SCHOOL

• Offer informal training • Mutual integration and adaptation

INTEGRATION

• Polarized debate: Some might have negative prejudices while others might want to help

• Create the best possible living space for themselves and their family • Regain independence and control and become self-sufficient • Need to adapt to people from various nationalities and religions living in the same shelter • Know where to go for help • Get medical care or mental support when needed • Feel cared for: their health is as important as that of other citizens • Deal with language barriers and cultural differences • Reach family members and friends in the city, country or other countries • Discover their new host country • Broaden their social network • Be able to do normal daily activities that might require mobility • Support their families needs • Pursue economic independence

• Financial independence • Involvement and empowerment • Contribution to host community • Creation of network • Skills / approaches to bring back to their countries • Cultural integration: language, culture, local customs • Prepare for local work demand / improve skills • Learn the language • Understand the host-country culture and codes • Build a social network • Become part of local community 9. Table comparing the needs and interests of the guest and host community. These two perspectives are cen- 33 tered around important themes such as work, health and education. Extensive desk and field research of UNHCR & IKEA foundation, ‘What design can do - Refugee Challenge - Research’ ( Jan, 2016, whatdesigncando.com).

manipulated by a third party, lowering the signal to noise ratio34. As a consequence, the content is more likely to be distorted or misunderstood, and therefore, communication might further inflame the conflict.

Furthermore, other complications occur when the code of the message differ radically: in a multicultural society like ours, where a multiplicity of different nationality have to communicate, language acts as barrier rather than bridge.35 Also, even when these obstacles are levelled down by translation, physiological manifestation and cultural products such as laughing, screaming or coughing36, condition mutual understanding and comprehension of each other's intentions. These are always hidden behind simple letters, and very often guided by preconception rather than by actual hearing. The intentionalist model37 recognises that the same word can have different meanings that resides in the speaker’s intentions. The uncommon ground38 of the parties at issue, such as a different language, or a dissimilar cultures, can therefore aggravate the conflict. Interaction between individuals coming from different cultures can be characterised by a complexity derived from their own psychological identity, social differences and cultural variations. Individuals constantly try to define themselves within the outside world and in doing so they are constantly influenced by constructed norms and expectations that have been established throughout centuries, commonly known as culture.

34

Ibid.

Mark Cousin, Architectural Association Photo Library ‘The Gesture: Gesture & Rhetoric’, 60:00, Published Jan 16, 2015 , Accessed Feb 20, 2016 (http://www.aaschool.ac.uk/VIDEO/lecture.php?ID=2713) 35

Bárbara Rodríguez Muñoz, ‘This is a voice’ exhibition catalogue, Wellcome Collection (3 May, 2016, wellcomecollection.org/thisisavoice) p.9,15 36

Krauss and Morsella, Communication and conflict, ‘The handbook of conflict resolution: Theory and practice’ (Jossey-Bass Publishers, San Francisco: 2000), p. 131-143.

37

Paul Kimmel, ‘Culture and conflict’, in The handbook of conflict resolution: Theory and practice, (Jossey-Bass Publishers, San Francisco: 2000), p. 453-474.

38

34

CITIZEN Artist

CITIZEN Resident

REFUGEE

CITIZEN Worker

CITIZEN Visitor

10. Diagram showing the indirect relationship between four specific UK Citizens and refugees. Each of them has 35 never been in contact with a refugee but has created an image of who they are and what they want, according to the scattered information they have grasped from the media.

Londoner Anne Tallentire

‘I am very interested in your proposal. I would support it fully. My personal work relates to these themes too. However you should really begin questioning the social glue of your project. Many people around here would find it odd. You should contact associations who have been working with refugees for many years.‘

36

Resident Allen

‘My name is Allen, I am an old style type of guy. I have been working for 20 years in this mechanic shop and will do so until I can. I will not express myself in regards to the refugees. This country is falling apart because we are welcoming too many people. Furthermore refugees have a completely different culture to us and would not like to live the same way we live. It would be very dangerous to host many refugees in the warehouse. It would be a disaster!’

Local Worker Naz Ahmed

‘My name is Naz Ahmed, I make this amazing spicy fish sauce. This crisis is unsettling and sad. I believe human beings at the end of the day are all the same. We should be more empathetic with each other. I do my bit, I cook on Sunday for about 30 people and I give the food to the local church. Personally, I would not have anything against hosting refugees in this warehouse. I think we should all begin opening borders or at least relax them. If the UK hadn’t let my grandma in from Bangladesh I would not be here right now’.

Local Artist Chris

‘I commute every day from South London. I know little about the refugee crisis. Just what I hear from the news. I would be rather sympathetic to have refugees next door but I don’t live here, I am not a resident so I would not be able to give you a truly personal answer.‘

11. Captions taken from personal interviews with four UK citizens working and/or living Tower Hamlets, London. 37 made on the 20th of May 2016.

‘Culture refers to shared sets of meanings, norms, expectations, perceptions, roles, categories, interpretations, and modes of communication. Culture shapes one's view of reality, and it is shared culture that allows people to assume that they share the same reality’.39 Cultural subjectivity gives form to cultural stereotypes, forming a shared common sense, distinguishing what is right and what is wrong. Our cultural identity helps us defining ourselves within the larger common culture and gives us rules of reasoning, evaluating and deciding as well as a recognised style of communication (either high context or low context).40 Each of these factors increases the complexity inherent to the current crisis. This basic concept can be very useful while understanding the different reactions of the four UK citizens who expressed their ideas, kindly sharing them with me. The neighbourhood of Tower Hamlets, due to its industrial past and current Olympic development, is an interesting example. It includes a variety of different individuals both in terms of social class, point of views and intentions, who have reacted differently to the current condition. The chaotic nature of indirect and virtual channels of communication have led to different reactions.

While the UK has begun reinforcing its physical and virtual borders, individuals have moved on either side of the fence. From one side the rising nationalists and protectionists ideas are reflected in the local worker’s voice ‘I dislike these rapist. No matter what, they will never want to live a normal life like mine’41. From the other, grassroots association, collaboratives and communities have opened up their personal gates to set up informal institutions, tackling social issues that most nations have lacked to address, such as the new resident that every Sunday ‘does his bit’42. As the perspective-taking model recognises, even individuals with a common 39

Ibid.

40

Ibid.

Carlotta Conte, Interview with Allen, (Tower Hamlets, London, 20 May, 2016). During my research I have undertaken a set of interview with local citizens and workers of the Tower Hamlets neighbourhood. Allen is a mechanic in his late sixties, he has been working in the area for more then twenty years.

41

42

38

Carlotta Conte, Interview with Naz Ahmed, (Tower Hamlets, London, 21 May, 2016).

REFUGEE

CITIZEN neo-nazi

POLITITIAN

CITIZEN volunteer

12. Diagram showing the relationship between French and UK Citizens and refugees in the specific context of 39 Calais. Two main typology are described: the volunteer and the neo-Nazi.

Refugee Seble Seble, now 28 years old, left Eritrea when she was 17.

“I left because of religious persecution. They don’t allow you to be a Christian there, Christianity is important to me” “They [the Eritrean authorities] say it makes young people lazy, that you don’t support their country because you don’t want to fight a war. [In Eritrea] children – boys and girls – must sign up to fight.”

40

Refugee Fortune Fortune is a young mother with two sons. She came to England from Nigeria try and escape the local harmful traditional rites.

“I have marks all over my body [from when] they mutilated me” “It still affects him, the fear, you can see it on him, maybe he is sleeping then suddenly he wakes up, screaming. I said no – I don’t want my children to experience that”

Refugee Anouar Anouar comes from Morocco.

He knew he was gay from a very young age, but in his home country, homosexual acts are punishable by law.

His asylum claim was refused and he quickly became homeless. For a short time, he found a safe haven at a homeless hostel.

“I didn’t expect to be treated like that” “After [detention], there was nothing”.

Refugee Abebe Originally from Ethiopia, Abebe fled to Kenya’s Kakuma refugee camp when he was sixteen. Kakuma, meaning ‘nowhere’ in Swahili, became Abebe’s home for the next 25 years. With 170,000 inhabitants, it’s one of the world’s largest refugee camps.

“Life in Kakuma is just about survival, you cannot think or settle. You just live to survive”

13. Captions taken from interviews recorded by the Refugee Action association of four different individuals who 41 have reached the UK and are waiting for or have received Asylum in the country. Refugee Action, ‘Refugee Stories’, Refugee Action Website, http://www.refugee-action.org.uk/refugee_voices, (10 May, 2016)

language and culture have different perspectives on the world43 . In this case meaning derives from the addressee's point of view. Each of these individual are mostly aware of the conditions of immigrants and refugees ‘through the little [they] can grasp from the papers’44. They will filter the multitude of graphs, data and sporadic images, through their culturally calibrated ears and eyes, never formulating opinion via direct interaction. In fact, refugees’ lives, once within UK borders, are lonely and disorientating, never grasping the British land, never, until their loud shout for asylum will be heard. When we compare refugees’s experiences to the local’s opinion, we notice widely opposite intentions and needs, as shores divided by endless oceans, desires and drives that can seam as distant as far removed fiction. The wider their perspectival difference, the larger the gap between the two parties. When, as in this case, messages are simultaneously addressing multiple audiences, the likelihood of its communal comprehension becomes increasingly complex. UK citizens are bombarded by ungraspable information and are asked to be opinionated individuals. While their decisions might slightly affect themselves, it may highly influence million other paths.

