dis/Locations: Mapping Black Europe Essay

Johanna Riera

Dr. Doris Cacoil

Acts of Resistance

February 20, 2019

Self-Identity in a Multicultural Society

Typically as humans we like to believe that our opinion matters based on our own experiences. Unfortunately, we live in a society in which individuals' opinions matters only relative to their identity along with where their identities rank in the hierarchy of intersectionality. Often, this leads to a significant gap between different people. Which in return leads to a lack of progression as a whole society due to intersectionality. In the gallery, "dis/locations: Mapping Black Europe" the importance of valuing self-identity is explored as  artists of African diaspora in Europe proudly voice their experiences through art.

dis/locations: Mapping Black Europe conveys this message via theme of invisibility
amongst people from different cultures. 

In the piece, Horizontal Obeah GOLIO, by Remy Jungerman, the cotton fabric, paint, and wood are used to intertwine different cultures into one art work.  In the article "Remy Jungerman: Based In", Jungerman states, "My research and work focuses on finding the running thread that links together the cultural esthetics of three continents: Africa, Europe and the Americas.” In addition to this, according to the curator's statement Jungerman is most interested in raising the question, "Is the city a grid or is it a space of overlapping cultures, languages, and histories?" Perhaps, this is the reasoning behind the black grid depicted in the piece. According to the curator this particular grid represents "many points of departure, multiple routes, and destinations". Take for example, in New York City, people barely interact with one another. Everyone is very busy walking to their own destination. With this information it can be analysed that the artist is trying to address the issue whether as a society, is culture embraced or is it treated like a legitimate city where not everyone pays attention to one another. As discussed in class, intersectionality is a form of identity politics by which the value of  people's opinions depends on how many victim groups they belong to. This relates back to treating cultural differences like cities where not everyone embraces unique people, rather they go on about their day and simply pay attention to what they want  to hear or what they believe is credible. Which in today's society is upper class, white, and straight people. Overall, Jungerman does an excellent job in forming his piece like a white ship and providing small cloth details in efforts to merge his own cultural backgrounds with the whiteness of the ship. The white within this piece goes on to represent the elite within society. Placing a grid on his work goes to question this whether cultures are really being merged together in a positive way.

Art piece: Horizontal Obeah GOLIO by Remy Jungerman. Remy Jungerman was born in Suriname however,
he lives in Amsterdam. The use of lines, grids, and materials are used to make a connection between the African
Maroon culture of Suriname and Dutch modernism. 

Another aspect that plays into the lack of integration within society is gender. In society, both males and females hold a different value. Men are known to be smarter with the ability to hold difficult  careers as opposed to women. Such a gender barrier is clearly shown in the book, The Will to Change  by Bell Hooks, the narrator states:

The recollection of this brutal whipping of a little-girl daughter by a big strong man, served as more than just a reminder to me of my gendered place, it was a reminder to everyone watching/remembering, to all my siblings, male and female, and to our grown-woman mother that our patriarchal father was the ruler in our household. (Hooke 21).

Society including our very own parents may go as far as to set this gender barrier. In this case, the little girl was punished simply because she liked to play marbles. Due to this she was looked down upon by her family. Unfortunately, this is this is still an ongoing mindset. Artists' Ailsa Anastatia and Avantia Damberg both depict gender barriers in the piece Nigra Videri. In the video clip, the dark-skinned woman has the ability to simply disappear in the Dutch urban space. She states, "I am there, but I am not". This introduces the notion of visibility and invisibility within a city. The fact that the main character in this clip is a black woman puts her existence in the lower rankings of the hierarchy of intersectionality. This is very much relevant to what goes on in a patriarchal society where the color and gender depicts whether you are heard/respected within society. The girl in the video is there but is not really there because her voice is not heard in the Dutch urban space especially, in an area that is highly populated by white people.

Nigra Videri by Ailsa Anastatia and Avantia Damberg denoting the theme of visibility/invisibility in a Dutch urban space.  

According to Laura Ingalls Wilder, "Persons appear to us according to the light we throw upon them from our own minds". Such a quote exemplifies what an ideal mindset should practice regardless of the opinions of society. If society did not form an invisible type of checklist to make someone eligible as worthy then perhaps the world would progress more rapidly. Given that different cultures consist of unique people and therefore, unique perspectives then such input could truly come to innovate the word. Pieces like the Horizontal Obeah GOLIO and the  Nigra Videri voice such unfairness within society. Author John Berger states in Ways of Seeing that “Publicity speaks in the future tense and yet the achievement of this future is endlessly deferred” (146). This relates to how the aforementioned pieces of art speaks about the possibilities of a more open society in the future however, it is important to seek manners by which we can influence society via activism through art in efforts to bring a more inclusive society.

Ultimately, it is important to understand that every person is distinct with unique qualities and abilities despite the generalization society tends to make. 

Work Cited

Berger , John. Ways of Seeing. waysofseeingwaysofseeing.com/ways-of-seeing-john-berger-5.7.pdf.

Hooke , Bell. The Will to Change. The Commission, 1967.