Margaretenstraße 24,
A - 1040 Vienna
The intense presence of the Israeli-Palestinian conflict in Western discourse—particularly since October 7, 2023—reveals a striking imbalance in matters of representation. Social circles, political groups, and even families "reenact" the Middle East conflict and fracture under its weight. Nicole from Tulln suddenly dons a kufiya, imagining herself as "part of the resistance," while Thomas from Wörgl goes to work wearing an IDF T-shirt to take a firm stand.
Undoubtedly, the Western fan clubs of the Middle East "teams" primarily use these appropriations of representation for one purpose: themselves. Philosopher Isolde Charim has referred to this phenomenon as an identity-political "narcissism trap." Those participating in this reenactment often fail to recognize that they are not, in fact, directly affected by the conflict. Moreover, they tend to patronize and drown out those who are—namely, those whose families and friends live under real rocket fire on the ground, while they themselves are subjected to the prejudices and stereotypes of the debates in Europe.
A conversation with Bini Guttmann and Nora Hasan
on the bizarre appropriation of representation in Middle East debates.
On Monday, December 4th at 6:30 pm, this human world will co-host a special screening series with our partners at MuseumsQuartier in Raum D. This event will feature two short films (What if Women Ruled the World? and Esterno giorno) by resident ar...
Amid the chaos of the ongoing conflict in the Middle East, it is becoming increasingly difficult to hear nuanced voices—and even harder to bring them into dialogue. When it does happen, it is often under the guise of so-called tokenizing strategie...
The intense presence of the Israeli-Palestinian conflict in Western discourse—particularly since October 7, 2023—reveals a striking imbalance in matters of representation. Social circles, political groups, and even families "reenact" the Middle Ea...