Once shifting our attention to the border condition of Calais we are faced with a slightly different situation. Here Refugees can be easily located, incased within the borders of ‘the Jungle’45. Locals have reacted differently to the illegal settlement. Specifically, we can distinguish two main trends. From one side radical groups have repetitively and violently attacked inhabitants of the refugee camp, from the other an increasing number of people have come together to give legal, psychological and primary aid to the camp’s inhabitants. Information are both received from and given to the opposite local groups and from and to the inhabitants of the camp. All characters are influenced by the media and politicians stories and policies. The pathways Paul Kimmel, ‘Culture and conflict’, in The handbook of conflict resolution: Theory and practice, (Jossey-Bass Publishers, San Francisco: 2000), p. 453-474.

43

44

Carlotta Conte, Interview with Chris, (Tower Hamlets, London, 20 May, 2016).

The ‘Jungle’ is a nickname given to a refugee camp across the highway that takes to the port of Calais and to the Eurotunne. It was firstly built in 1999, now counting about 5,000 people, refugees, asylum seekers and migrants from all over the world.

45

42

and modes through which two parties may communicate change. On the one hand, neglecting the possibility of a direct interaction, within an existing highly conflictual context, can lead to an intractable crisis. For example in the case of the radical groups attacking the Jungle’s inhabitants. On the other hand, an intentional and explicit communication in a great crisis, can lead to a productive exchange. For example in the case of the aid community, where citizens are openly interacting with the Jungle’s inhabitants. The NGO ‘l’auberge du migrants’46, for which I was volunteering, came up with a very efficient system entirely dependent of free help and donations to give food, clothes and shelter to most of the caps’ residents. While volunteering for the association I was able to help building the shelters, to come in contact with residents, other volunteers and eventually media, in the lookout for some ‘hot’ news. I was in constant direct contact with a complex condition that I wasn’t passively receiving but that I was actively enacting. This experience directly shocked; it gave me the opportunity to try and understand more about the crisis. Once back I was able to share my perplexities with friends and family back home. They were eager to know more, but had been completely obfuscated by streamline news.

If we were to collapse the imaginary and physical borders separating the two parties, shifting to a different mean of communication, would this ameliorate their relationship? and mostly; under what conditions, if any, this new communication would overcome an intractable conflict, leading to a proactive exchange between the UK citizens and the refugee guest community? The analysed settings are comprised by a ‘collaborative process; where meaning arises from the communicative situation, and can only be understood within that context’47. From each condition we can select specific factors that have increased misunderstanding and friction among the parties (different interests, codes, cultures, point of views, intentions, uncommon ground, low signal to voice ratio, indirect channels, mass audience).

One of the many non profit associations providing primary aid to the residents of the refugee camps around Calais (http://www.laubergedesmigrants.fr).

46

Paul Kimmel, ‘Culture and conflict’, in The handbook of conflict resolution: Theory and practice, (Jossey-Bass Publishers, San Francisco: 2000), p. 453-474.

47

43

Dover Calais

44

14.

45

If misunderstanding is the communal enemy to be defeated, it can then become the key element to look for and strategically use. In the following chapter I will test and stress the idea of insightful and conflictual interaction as a positive experience that could be used in a productive manner. I will analyse each event, ‘as part of a sequence of interconnected actions and responses to actions that take place in complex social dynamics and interpretive frameworks’48.

In the next chapter I will try to understand how conflict can be analysed by a new and non-intrusive kind of third party. Different individuals will be considered as evolving within an ever changing system and not as selfreferential actors. This is a new kind of visibility, that should be addressed and pushed forward. This will either be produced by a physical condition or by an empathetical reaction which gathers individuals as collective and heterogeneous multiplicity, through a shared experience. Their relationship is re-shape. The conflict unveils the issue no longer through a far removed image but as actions within a space. The space then becomes both producer and recorder of such actions, giving birth to direct moments of antagonism.

48

46

N. Sargent, C. Picard and M. Jull ‘Rethinking Conflict: Perspectives from the Insight Approach’ p.4

47

35. Displaced people walking along a railway track between Serbia into Hungary. Image captured when loaded at 60% from: Independent, by Jon Stone, ‘Suspected people smugglers arrested on Austrian border as 200 migrants recovered in one night’ (31 August 2015, http://goo.gl/LDymny)

IDENTITY’S IDENTIFICATION Limitations and potentials

3

3.1 • Relational antagonism If conflict can become an experience used in a positive manner, how can this new visible relationship be translated into spatial rules to be used as tools for a productive exchange?

Looking for a response, I will closely follow a variety of different experiments carried out by scholars and artists in fields of study such as psychiatry, art and game theory, who have been conceiving conflictual relationship among different parties as a tool to understand rather than exacerbate the friction itself. In order to further proof this theory they have created more or less fictional scenarios to test the potential positive outcome of a collision in between individuals. Here a third party begins playing a revenant, new role when he as begins mediating the conflict rather than substituting its direct channel of communication. Through a more or less defined manipulation of the context, the parties in question will have the opportunity to be directly shocked and to be intimately shaken.

In the next chapter I will closely follow the work of three artists and one psychologist who, through different methodologies, have designed new scenarios by reverting conventional spatial conditions in order to create relational alterations. Here, the climate of a specific space and the rules that regulate the movement through and within this space, are as relevant as the channel of communication between two parties in conflict, potentially emphasising their friction and sparking new questions and perplexities: how, when and where one can access the space? How can the space be used, what kind of activities can this space include? These will be questions that I will constantly try to answer and understand them as potential rules to create a space that sparks a productive exchange.49 To this extent I have specifically chosen these examples as they acknowledge and constantly try to define the As I believe that the research would have greatly benefit form the mediators’ direct point of view, I asked a series of questions to each of them regarding the following topics: The role of the mediator and the audience; structures, factors and context when enhancing conflict, factors that mostly stimulated the audience, reality of context, crudity of situation and finally curiosity and process of learning. More details in Direct Resources 49

50

‘context’ as described from the philosophers Ernesto Laclau and Chantal Mouffe: ‘For a context to be constituted and identified as such, it must demarcate certain limits; it is from the exclusions engendered by this demarcation that antagonism occurs.’ 50 Before proceeding to analyse the examples it is important to fully understand this definition by exploring Laclau and Mouffe’s idea of antagonism and their theory of subjectivity. According to the two theorists, antagonism51 is a type of relationship, both at a personal and societal level, where political and personal boundaries are constantly questioned and redrawn, where relation of conflict are sustained and not refrained. This concept can be further understood and explained through the theory of subjectivity52, whereby individuals are constantly trying to define their molecules in order to gain a socially recognised boundary. But molecules constantly move affecting local and global environment and vice versa. Similarly, society evolves too and in doing so it relentlessly tries to define itself, in vain. When two in vain defined entities merge, their integrity is questioned, creating a precarious antagonistic relationship. As our personal boundaries are strongly related to larger ones, when national and institutional edges are interrupted or redrawn, we are destabilised and simultaneously driven to question our own individuality. By defining a being we demarcate its boundary and by defining society we try to constitute it. Both actions identify ever-changing entities. However, not all definitions have been commonly or equally acknowledged.

Ernesto Laclau and Chantal Mouffe, ‘Hegemony and Socialist Strategy: Towards a Radical Democratic Politics’, (Verso, London: 1985) p.100 50

Antagonism springs from the impossibility of the full constitution of incomplete beings ‘As conditions of possibility for the existence of a pluralist democracy, conflicts and antagonisms constitute at the same time the condition of impossibility of its final achievement.’ Chantal Mouffe, Introduction, ‘Deconstruction and Pragmatism’, (London: Routledge)p. 11.

51

The theory of subjectivity of Laclau and Mouffe comes from Lacan’s work. They argue that the subject is a constantly evolving entity, never completed nor centred, as you can see in Chantal Mouffe, ‘Deconstruction and Pragmatism’, (London: Routledge)p. 55.

52

51

Some have even lost their perceived ability to move, to develop or even of being questioned as such, gaining unquestionable power.

‘A wall becomes a border just when it is charged with legal or military power. A barrier that has no legal authority becomes transparent’.53 The selected experiments, by shaking personal or cultural set boundaries, give us the opportunity to question them and to possibly personally redefining them.

3.2 • Context and structure With the following words a tourist described his visit: ‘At first glance I noticed that the word “España” on the Spanish Pavilion’s facade was covered with black plastic. 54 Walking towards the entrance, I realised there was no entrance. The building’s main opening was blocked, the pavilion’s interior was sealed with cinderblocks from floor to ceiling. A badly constructed yet impregnable wall that denied the galleries accessibility.55 I realised that two Spanish officers were standing in front of the backdoor of the pavilion, who asked me if i could show my passport. When they understood I was not a Spanish national I was again denied entry to the pavilion. Just few hour later, I was able to find out through a Spanish friend, that the pavilion was half empty, showing nothing but grey paint peeling form the walls and some scattered rabble56 on the floor’57 .

Eyal Weizman ‘Walking through walls: Soldiers as Architects in the Israeli-Palestinian conflict’ (PhilPapers June 14, 2016) p.19 53

Teresa Margolles, Kerry Hegarty (translator), ‘Santiago Sierra’, Artists in conversation (BOMB Magazine 86, New York, Winter 2004, http://bombmagazine.org/article/2606/santiago-sierra) 54

55

Ibid.

