Haunting Europe: Bodies, Borders, and the Arts of Commemoration

In the last decade, more than 70,000 people have died while attempting to cross an international border. Half of these deaths occurred in the Mediterranean, the world’s deadliest border zone. In response to the alarming number of border deaths, artists and activists have staged various intervention...

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Main Author: Osman Balkan
Format: Article
Language:English
Published: Performance Philosophy 2025-02-01
Series:Performance Philosophy
Subjects:
Online Access:https://www.performancephilosophy.org/journal/article/view/544
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author Osman Balkan
author_facet Osman Balkan
author_sort Osman Balkan
collection DOAJ
description In the last decade, more than 70,000 people have died while attempting to cross an international border. Half of these deaths occurred in the Mediterranean, the world’s deadliest border zone. In response to the alarming number of border deaths, artists and activists have staged various interventions aimed at publicly commemorating the dead while calling attention to the structural violence of militarized borders and racialized membership. This article examines three such interventions in Europe, focusing on the Berlin-based Center for Political Beauty’s The Dead are Coming campaign, as well as Asmat, a short film by Ethiopian-Italian director Dagmawi Yimer, and Turkish visual artist Banu Cennetoğlu’s The List. It argues that acts of mourning and memorialization can bolster claims for more inclusive forms of citizenship and political community by destabilizing ethnocentric and territorially bounded conceptions of membership, identity, and solidarity.
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spelling doaj-art-8dba66ece7904071865bc48fc7fd27a12025-08-20T02:54:29ZengPerformance PhilosophyPerformance Philosophy2057-71762025-02-019210.21476/PP.2024.92544Haunting Europe: Bodies, Borders, and the Arts of CommemorationOsman Balkan0University of Pennsylvania In the last decade, more than 70,000 people have died while attempting to cross an international border. Half of these deaths occurred in the Mediterranean, the world’s deadliest border zone. In response to the alarming number of border deaths, artists and activists have staged various interventions aimed at publicly commemorating the dead while calling attention to the structural violence of militarized borders and racialized membership. This article examines three such interventions in Europe, focusing on the Berlin-based Center for Political Beauty’s The Dead are Coming campaign, as well as Asmat, a short film by Ethiopian-Italian director Dagmawi Yimer, and Turkish visual artist Banu Cennetoğlu’s The List. It argues that acts of mourning and memorialization can bolster claims for more inclusive forms of citizenship and political community by destabilizing ethnocentric and territorially bounded conceptions of membership, identity, and solidarity. https://www.performancephilosophy.org/journal/article/view/544Europebordersviolencecommemorationcitizenship
spellingShingle Osman Balkan
Haunting Europe: Bodies, Borders, and the Arts of Commemoration
Performance Philosophy
Europe
borders
violence
commemoration
citizenship
title Haunting Europe: Bodies, Borders, and the Arts of Commemoration
title_full Haunting Europe: Bodies, Borders, and the Arts of Commemoration
title_fullStr Haunting Europe: Bodies, Borders, and the Arts of Commemoration
title_full_unstemmed Haunting Europe: Bodies, Borders, and the Arts of Commemoration
title_short Haunting Europe: Bodies, Borders, and the Arts of Commemoration
title_sort haunting europe bodies borders and the arts of commemoration
topic Europe
borders
violence
commemoration
citizenship
url https://www.performancephilosophy.org/journal/article/view/544
work_keys_str_mv AT osmanbalkan hauntingeuropebodiesbordersandtheartsofcommemoration