Abstract
100% FOREIGN? (100% FREMMED?) is an art project consisting of 250 life stories of individuals who were granted asylum in Denmark between 1956 and 2019. Thus, it can be said to form a collective portrait that inserts citizens of refugee backgrounds into the narrative of the nation, thereby expanding the idea of national identity and culture. 100% FOREIGN? allows us to think of participatory art as a privileged site for the exploration of intersubjective relations and the question of how to “represent” citizens with refugee experience as well as the history and practice of asylum. The conflicting aims and perceptions involved in such representations are many, as suggested by the opening sentence of Hannah Arendt’s 1943 essay “We, Refugees”: “In the first place, we don’t like to be called ‘refugees’”. Using 100% FOREIGN? as an analytical reference point, this article discusses some of the ethical and political implications of representing former refugees. It briefly considers recent Danish immigration and asylum policies to situate the project in its regional European context and argues that, similarly to its neighbouring countries, Denmark can be described as a “postmigrant society” (Foroutan). To frame 100% FOREIGN? theoretically, this article draws on Arendt’s essay, Trinh T. Minh-ha’s concept of speaking nearby, as well as the feminist concept of transversal politics (Meskimmon, Yuval-Davis). It is hoped that this approach will lead to a deeper understanding of what participatory art can bring to the ethical politics of representing refugee experience.
Highlights
Drawing on Foucault’s discursive approach, Hall stresses that the subject is produced within discourse and can become “the bearer of the kind of knowledge which discourse produces [ . . . and] the object through which power is relayed” (Hall 1997b, p. 55)
It is hoped that this approach will lead to a deeper understanding of what participatory art can bring to the ethical politics of representing refugee experience
This study shifts the perspective to the open-ended processes of “regrounding” (Ahmed et al 2003) and “worldmaking” (Meskimmon 2017, 2011) which refugees undergo in the receiving country, and it links the representation of such processes to the broader debate about belonging and citizenship in Europe
Summary
To fully understand the implications of 100% FOREIGN? as an artistic, ethical, and political intervention into current public debates, it is necessary to draw the contours of Denmark’s asylum policies and the popular feeling with regard to immigration and the growing demographic diversity of the population. With regard to the participatory method underpinning the project, Foroutan has argued that connections through family, friends, school, political engagement, or the workplace have produced “new kinds of knowledge, empathy and attitudes” that construct “post-migrant alliances” of “heterogeneous peer groups” whose participants share moral and democratic ideals: Immigrants and their descendants are not alone in their struggle for representation and participation They have supporters for their cause who do not necessarily have a migration background, but share views on democracy and equality. The exhibition catalogue with the 100 chronologically arranged portraits from Copenhagen reflects the contemporary political situation because it makes clear that the feeling of being a stranger and not belonging is most pronounced among the participants who have been granted asylum in recent years, not just because they have only had a few years to build a connection to Denmark, and, as explained above, because asylum seekers have been surrounded by growing suspicion in the political and legal system and it has become more difficult to obtain a permanent residence permit and citizenship The exhibition catalogue with the 100 chronologically arranged portraits from Copenhagen reflects the contemporary political situation because it makes clear that the feeling of being a stranger and not belonging is most pronounced among the participants who have been granted asylum in recent years, not just because they have only had a few years to build a connection to Denmark, and, as explained above, because asylum seekers have been surrounded by growing suspicion in the political and legal system and it has become more difficult to obtain a permanent residence permit and citizenship (Petersen 2020, pp. 21–23; Jensen et al 2018)
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