56

Claire Bishop, ‘Antagonism and Relational Aesthetics’, October 110, Fall 2004, pp.51-79.

This short text is a fictional description of the exhibition seen from the eyes of a tourist visiting the Biennale. I have compiled this short text thanks to a variety of different sources which I have singularly quoted.

57

52

SPANISH PAVILION [2003] Sierra, ‘Wall Enclosing a Space’

Operating hours and accessibility: The pavilion is open from 10.00 to 18.00 every day from the 2nd of May to the 9th of September for all Spanish citizens that are able to show a valid proof of identity. The pavilion will be closed for everyone on the 1st of May. Events and regulations: On the 1st of May a woman with a black hood will seat facing the wall of the Pavilion’s interior for 60 minutes.

15. Personal reproduction of a Biennale’s leaflet, showing relevant information about the exhibition ‘Wall enclos- 53 ing a space‘ of Santiago Sierra. See, Teresa Margolles, Kerry Hegarty (translator), ‘Santiago Sierra’, Artists in conversation (BOMB Magazine 86, New York, Winter 2004, http://bombmagazine.org/article/2606/santiago-sierra)

Halley toward back entry Border control. Spanish guards controlling passports and letting in only Spanish citizens.

Rabble of the previous Biennale exhibition scattered across the pavilion Blocked pavilion’s entry ‘Spain’ sign covered with plastic Biennale visitors looking for an entry to the Spanish Pavilion Performer sitting facing the wall in the corner of the pavilion

LEGEND Parties PARTY 1 PARTY 2 PARTY 3

54 16. Ibid. , schematic plan reproducing the actions and interactions among the different parties within or our of the ‘Wall Enclosing A Space‘ exhibition.

Within the realm of the Biennale, the artist Santiago Sierra has dictated specific rules of access to and within the space. A third party has been introduced between the art institution and the visitor. A mediator has solidified the borders of the Nation represented by the pavilion to ‘get people worked up’ to show ‘the visual order of politics [that] becomes concrete on the wall’.58 By demarcating the walls of the Spanish pavilion, Sierra highlights the Biennale’s dynamic59, ‘where everybody is playing at national pride’. He questions the role of the nation itself, which frontiers have not been abolished but reinforced. By blocking access, two communities are separated on either side of a hypothetical stage representing political tensions that create contemporary exclusions through visible and invisible borders. As soon as the Ambassador is allowed into the pavilion without a valid passport, the nature of the nation becomes ‘alive’ and visible. When the guards open the border they reveal the relationship of power contained by these imaginary totalities and incomplete entities.

By obstruction he delimits the possible from the impossible. By exclusion he demarcates the moment of antagonism. However he never presents the different entities as reconciled, neither as entire separate spheres but as elements constantly evolving and influencing each other. Supposedly, a democratic society whose established boundaries are attacked should allow the individual that compose itself to redefine it, once again. However individuals have long lost the ability to directly impact on such decisions. As mentioned in the refugee crisis, for example, third parties (media and politicians) have replaced direct and shared decision making. Sierra dressed up as a different kind of third party: he did not substitute individual decisions but highlighted questions long ago transmuted into certainties. He emphasised the boundaries that have been stagnantly acknowledged as fixed. He asks individuals to re-defined them themselves. The process of definition should not be perceived as negative by default: negativity is 58

Ibid.

The Biennale’s pavilion are represented by the most powerful countries in the world that once a year show off their ‘national’ artists. The pavilion are therefore a representation of there nation’s power and imposed identity.

59

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determined by the modality of the process itself. This one can become a positive process, a productive conflict when the act of trying to define oneself or an institution or a societal component is conceived as an endless exercise and not as a means to an end. The third party can successfully become the element of definition itself in order to highlight the divisions enforced by these contexts. Friction, awkwardness and discomfort are integral part of a democratic society, open to be questioned. Rosalyn Deutsche in her book ‘Evictions: Art and Spatial Politics’ 60 , has sharply analysed this condition, exploring the effect contemporary art, space and political struggles have on each other, stating that conflict is not the detriment of public space but it determines its existence61.

56

60

Rosalyn Deutsche, ‘Evictions: Art and Spatial Politics’ (MIT Press, Cambridge, Mass.: 1996), p.295–96.

61

Ibid.

17. Reproduction of a magazine’s caption, depicting the entry of the Spanish Ambassador in the exhibition .See, 57 Ibid.

‘The 3 r out a d of July 20 pa 0 assist ssport. Aft 3, the Span ant, th er a sh ish am e amb o r t q uarre bassador t assad lb o rie 5.07.0 r was 3, La let int etween the d to acces gazze s o the tta de pavili pavilion’s g the Spanis lla Bie on…’ hp u ards a nnale nd th avilion wi e amb th assad or’s

58

18.

9.

59

3.3 • Redefining the viewer With the following words the bar owner’s daughter describes her summer: 'I live in Friedrich-Wöhler Siedlung a big housing complex full of Turkish and Germans in Nordstadt, a suburb of Kassel. Every five years many artists come to Kassel for an exhibition called ‘Documenta'. They exhibit their work several miles away from my house. Last year one of the artist proposed my mother to run a bar in the main lawn underneath our house.62 She accepted.

For 100 days of summer we all helped out working in the bar. Next to us there were also a library and two tv studios and a sculpture of a tree. Many people came to visit from central Kassel with taxis. They spent the day going in and out of the shacks and around the lawn. Some sat on the filthy couches to watch the videos on the old TV and read the books inside the little shelters, others walked around the tree. The good thing was that most people stopped to buy drinks from my mother’s bar because there were not so many taxis available to go back to Kassel!63 The structures themselves were quite ugly, built with cheap timber, foil, plastic sheeting, and brown tape.64 I think the builders found most of the material around our house. The wooden walls were marked with writings talking about this philosopher. I think he was called Georges Bataille’65.

Thomas Hirschhorn, in 2002 for the Bataille Monument, intentionally located his work away from the main Documenta event66. He placed his sculpture in the middle of a community, ethnically and economically far detached from the Graham Coulter-Smith, ‘The Social Realist as Entrepreneur: Thomas Hirschhorn’, in Deconstructing Installation Art: fine art and media art, 1986-2006, (Web edition, December: 2006) 62

63

Thomas Hirschhorn, Common Wealth, (Tate: 2004)

One Day Sculpture ‘Thomas Hirschhorn’ (2 May 2016, http://www.onedaysculpture.org.nz/ ODS_artists_thirschhorn.html) 64

This short text is a fictional description of the exhibition seen from the eyes of a bar owner’s daughter. I have compiled this short text thanks to a variety of different sources which I have singularly quoted.

65

‘Documenta' is an exhibition of modern and contemporary art taking place every five years in Kassel, Germany. It was founded by Arnold Bode in 1955 during the Bundesgartenschau (Federal Horticultural Show).

66

60

‘Bataille Monument’ Thomas Hirschhorn -2002Location: Nordstadt, a suburb of Kassel several miles away from the main Documenta venues.

Operating hours and accessibility: The site is open every day 24h a day from Monday to Sunday. To reach the site, please secure a lift with the Turkish cab company just outside the main Documenta entrance. Return cabs will be available on a first come first serve basis. The bar will be open at variable times according to the workers.

19. Personal reproduction of a Documenta’s leaflet, showing relevant information about the ‘Bataille Monument‘ 61 of Thomas Hirschhorn. See, Graham Coulter-Smith, ‘The Social Realist as Entrepreneur: Thomas Hirschhorn’, in Deconstructing Installation Art: fine art and media art, 1986-2006, (Web edition, December: 2006)

Tree sculpture A library and two tv studios

Family’s owned bar Turkish cab companies, shuttle visitors form and to Documenta

Hirschhorn’s apartment from which he has assisted the set up of the structures Friedrich-Wöhler Siedlung housing complex

LEGEND Parties PARTY 1 PARTY 2 PARTY 3

62 20. Ibid. , schematic plan reproducing the actions and interactions among the different parties within or our of the ‘Bataille Monument‘.

usual art world audience, contriving a conflictual reconciliation among the two groups. By redefining the conventional border of the exhibition he questioned the institution’s mobility and the constructed identity that have been fixed throughout time.67 Through this work the art world’s self-constructed and fragile identity is acknowledged. In fact, visitors who reach the outskirts of Kassel, suddenly feel unease, as if they were helpless intruders. Additionally, the significant social gap between the local community and the artist comes to the forefront when Hirschhorn gets stolen his belongings. This gap is not hidden but revealed through the work. The viewer is not required to participate literally: he is not an actor but as thinker, a curious animal, regardless of his background. The viewer becomes a subject of independent thought, he is asked only to be a contemplative visitor. This is a basic prerequisite of political action, as Hirschhorn himself says: ‘Having reflections and critical thoughts is to get active, posing questions is to come to life. I do not want to do an interactive work. I want to do an active work. The most important activity that an art work can provoke is the activity of thinking.’ 68 Furthermore the shacks included installations about Bataille’s life and work grouped around five themes: word, image, art, sex, and sport. The information is open and readily available to everyone. The local population becomes too reader of Bataille’s, avoiding to be subject to the ‘zoo effect’ that instead becomes a two ways event. This does not define two separate spheres but enables their mutual redefinition.

