Negotiating the Subtle Encounters

Annie Anawana Haloba Hobøl

doi:10.5334/mjfar.81

Abstract

When I started writing this article, the coronavirus disease (COVID-19) pandemic had not yet hit the world as it has now. However, even if there is evidence that by November of 2019, China had already registered cases of the carnivorous virus, the world was barely prepared to tackle the situation. Now nearly every part of the world is affected, without a cure, the only way to prevent the pandemic is by avoiding contact with other people “social distancing” or home quarantine and isolation. Countries have had to lock down, but in the most impoverished environments, how does one social distance or practice a self-imposed quarantine, when 12 people live in a two-roomed house. How does a community social distance when they are hungry, and there are scarce food products. Social distancing or isolation becomes an illusion in these environments with volatile economies. How do we reflect on this magnitude of an apocalyptic nature? How do we respond, what does Art do?

Highlights

In November of the year 2019, Luxembourg art week hosted a seminar titled “The State of the Art in the Time of Collapsing Systems” where I presented my PhD project “Subtle Encounters”
Subtle Encounters interrogates the relevance of the decolonial thought of Frantz Fanon in “un-colonial” contemporary Norwegian society with the aid of writings of poet, playwright and theorist Bjørnstjerne Bjørnson
Subtle Encounters explores two trajectories. It attempts to examine nuances of Frantz Fanon’s work and humanistic thought in opposition to the goals of feminism and other “otherness” while engaging in the criticism levelled at Fanon by some feminist groups

Summary

Introduction

In November of the year 2019, Luxembourg art week hosted a seminar titled “The State of the Art in the Time of Collapsing Systems” where I presented my PhD project “Subtle Encounters”. Subtle Encounters interrogates the relevance of the decolonial thought of Frantz Fanon in “un-colonial” contemporary Norwegian society with the aid of writings of poet, playwright and theorist Bjørnstjerne Bjørnson.

Results

Conclusion