Where is our South? Locating New Imaginative Geographies in Creative Alliances between Musicians from Portugal and the Arab World

Abstract

Reflections on Portuguese orientalism have traditionally focused on the ways past historiographies of an academic penchant conveyed representations of “Arabs” and of their presence in explanatory theses about the Portuguese nation. This article focuses on how these kinds of statements form discursive archives which are handled within processes of subjective identification and acquire meaning in products and creative processes of expressive culture. Focusing on a musical collaboration between a Portuguese and a Lebanese musician, this seeks to understand how particular “imaginative geographies” emerging through sound, poetry and expressive practices dialogue with the current European economic and political context, in particular, the Portuguese.Key Words: Ricardo Ribeiro; Rabih Abou-Khalil; cross-cultural empathy; vernacular orientalism; expressive cultureResumenLa reflexion sobre un orientalismo portugues ha incidido especialmente sobre la forma en que la produccion historiografica de perfil academico vehiculo, en el pasado, representaciones de los “arabes” y de su presencia en las tesis explicativas de la nacion. Este articulo plantea una reflexion sobre el modo en que este tipo de enunciados constituyen aun hoy archivos discursivos que son manoseados en procesos de identificacion subjetiva y que adquieren sentido en productos de la cultura expresiva. Colocando el foco de analisis en la colaboracion entre un musico portugues y otro libanes, intento comprender como ciertas “geografias imaginativas” producidas a traves del sonido, la poesia y las practicas expresivas entran en dialogo con el actual contexto economico y politico europeo y, en particular, con el portugues.Palabras clave: Ricardo Ribeiro; Rabih Abou-Khalil; empatia cros-cultural, orientalismo popular; cultura expresiva.