Once our molecules grow, they define themselves as such within a specific environment. When we face other deluded full identities, we confront a new situation: the presence of the ‘Other’ prevents us from being totally ourselves. When we change location we might also change space. But what makes a space a changed space from the previous one? A space changes because we decide to commonly agree that that space’s quality can fall in a new category and therefore becomes ‘another’ location, defined by different shared codes. As Ernesto Laclau and Chantal Mouffe have argued in ‘Hegemony and Socialist Strategy: Towards a Radical Democratic Politics’, (Verso, London: 1985) p.120 67

68

Thomas Hirschhorn as quoted by Jessica Morgan, ‘Common Wealth’, (Tate: 2004), p. 63

63

Laclau and Mouffe argue that a pure democracy needs to eliminate the third party to produce a direct cooperative exchange.69 On the one hand, UK citizens and refugees’s interaction is interrupted by thick walls, impersonated by media and politicians. On the other hand, Sierra and Hirschhorn try to become a new, mediating kind of third party. Nonetheless, are they really mediating or self-referentially choreographing? They conceive the new viewer as a thinking individual, but never specify their own character. Could the third party abstract himself in order to reach a truly democratic society?

Both artists are questioning the social and economical segregation imposed by fixed institutions. In fact their work is located within these institutions. As a consequence, from the one hand, their work automatically attacks the institution’s integrity either by reshaping its boundary or by demarcating it.

From the other hand, this restricts the impact of the work to a limited audience, dichotomising the issue between the art visitor and the segregated minority. Not to mention that these works will remain recorded within the art realm without being referenced by external institutions. On the other hand he does not hesitate to reconfigure his own role. Especially when Hirschhorn gets stolen all his personal belongings, he is put in a vulnerable position. He faces a conflict himself and in doing so he becomes part of the site of antagonism. The zoo effect becomes three-way. The role of the artist is questioned and he becomes part of the collective heterogeneity.70

Ernesto Laclau and Chantal Mouffe, ’Hegemony and Socialist Strategy: Towards a Radical Democratic Politics’, (Verso, London: 1985) p.120 69

Felix Guattari, ‘On the production of subjectivity’, ‘Chaosmosis: an ethico-aesthetic paradigm’, (Indiana University Press, September 22: 1995) p.69 70

64

le he Al essisc .02, H

g for orkin some ople w at nt, th the pe vince a equipme an apart- t’. to to con er ar ved in is work of d cam naged ly ma i-fi an ist mo h , final p, video, h nt. The art uction of e hhorn to str m p Hirsc apart see the con his la ; s s i g h omas n i o ‘ r t ight Th his belong reaking in to ove b n Last n f May r r o retu n afte eginning o e l o t s him t b m had at the of the Siedlung in ment meine 12.08

21. Reproduction of a magazine’s caption, concerning the incidents around Thomas Hirschhorn’s accident while 65 setting up the ‘Bataille Monument‘ .See, Ibid.

66

22.

67

3.4 • Viewing or seeing?

So far both examples have helped us highlighting that the detached, indirect and invisible relationship between the refugees and UK citizens led to an intractable crisis. I have proposed that by replacing the third party with an inclusive mediator and by introducing a new level of visibility the current conflict would be able to set the basis for a proactive exchange. In order to further understand this I will linger on two more case studies: a performance and a social experiment. As the previous two examples, these embed and materialise Laclau and Mouffe's conception of ‘context’ by setting up scenarios for antagonistic relationships to occur among parties in conflict.

For instance, we can consider the participatory event of Jamal Harewood, ‘The Privileged’71 where a temporary community is created through a playful and, at time, conflictual exchange. Here parties are far removed from one another but the re-enactment is such that feelings, threats, values and inquiries boil to the top as backbone shivers.72 Questioning ideas of identity, race, cultural stereotypes and fears within the community and today’s society.

Both the space and the actions within the space are carefully designed to resemble a zoo enclosure and to have the spectator act as a breeder. The spectators are asked to seat around an empty space where a tall man dressed like a polar bear acts by laying, moving, and eating. On some chairs are left white envelopes containing texts and instructions to be read out loud by a participant at the time. One of them says: ‘If at any time during your stay the creature begins to act in an aggressive manner towards you it is in your best interest to leave the enclosure. You as a group have a choice…’73. One of the following ones then asks the visitors to play with the bear, to feed it and to teach him to how survive in the wilderness: ‘we have taken it spun 71

Carlotta Conte, Interview with Jamal Harewood. Email interview. London, 10 April, 2016.

Jamal Harewood, ‘The Privileged’, Jamal Harewood Website, https://harewooo.com/the-privileged/ (13 June, 2016) 72

Jamal Harewood, by Pacitti Company and SPILL festival, ‘JAMAL HAREWOOD - The Privileged’, Vimeo Video, 2:46, Published Dic 5, 2015, Accessed March 3, 2016 73

68

ourselves to teach him a series of games that will help him regain those skills necessary to survive from the wild. We intend to play with the bear at least twice a day. Today’s game is predators and pray’74 . Towards the end the spectators are asked to act more and more violently on the bear, to cut his tail, to remove his paw to behead his muzzle. At different stages of the play people react differently, they might have taken good things from it or bad things, their reaction is very much related to their experience in life. Some begin arguing whether it’s right or wrong to act violently, others question the correctness of stopping the performer’s requests, others simply leave the room. Jamal Harewood designs the no comfort zone conditions. People are uncomfortably shaken, they are free to begin questioning to to neglect the conflict altogether, to link it to their real life experiences or to label these as fictional actions. ‘When i begun seeing the dark skin revealing underneath the synthetic white fur I begun shivering. I felt like we were trying to tame a giant savage, revealing his raw flesh!’75 If Jamal designs a fictional set where participants play the coloniser game, Amnesty International conducts an experiment where Europeans and asylum seekers are asked to sit in front of one another and stare into each others’s eyes. This was recorded through a video ‘Look Beyond Borders’76 which is now spreading across the social media world wide. The experiment is based on the theories of the psychologist Arthur Aron77, who held that four minutes of uninterrupted eye contact increases intimacy. He has studied the role of intimacy in interpersonal out-group relationships, focusing on the potential of breaking each others’ boundaries in order to expand one's personal

74

Ibid.

75

Carlotta Conte, Interview with Giulia Vandelli. Personal interview. London, 15 April, 2016.

Amnesty Poland, ’Look Beyond Borders - 4 minutes experiment’ YouTube video, 5:00, Published May 17, 2016, Accessed May 25, 2016 (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=f7XhrXUoD6U) 76

Arthur Aron is a psychologist well known for his impressive work on intimacy in interpersonal relationships.

He has created the self-expansion model in close relationships, arguing that the motivation humans have for interpersonal relationship is self-expansion.

77

69

development and improving the likelihood of cultural prejudice78. One's eyes often reveal one's soul. Prolongated gaze is as powerful as an x-ray machine, as socially unacceptable as showing women's nipples, as conflictual as intruding once private property. To say it with the words of the Director of Amnesty International Poland, Draginja Nadażdin: 'Borders exist between countries, not people. And it is imperative that our governments start putting people before borders and their own short-term political gain’.79 These primitive and long forgotten simple human encounters where seen in a warehouse near Berlin’s Cold-War era historical crossing, the Checkpoint Charlie 80. Refugees coming form Syria and Somalia that had lived in European countries for less than a year looked into the eyes of European citizens and vice versa. For the first time they were allowed to intrude into one's intimacy directly and personally, without any filter. In this regard Nadażdin said that: ‘People from different continents who have literally never set eyes on each other before come away feeling an amazing connection’.81 This is a great attempt at gathering opposite parties in the same location, pushing them together. However, due to its staged structure, the experiment lacks of a level of casualty. As a consequence, the audience is restricted to citizens who have already decided to expand their opinion. Unfortunately, close-minded citizens would not immediately consider joining such event, and might just receive a detached representation of it through the media.

Social Psychology Network, ‘Arthur Aron’ Social Psychology Network website, https:// aron.socialpsychology.org (27 May, 2016) 78

Amnesty International, ’Look refugees in the eye: Powerful video experiment breaks down barriers’ , Amnesty International Website, https://www.amnesty.org/en/latest/news/2016/05/look-refugees-in-the-eye/ (24 May, 2016) 79

During the Cold war, the most well known Berlin Wall crossing, gate between the East and West Berlin, was called Checkpoint Charlie (or "Checkpoint C”).

80

Amnesty International, ’Look refugees in the eye: Powerful video experiment breaks down barriers’ , Amnesty International Website, https://www.amnesty.org/en/latest/news/2016/05/look-refugees-in-the-eye/ (24 May, 2016) 81

70

Opening blocked out Third parties - assistants

Party 1 interacting with the 3rd party Third parties - performer Parties having different reactions to the envelope’s content, one arguing against the instruction the other leaving the room Zoo like arrangement of the chairs. Some of them have an envelope on them.

Third parties - assistants Entry of the performance

LEGEND Parties PARTY 1 PARTY 2 PARTY 3

23. Schematic plan reproducing the actions and interactions among the different parties during the performance 71 ‘The Privileged‘ . See Jamal Harewood, by Pacitti Company and SPILL festival, ‘JAMAL HAREWOOD - The Privileged’, Vimeo Video, 2:46, Published Dic 5, 2015, Accessed March 3, 2016

72

24.

73

Overall, each experiment has used a series of factors to highlight questionable and unfair existing situations that too often are hidden and appear to us as unchangeable and distant facts. Mediators have used tools to achieve these new conditions. On the one hand they have placed the viewer in front of a conflict that he/she may not think it directly concerns him/her and have put him/her in a very uncomfortable position. On the other hand they have given the audience a set of instructions that they may or might not follow but nonetheless will spark a reaction in them. Third parties have set up a new scenario which is not accidental or open-ended but entirely formed. It is designed to define a condition, to outline a situation which emancipates as much it includes. Mediators have created exclusions that give the possibility of inclusion, allowing the audience to react to issues and not passively receive information. Overall the absence of an intrusive third party is replaced by a direct interaction among individuals, whose differences are highlighted and openly showed.

Through these gestures we will reach a new kind of visibility. Until now we have used visibility in a multiplicity of ways. From the one side to represent the physical proximity of both parties, the possibility of parties to directly get in contact. From the other to represent the moment of ‘ah-ha’, the instant spark whereby individuals can see an imagined reality materialising in form of their eyes, consequence of an outside input. This daydream, this tactile vision, breaks the walls in which we are situated and opens them up to the outside world, as distant as childhood fables, as real as feverish nightmares. This new visibility is the feeling of empathy that one may feel in regards to disconnected individuals or communities. A higher degree of visibility is not purely explained through concrete adjacency but through the transformative moment of learning that better leads to insight and to questioning.In the next chapter I will aim at embodying the conflictual relationship between the host and the guest community that for too long has been obfuscated by intruding and biased third parties. In order to do so, could we possibly try and re-enact these issues, sparking uncomfortable and thoughtful interrogations?

74

Wide openings bringing light directly to the seated parties Entry for party 1 Party 1 - EU citizen Party 2 - Refugee who resided in the EU for less the one year Entry for party 2 Warehouse next to Checkpoint Charlie.

Third parties - assistant

LEGEND Parties PARTY 1 PARTY 2 PARTY 3

25. Schematic plan reproducing the actions and interactions among the different parties during ‘Look Beyond 75 Borders‘. See Amnesty Poland, ’Look Beyond Borders - 4 minutes experiment’ YouTube video, 5:00, Published May 17, 2016, Accessed May 25, 2016 (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=f7XhrXUoD6U)

76

26.

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36. Displaced people walking along a railway track between Serbia into Hungary. Image captured when loaded at 80% from: Independent, by Jon Stone, ‘Suspected people smugglers arrested on Austrian border as 200 migrants recovered in one night’ (31 August 2015, http://goo.gl/LDymny)

A NEW VISIBILITY Towards new sites of antagonism

4

4.1 • Demarcating exclusions Throughout the past chapters we have addressed the role of communication among parties in conflict, looked for tools to manipulate their environment leading towards a possible productive relationship, based on questioning.

Could we reconfigure the spatial conditions of the current political conflict into new spaces of antagonism? What would happen if the different parties had the opportunity to get closer, to reduce their distance and interact through a new mean of communication? In the final chapter I will recreate a set of hypothetical spatial conditions in Tower Hamlets where I will design a carefully calibrated insertion to bring the local residents and workers in contact with incoming refugees. I will design a set of spacial conditions where their relationship will become direct, potentially giving birth to temporary moments of questioning and exchange.

Tower Hamlets is a fast evolving neighbourhood, a cushion between the gentrified east-London and the growing Olympic development, fighting between the rooted industrial fabric and the upcoming high end life-style.

What would happen If we were to take advantage of the many vacant structures; in limbo between two stages, waiting to be demolished or refurbished, and use them as temporary containers for shared activities between the local community and incoming refugees? If we transformed the Lloyds Machinery Packing warehouse into a reception centre and a museum of immigration? A new hypothetical condition where activities are merged in an unconventional way, aiming to set the premises for a new visible relationship between the host and the guest community. From one side providing primary/secondary aid and personal development for both incoming refugees and lower income residents, from the other supplying a new cultural hub of entertainment and interactive learning for UK citizens. Both programmes finally aiming for their long-term integration of refugees. Activities will be arranged strategically to manoeuvre users’ movement across and between them. Their accessibility will be controlled through rules and borders, springing moments of collision between two parties. These moments will differ

80

2.

4.

3.

1.

LEGEND Routes VISITOR/RESIDENT REFUGEE

27. Plan of the area of Bromley-By-Bow, Tower Hamlets, London, showing the proposed new sites of antagonism 81 in and around the Reception centre/Museum of immigration: 1. Museum/Archive, 2. Co-operative meeting room, 3. Learning wall, 4. Gazing-Charging station.

LEGEND Routes VISITOR/RESIDENT

1.

REFUGEE PROFESSIONAL VOLUNTEER

82

1.

2.

2.

3.

4.

28. Plan showing the new sites of antagonism in the Reception centre/Museum of immigration: 1.Museum/ 83 Archive, 2. Co-operative meeting room, 3. Learning wall, 4. Gazing-Charging station.

according to the actions and reactions of the parties in opposition. I will analyse them according to the table of communication82 introduced in the second chapter, highlighting the degree of visibility as the most relevant factor. In this case visibility is used not just to define the physical adjacency between two individuals but the level of emotivity that each situation will spark. In the following chapter I will propose and describe four possible conditions that will be located within and around the hypothetical reception centre.

The first one will be a museum of immigration where temporary installations and exhibitions will be curated by sensitive creatives. A space dedicated to the exposition and archive of art, music, literature, data, stories and history related to current and past immigration flows, designed to produce confrontation, via spectacles and interactive information displays. In this case I propose a performance, that will involve both parties, inverting their roles. In stead of a ticket office, visitors will face passport control. Non-UK citizens will be free to enter the centre, while UK nationals will have to go through a series of border controls and barriers re-enacting refugee’s journey across Europe.

On the other side of the barrier, residence of the centre will face the UK citizens; questioning them, assessing their legality and quality of nationality.

Regardless the parties’ different ground, codes and interests, their relationship will now be direct and with a very high signal-to-noise ratio. The audience will be disorientated, isolated from familiar faces while facing strangers with unconventional behaviours. Different reactions will possibly arise, from feeling of personal discomfort, to sensation of moral disagreement, questioning the refugees’s role in the performance. Refugees who will voluntarily want to take part to the performance will have to live through their past traumatic experiences. This could either help them expel the repressed negative emotions or increase their discomfort. The new direct contact between the two parties will be mediated by the decision of an external third party.

Krauss and Morsella, Communication and conflict, ‘The handbook of conflict resolution: Theory and practice’ (Jossey-Bass Publishers, San Francisco: 2000). Refer to second chapter 82

84

What exhibition would you like to go to today?!

I’ll go online and buy two tickets!

UK/EU

Non UK/EU

Non UK/EU

UK/EU

Great!

How long have you been away from the Hub?

Give me a form of Identification?

Ah, sure!

I am English, Here is my passport!

You are completely crazy!!!!

NEGATIVE! ILLEGAL!!!

What is your identity?

Procede to the next checkpoint!

Please! let me in!

1.

29. The Museum / Archive of immigration is a space dedicated to the exposition and archive of art, music, litera- 85 ture, data, stories and history related to current and past immigration flows. It’s designed to produce confrontation, via interactive performances among the residents of the centre and the incoming visitors.

The second condition that I would like to propose happens within the heart of the centre. A meeting room centrally located between primary and secondary aid activities such as food and clothes distribution and consultation rooms for legal and physiological aid. This space will gather opposite members of the centre, who altogether form a co-operative, a group of people who have signed a contract to take charge of the functioning and management of the centre. Here round tables and flexible space will cater for various activities; from informal discussions to structured decision making sessions, from physical communal exercise to smaller work-groups interactions. New group dynamics will be established and guided by a professional third party who will channel fluctuating energies and mediate contrasting opinions. The collective factor of exercises will increase the complexity of the communication among parties in conflict regardless their adjacency, while the new shared interest of solving the co-opearative’s problems will give them a communal goal to work towards.

The third condition, the learning wall, will provide a new virtual channel of communication whereby UK citizens and refugees spread across Europe will have the possibility to ask each other direct questions. Self-learning walls83 will be located in and close by the main centre, comprising screens inset into existing walls or into structural pop-up stands. Visitors will be able to access an archive of information that collides past and present information on immigration flows and crisis in Europe. These will be compelling infographics, drawn by apolitical professionals who have summarised a great amount of data. In case of overwhelming confusion visitors will be able to press the ‘call bottom’84 which will put them in contact with an other individual who had lived or is going through such experience.85 On the other hand refugees receiving 83

Ibid. (86)

Swedish Tourist Association, ‘The Swedish Number’ http://theswedishnumber.com (20 March, 2016).

Interestingly enough, Swedan was the first country in the world to set up its own phone number. This number allows anybody to get connected to a random Swede and talk about anything.

84The

Greenstar, ’Hole in the wall, New Delhi physicist Sugata Mitra has a radical proposal for bringing his country's next generation into the Info Age’, Businessweek Online Daily Briefing, http://www.greenstar.org/butterflies/ Hole-in-the-Wall.htm (March 2, 2000). Hole in the wall is a very interesting research on the potentials and the issues of digital divide, computer education and kids, the dynamics of the third world getting online.

85

86

30 MIN LATER....

CO-OPERATIVE MEETING ROOM

Welcome Everybody!

Today we will introduce two new members of the cooperative!

To get to know each other we will describe a moment that represents the word CONFLICT !

Hello!

My name is Hannah

2.

30. Communal decision making between the varied members of the co-operative in the meeting rooms of the 87 Hub.

incoming calls will be able to ask tips and guidance to the visitors on best route to undertake or borders to avoid. Both parties will be able to exchange questions and information though a phone conversation. Different behaviours can lead to different reactions, people can refuse to give help or to even ask further questions.

4.2 • Necessary Insight The final condition will be located across the entire neighbourhood, catering both conscious visitors and accidental passersby. Charging stations designed to function just when two individual are stepping on opposite foot-levers and placing their chin on a chin holder for at least four minutes. Afterwards the power will be switched on and the parties will be able to charge their personal devises, working on the surface if needed. In this situation both parties share a communal need: charging their device. The exercise of looking in each other’s eyes in this case becomes a secondary, almost involuntary consequence, nonetheless powerful. A new direct communication sparks among parties in opposition, among strangers who have to help each other to help themselves, having to communicate in order to solve a communal issue.

This condition might randomly involve individuals who would not normally undergo any of these exercises, who would not question their national identity or the impact immigration can have on their everyday life.

The above described conditions will create new direct relationships among parties in conflict. From one side emphasising their incomprehensions, from the other mediating their complex interests and needs. The degree of visibility will vary according to each person’s background and experience, possibly instigating questioning on the current policies and political orientation. They all share a similar strategy which subverts the norm, cultural stereotype, dislocates individual forces, re-elaborates the relationship between the form and the context. All this shocks the conventional understanding of meaning that needs to be collectively questioned. To prepare the ground for a democratic society, It’s essential to show social disharmony, to expose what has been repressed to sustain a resemblance of integrity.

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AT THE LEARNING WALL....

UK REFUGEES TIMELINE C L A I N A S Y L U M

CLAIM ASSESSED

CLAIM DECISION

CLAIM GRANTED

SUCCESSFUL

CLAIM REFUSED

APPEAL

most times up to 1 year

LEAVING LOCAL AUTHORITY ACCOMODATUION 28 days

DEPORTED

UNSUCCESSFULL

UNABLE TO LEAVE THE UK

I can’t believe that there were as many refugees in the second world war as today...

2,898

SECTION 4 SUPPORT

Volunteer warehouse Auberge du Migrant

5,903

4,965

HOME OFFICE PRIMARY AID

Detention centres

Reception centres

Emergency accomodation

Disperse accomodation

Own property

5,433

1,791

2,535

JUNGLE BOOK

?

?

NGO LEGAL

NGO PSYCOLOGICAL

NGO HOUSING

Help refugees

Helen Bamber Foundation & Freedom from turture

Citizens UK

?

UK asulum seekers per region, January 2014

This is just not possible!!!

And they all want to come to the UK to get our jobs!

WAIT! what is this??? ...

DRINNNNNN

?

Hi, my name is Ryaan Azahari. I come from Syria.

Can I help you?

3.

31. Learning wall will allow exchange via indirect communication amonf visitors and residents.

89

2.

3.

1.

1. Plug here!

3.

To

beg

in

cha

rgin

g step

2.

2.

here

!

1.

Plug

here

!

3.

To here con , look tinu e cha stre ight

rgin for g, plac 4 min e chin utes !

2. To begin charging step here!

3. To continue charging, place chin here, look streight for 4 minutes!

?

4.

90 32. Charging-Gazing station designed to function just when two individual are stepping on opposite foot-levers and placing their chin on a chin holder for at least four minutes

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CONCLUSION This is an ongoing research to explore new modes of communication for the conflictual relationship between UK citizens and displaced individuals, with the aim to overcome intractable conflicts and lead towards a proactive exchange. I have argued and tested that the solution of a conflict resides in consciously addressing the complexity of the conflict faced rather than in solving the conflict itself. I will now quickly trace the passages that have helped the development of my investigation, before outlining the thesis’ limitations and its further potentials. In the first and second chapter I have focused my attention on the host community. I have tried to understand how they are accessing and intaking information on the current European political crisis and how they are differently reacting. Furthermore, I have tried to grasp the needs, interests and worries of the host community, the many refugees and asylum seekers who have left their countries and are now looking for a new home, a temporary shelter or a wishful future.

In the third chapter, I have investigated the qualities of a new kind of third party, as a mediator of a new mode of communication. I have analysed different experiments carried out by scholars and artists who have been conceiving conflictual relationship among different parties as a tool to understand rather than exacerbate the friction itself. In the final chapter, I have reconfigured the spatial conditions of the current political conflict into new spaces of antagonism. I have tried to imagine and describe the potentials of reducing the distance between the parties in conflict. Through carefully calibrated insertions, I have hypnotised a set of situations that stimulate direct interactions among local citizen and incoming refugees. These propositions aim to prepare the ground for a democratic society, by showing social disharmony, highlighting divisions and antagonism. The scope is to question society’s most inherent dynamics, criticising its immobility and displaying its differences.

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However, due to the nature of this experimentation, which is extremely bound to its socio-political context, there are endless factors which I have not been able to assess or consider. Even though this may weaken the immediate effectiveness of my argument, it does not diminish its potential as a critical proposition. Amongst many impediments, a crystallised view of cultural identity can constrain the development and growth of individuals and nations.

Some of Sierra's experiments86, for example, show that no matter which part of the system we belong to, or how much we are exposed to critical examinations, we will always return to it. Unfortunately the current crisis has so far increased the tensions amongst countries. As a consequence, there is a major political shift towards protectionist policies, both in the UK87 and in the EU, materialised by border controls and razor-wire fences88.

My experiments are designed to bring into contact opposite parties at stake in the current crisis. It can succeed once applied to a national and international scale, by moving across walls and borders. In this way citizens across Britain and possibly the EU will be able to directly question the ‘other’ parties, gathering first hand information, stories and impressions. Unfortunately, the large scale that such critical speculation initials, increases the complexity of its development and application. On the contrary, many governmental and non-governmental associations across Europe, are locally tackling issues of misplaced people’s integration. Unfortunately, these are at times too focused on local matters, which can diminish their overall impact. This happens especially when they are working in foreign territories, far away form British policy making.

Santiago Sierra Interview has shown through his personal experience: ‘In the year 2002 in Poland we taught art to an unemployed Ukrainian who was paid to learn.[…] Once the classes finished, he begun looking for work once again’. For more information refer to p. 104, Email Interview with Santiago Sierra (London, 10 April, 2016).

86

In 2014, the ‘UK government pledged £12m over three years to help France secure the border. Earlier this month, the UK announced a further £2m for a new secure zone at Calais for UK-bound lorries. It later confirmed it would provide further £7m for measures to improve security at Calais and the entrance to the Channel Tunnel. The UK is also building a fence, known as the "National Barrier Asset", around the terminal at Coquelles. The port is now protected by 16ft (5m) fences topped with coils of razor wire and CCTV, with the gates and exterior guarded by heavily-armed French riot police’. According to the BBC article ‘Why is there a crisis in Calais?’ (3 Oct 2015) http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-29074736) 87

The New York Times, ‘Closing the Back Door to Europe’ (16 Oct, 2015, http://www.nytimes.com/interactive/ 2015/09/15/world/europe/migrant-borders-europe.html?smid=tw-share&_r=1) 88

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I believe that a two scale surgical plan is essential to tackle such critical issues. A broad and speculative questioning as well as a concise and territorial action. It is fundamental to respond to the paradox of the current humanitarian and political crisis with an inclusive response rather than a dichotomised one.

‘The public sphere remains democratic only insofar as its naturalised exclusions are taken into account and made open to contestation.

Conflict, division, and instability, then, do not ruin the democratic public sphere; they are conditions of its existence.’89 ‑

In the line of Rosalyn Deutsche statement on democracy, I propose a strategy that does not try to simplify or solve this crisis but will address it and push it forward. The complex questions arising from this political impasse are not flattened but become reconciled chaos.

‘All Canadians benefit from our diversity and […] are made stronger not in spite of our differences but because of that ’90 . Sadly enough the words of Justin Trudeau, the Canadian Prime Minister, silently echo across the stagnant political crisis. As if an irrepressible stream of lava had run us over, covering our bodies and houses, streets and nations, leaving nothing but still Pompeian actors. It’s necessary to clear up this thick layer of dust, to start seeing and hearing once again the complex and diverse reality in which we live in. We need to address and tackle this policy deadlock by learning from other nations in stead of thickening the walls that separate us. We have to start opening each other’s boundaries and in doing so, constantly widen and develop them, in order to shake the nations’s crystallised identity from within.

89

Rosalyn Deutsche, ‘Evictions: Art and Spatial Politics’ (MIT Press, Cambridge, Mass.: 1996), p.295–96.

Justin Trudeau, ‘Ramadan mubarak by Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau’ YouTube video, 1:19, Published June 09, 2016, Accessed June 7, 2016 (http://www.youtube.com/channel/ UCGaVDr4kUUV5QsHl9hG8-Zw) 90

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BIBLIOGRAPHY: Felix Guattari, ‘On the production of subjectivity’, ‘Chaosmosis: an ethicoaesthetic paradigm’, (Indiana University Press, September 22: 1995) Ernesto Laclau and Chantal Mouffe, ‘Hegemony and Socialist Strategy: Towards a Radical Democratic Politics’, (Verso, London: 1985) Laclau, Emancipation(s) (London: Verso, 1996), pp. 52–53.

Alberts, Nakayama, Martin ‘Human Communication in Society’ (Pearson, London, 3rd Edition) Krauss and Morsella, Communication and conflict, ‘The handbook of conflict resolution: Theory and practice’ (Jossey-Bass Publishers, San Francisco: 2000) Paul Kimmel, ‘Culture and conflict’, in The handbook of conflict resolution: Theory and practice, (Jossey-Bass Publishers, San Francisco: 2000)

Picard and Melchin. ‘Transforming Conflict Through Insight’, (University of Toronto Press, Toronto: 2008) James Tedeschi, Barry Schlenker, Thomas Bonoma, ‘Conflict, Power, and Games: The Experimental Study of Interpersonal Relations’ (Aldine transaction, London, UK) Walter Benjamin, ‘The Author as Producer’, ‘Reflections’, (Harcourt Brace Jovanovich Inc., New York: 1978)

Almaashi Ibrahim, ‘Communication between communities in a modern war paradigm’, in SEA - Practical Application of Science Volume III, Issue 2-8, (The Bucharest University Press, Bucharest: 2015)

Rosalyn Deutsche, ‘Evictions: Art and Spatial Politics’ (MIT Press, Cambridge, Mass.: 1996) Jessica Morgan, Common Wealth, (Tate: 2004)

Graham Coulter-Smith, ‘The Social Realist as Entrepreneur: Thomas Hirschhorn’, in Deconstructing Installation Art: fine art and media art, 1986-2006, (Web edition, December: 2006) Feldman, Bragg, Feldman, Bryant, Doyle, Musgrave, Dixie, Albuerne, Rodriguez, ‘When maternity doesn’t matter - Dispersing pregnant woman seeking asyluum’ Refugee Council & Maternity Action report (14 Jan, 2014, h t t p s : / / w w w. r e f u g e e c o u n c i l . o r g . u k / a s s e t s / 0 0 0 2 / 6 4 0 2 / 96

W h e n _ M a t e r n i t y _ D o e s n _ t _ M a t t e r _ _Ref_Council__Maternity_Action_report_Feb2013.pdf) p.30 Rayah Feldman, et al. ‘When maternity doesn’t matter - Dispersing pregnant woman seeking asyluum’ Refugee Council & Maternity Action report (14 Jan, 2 0 1 4 , h t t p s : / / w w w. r e f u g e e c o u n c i l . o r g . u k / a s s e t s / 0 0 0 2 / 6 4 0 2 / W h e n _ M a t e r n i t y _ D o e s n _ t _ M a t t e r _ _Ref_Council__Maternity_Action_report_Feb2013.pdf) p.30 Croce Rossa Italiana, ’Relazione sull’accoglienza ai profughi - Centro Polifunzionale C.R.I. “T. FENOGLIO” Settimo T.se.’, (Corpo Militare Ausiliario delle FF.AA. I Centro di Mobilitazione Torino, 28 Jun, 2015) UNHCR & IKEA foundation, ‘What design can do - Refugee Challenge’ ( Jan, 2016, whatdesigncando.com) p.40 Bárbara Rodríguez Muñoz, ‘This is a voice’ exhibition catalogue, Wellcome Collection (3 May, 2016, wellcomecollection.org/thisisavoice) p.15 Refugee Council and Maternity Action, When Maternity Doesn’t Matter, 2013 p.30.

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ARTICLES & VIDEOS: Claire Bishop, ‘Antagonism and Relational Aesthetics’, October 110, Fall 2004.

Eyal Weizman ‘Walking through walls: Soldiers as Architects in the IsraeliPalestinian conflict’ (PhilPapers, June 14, 2016)

Teresa Margolles, Kerry Hegarty (translator), ‘Santiago Sierra’, Artists in conversation (BOMB Magazine 86, New York, Winter 2004, http:// bombmagazine.org/article/2606/santiago-sierra) BBC News, ‘Migrant crisis: What is the UK doing to help?’ (28 January 2016, http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-34139960) (put datas from the UK reception centres, Contextualise the UK asylum situation).

BBC News, ‘Migrant crisis: Migration to Europe explained in seven charts’ (4 March 2016, http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-europe-34131911) The Week, ’Refugee crisis: Cameron in child refugee U-turn’ (5 May 2016, http://www.theweek.co.uk/refugee-crisis/64108/refugee-crisis-cameron-inchild-refugee-u-turn)

AIDA, Asylum information database, ’Types of accommodation: UK’, (2016 http://www.asylumineurope.org/reports/country/united-kingdom/receptionconditions/access-forms-reception-conditions/types)

The Globe and Mail, by Doug Saunders ’ The migrant crisis: here’s why it’s not what you think’ (4 Sept 2015, http://www.theguardian.com/uk-news/2015/ aug/10/10-truths-about-europes-refugee-crisis) The Guardian, by Patrick Kingsley ’10 truths about Europe’s migrant crisis’ (10 Aug 2015, http://www.theguardian.com/uk-news/2015/aug/10/10truths-about-europes-refugee-crisis)

BBC News, ‘Migrant crisis: What is the UK doing to help?’ (28 January 2016,http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-34139960)

VICE News, by Charles Parkinson‘The Year Europe Buckled Under the Biggest Refugee Crisis Since World War II’ (31 Dic 2015, https:// news.vice.com/article/the-year-europe-buckled-under-the-biggest-refugeecrisis-since-world-war-ii)

The New York Times, ‘Closing the Back Door to Europe’ (16 Oct, 2015, http:// www.nytimes.com/interactive/2015/09/15/world/europe/migrant-borderseurope.html?smid=tw-share&_r=1) 98

Home Office, ’National statistics: Asylum’ (27 August 2015, https:// www.gov.uk/government/publications/immigration-statistics-april-to-june-2015/ asylum) One Day Sculpture ‘Thomas Hirschhorn’ (2 May 2016, http:// www.onedaysculpture.org.nz/ODS_artists_thirschhorn.html) Justin Trudeau, ‘Ramadan mubarak by Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau’ YouTube video, 1:19, Published June 09, 2016, Accessed June 7, 2016 (http://www.youtube.com/channel/UCGaVDr4kUUV5QsHl9hG8-Zw)

Mark Cousin, Architectural Association Photo Library ‘The Gesture: Gesture & Rhetoric’, 60:00, Published Jan 16, 2015 , Accessed Feb 20, 2016 (http:// www.aaschool.ac.uk/VIDEO/lecture.php?ID=2713)

Jamal Harewood, by Pacitti Company and SPILL festival, ‘JAMAL HAREWOOD - The Privileged’, Vimeo Video, 2:46, Published Dic 5, 2015, Accessed March 3, 2016 Jamal Harewood, ‘The Privileged’, Jamal Harewood Website, https:// harewooo.com/the-privileged/ (13 June, 2016)

Amnesty International, ’Look refugees in the eye: Powerful video experiment breaks down barriers’ , Amnesty International Website, https:// www.amnesty.org/en/latest/news/2016/05/look-refugees-in-the-eye/ (24 May, 2016) Amnesty Poland, ’Look Beyond Borders - 4 minutes experiment’ YouTube video, 5:00, Published May 17, 2016, Accessed May 25, 2016 (https:// www.youtube.com/watch?v=f7XhrXUoD6U) Social Psychology Network, ‘Arthur Aron’ Social Psychology Network website, https://aron.socialpsychology.org (27 May, 2016)

The Swedish Tourist Association, ‘The Swedish Number ’ http:// theswedishnumber.com (20 March, 2016). Interestingly enough, Swedan was the first country in the world to set up its own phone number. This number allows anybody to get connected to a random Swede and talk about anything.

Greenstar, ’Hole in the wall, New Delhi physicist Sugata Mitra has a radical proposal for bringing his country's next generation into the Info Age’, Businessweek Online Daily Briefing, http://www.greenstar.org/butterflies/Holein-the-Wall.htm (March 2, 2000). Hole in the wall is a very interesting research on the potentials and the issues of digital divide, computer education and kids, the dynamics of the third world getting online.

Refugee Action, ‘Refugee Stories’, Refugee Action Website, http:// www.refugee-action.org.uk/refugee_voices, (10 May, 2016) 99

LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS: 1.154 images and graphs from refugee crisis research (referenced by articles in previous page: bbc, guardian, the independence, the times): 2. 35 images and graphs from refugee crisis research 3. 9 images and graphs from refugee crisis research 4. Map of the UK showing the amount of refugees residing in every region.

5. Above a diagram showing the legal journey of a refugee applying for asylum in the UK. Below a diagram showing the accommodation and aid provided by the state and other non governmental association during this period.

6. Graph showing the possible outcomes of the relationship between conflict and communication. As it can lead to a crisis, a productive conflict, a passive conflict or an information exchange.

7. Diagram showing the factors that comprise and affect the communication in a conflict condition among two or more parties. From one side the factor that can ameliorate the conflict, from the other the factors that can worsen the conflict.

8. Diagram showing the indirect relationship between UK Citizens and refugees which is interrupted by UK politicians and media.

9. Table comparing the needs and interests of the guest and host community.

These two perspectives are centered around important themes such as work, health and education. Extensive desk and field research of UNHCR & IKEA foundation, ‘What design can do - Refugee Challenge - Research’ ( Jan, 2016, whatdesigncando.com).

10. Diagram showing the indirect relationship between four specific UK Citizens and refugees. Each of them has never been in contact with a refugee but has created an image of who they are and what they want, according to the scattered information they have grasped from the media.

11. Captions taken from personal interviews with four UK citizens working and/or living Tower Hamlets, London.made on the 20th of May 2016.

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12. Diagram showing the relationship between French and UK Citizens and refugees in the specific context of Calais. Two main typology are described: the volunteer and the neo-Nazi.

13. Captions taken from interviews recorded by the Refugee Action association of four different individuals who have reached the UK and are waiting for or have received Asylum in the country. Refugee Action, ‘Refugee Stories’, Refugee Action Website, http://www.refugee-action.org.uk/ refugee_voices, (10 May, 2016) 14.

Image personally shot, of the fences dividing the highway and the refugee camp ’the Jungle’. On the top left corner a map showing the location of Calais in comparison with the UK. 15. Personal reproduction of a Biennale’s leaflet, showing relevant information about the exhibition ‘Wall enclosing a space‘ of Santiago Sierra. See Teresa Margolles, Kerry Hegarty (translator), ‘Santiago Sierra’, Artists in conversation (BOMB Magazine 86, New York, Winter 2004, http://bombmagazine.org/ article/2606/santiago-sierra) 16. Schematic plan reproducing the actions and interactions among the different parties within or our of the ‘Wall Enclosing A Space‘ exhibition. See Ibid.

17. Reproduction of a magazine’s caption, depicting the entry of the Spanish Ambassador in the exhibition .See, Ibid.

18. Santiago Sierra, ‘Wall Enclosing A Space’, Spanish Pavilion, Biennale 2003, Venice. (http://www.santiago-sierra.com/index_1024.php) 19. Personal reproduction of a Documenta’s leaflet, showing relevant information about the ‘Bataille Monument‘ of Thomas Hirschhorn. See, Graham Coulter-Smith, ‘The Social Realist as Entrepreneur: Thomas Hirschhorn’, in Deconstructing Installation Art: fine art and media art, 1986-2006, (Web edition, December: 2006) 20. Schematic plan reproducing the actions and interactions among the different parties within or our of the ‘Bataille Monument‘. See Ibid.

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21. Reproduction of a magazine’s caption, concerning the incidents around Thomas Hirschhorn’s accident while setting up the ‘Bataille Monument‘ .See, Ibid.

22. Thomas Hirschhorn, Bataille Monument, 2002. Documenta 11, Kassel, 2002. Compiled Photos (http://www.dw.com/en/opting-for-art-instead-ofu n e m p l o y m e n t / a - 1 0 6 2 4 5 5 , h t t p : / / w w w. o n e d a y s c u l p t u r e . o r g . n z / ODS_artists_thirschhorn.html) 23. Schematic plan reproducing the actions and interactions among the different parties during the performance ‘The Privileged‘ . See Jamal Harewood, by Pacitti Company and SPILL festival, ‘JAMAL HAREWOOD - The Privileged’, Vimeo Video, 2:46, Published Dic 5, 2015, Accessed March 3, 2016 24. Multiple shots from Jamal Harewood, The privileged, performance screenshot (http://spillfestival.com/show/the-privileged-2/,) Jamal Harewood, The privileged, artist portrait (https://harewooo.com) 25. Schematic plan reproducing the actions and interactions among the different parties during ‘Look Beyond Borders‘. See Amnesty Poland, ’Look Beyond Borders - 4 minutes experiment’ YouTube video, 5:00, Published May 17, 2016, Accessed May 25, 2016 (https://www.youtube.com/watch? v=f7XhrXUoD6U) 26. Multiple shots from Amnesty Poland, ’Look Beyond Borders - 4 minutes experiment’ YouTube video, 5:00, Published May 17, 2016, Accessed May 25, 2016 (https://www.youtube.com/watch?

27. Plan of the area of Bromley-By-Bow, Tower Hamlets, London, showing the proposed new sites of antagonism: 1. Reception centre/Museum of immigration, 2. Co-operative meeting room, 3. Learning wall, 4. GazingCharging station.

28. Plan showing the new sites of antagonism in the Reception centre/ Museum of immigration: 1.Museum/Archive, 2. Co-operative meeting room, 3.

Learning wall, 4. Gazing-Charging station.

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29. The Museum / Archive of immigration is a space dedicated to the exposition and archive of art, music, literature, data, stories and history related to current and past immigration flows. It’s designed to produce confrontation, via interactive performances among the residents of the centre and the incoming visitors.

30. Communal decision making between the varied members of the cooperative in the meeting rooms of the Hub. 31. Learning wall will allow exchange via indirect communication amonf visitors and residents.

32. Charging-Gazing station designed to function just when two individual are stepping on opposite foot-levers and placing their chin on a chin holder for at least four minutes 33. Displaced people walking along a railway track between Serbia into Hungary. Image captured when loaded at 10% from: Independent, by Jon Stone, ‘Suspected people smugglers arrested on Austrian border as 200 migrants recovered in one night’ (31 August 2015, http://goo.gl/LDymny) 34. Displaced people walking along a railway track between Serbia into Hungary. Image captured when loaded at 40% from: Independent, by Jon Stone, ‘Suspected people smugglers arrested on Austrian border as 200 migrants recovered in one night’ (31 August 2015, http://goo.gl/LDymny) 35. Displaced people walking along a railway track between Serbia into Hungary. Image captured when loaded at 60% from: Independent, by Jon Stone, ‘Suspected people smugglers arrested on Austrian border as 200 migrants recovered in one night’ (31 August 2015, http://goo.gl/LDymny) 36. Displaced people walking along a railway track between Serbia into Hungary. Image captured when loaded at 80% from: Independent, by Jon Stone, ‘Suspected people smugglers arrested on Austrian border as 200 migrants recovered in one night’ (31 August 2015, http://goo.gl/LDymny)

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DIRECT RESOURCES: For the purpose of deepening my understanding of the experimentations considered in chapter three, I got in contact with Santiago Sierra (SS), Thomas Hirschhorn (TH), Jamal Harewood (JH) and Draginja Nadażdin (DN).

I sent personal letters to each of the mediators to get their direct take on their performances in relation to my question and research. Below I have reported the question posed as well as the answers from the mediators that replied: [CC] What is the role of the mediator, yourself, in designing a context that enhances conflict?

[SS] I don't think to be increasing conflicts but I don't deny for talking about them. My role is not mediator because everything we do it from the office or almost, we involve local people but we leave it to solve the problems that arise themselves or almost.

No creo estar aumentando conflictos pero no reniego de hablar de ellos. Mi papel no es de mediador ya todo lo hacemos desde la oficina o casi, implicamos a la gente local pero la dejamos resolver los problemas que surjan por si mismos o casi.

[JH] Are you asking why I created a performance that causes conflict? It wasn't my goal to create conflict. I set out to ask questions. I think it's the fact that the audience are forced to address these questions head on (unless the audience decide to leave the performance) that causes the conflict. My role is to embody these questions.

[TH] If my work is intense, charged and dense, it has a chance of making a breakthrough, a breach in today’s dilemma, problematic, cul-de-sac and noexit, beyond the deadlock of resignation and cynicism. Equality is not given - I must fight for it and can’t avoid the battle under the pretext of circumstance or today’s context.

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[CC] What do you think is the role of curiosity/process of learning in shifting the nature of a conflict?

[SS] In the year 2002 in Poland we teach art to a Ukrainian unemployed who was paid to learn. In particular we teach the Polish contemporary art through the story of dean Foksal Gallery. Finished the classes he turned to looking for work.

En el año 2002 en Polonia enseñamos arte a un desempleado ucraniano al que pagamos por aprender. En concreto le enseñamos el arte contemporáneo polaco a través de la historia de decana galería Foksal.

Terminadas las clases volvió a la busca de trabajo.

[CC] What factors, if any, mostly stimulated this curiosity in your audience? (i.e. Reality of context, crudity of situation…)

[JH] I'm not too sure how to answer your second question, but in regards to your third; my interest in the audience stems from realising that their role tends to be a passive one. That despite the audience being one of the main reasons why we, as artists, are able to survive, they are expected to be seen and not heard during a performance. It is my belief that the audience are just as important, if not more so, than the performer/s.

[TH] I think that art is an inclusive movement, art should include the “Nonexclusive audience”, The Other, the uninterested one.[…]I am not independent of Others and my presence is not self-sufficient. Therefore it is essential to understand the dependence of each of us. My presence at the “Bataille Monument” showed the residents and visitors: presence is a necessary Form that fights full contact with reality.

[CC] What do you think better facilitates a positive outcome; common or uncommon ground between the theme of your work and the audience?

[SS] I do not intend to put easy things to the viewer or fill him with positive energy. I try to put him in a conflict that he may think that it won't with him.

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No pretendo ponerle las cosas fáciles al espectador ni llenarle de energía positiva, intento meterle en un conflicto que tal vez piense que no va con el.

[JH]In terms of your last question, it depends what your definition of a positive outcome is - I don't think there is one. Whatever you decide to do within the performance has an effect; be it following the instructions provided or not.

If we are talking about our general day to day life though, you need both in order to facilitate a positive outcome.

[TH] Form is what gives ethic and clarity in the incommensurable, complex and chaotic world we are living in, today. To give Form is an act of emancipation, it is a resolution and a decision I myself, must take. Therefore I have to give Form - to give. Therefore to me, doing art is an emancipatory act and as such, a necessity. […] I understood the will to open-up as a need to go from ‘identity’ to ‘difference’.

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