Ancient Delphi as the Oikumene’s Centre of Futures Studies
14th London Ancient Science Conference 2020, UCL, London
The Delphic Oracle had been the site of paramount importance on Pan-Hellenic:: level and even beyond. “…scholars have pointed to Delphi as a developing ‘information centre’… priests who were plugged in to the information hub at Delphi and this able to give better-informed guesses…” (Michael Scott).
Ancient Greek and Hellenic culture:: had special relation with the concept of time as futures- focused society: chresmologoi (oracle-tellers) and manties (seers) function of indicating possible moment of kairos as personal and collective hiatus is comparable to contemporary methodologies of foresight in politics and economics. The Delphic Pythia had been receiving multiple choice questions from the inquirers and responded in coded verse that needed to be methodologically interpreted further.
Euripides referred to idea of quality in future-telling and futures-making techne saying “the best seer is the one who guesses right”. In my paper, I will look references to the oracle and the institutions around it (such as temples and rites) as the elements of future-making techniques and the attempts on scientific approach to futures studies, which re-emerged in the Western academia as discipline in the second half of 20 century.
(Source: ucl.ac.uk)
QUEERING MUSEUM. Part 3: Medusa
Performed by the mediators and educators for the public at Ny Carlsberg Glyptotek Museum in Copenhagen on August 15, 2019
There are different ways to interpret Medusa in the written sources of mythology - and one of them (apart of the version where she was a born Gorgon-monster) tells her story as a beautiful priestess of Athena, sometimes as the head priestess of the goddess. Turning her into a monster in the consequence of an affair or a rape by Poseidon in the temple of Athena (is an ideologically charged contested field in interpretation). In both cases, it takes two to dance, however, the one Poseidon is seldom blamed in the interpretations of the classicists. In the aftermath of the event, Athena is told to “curse” Medusa with the power of stoning anyone she glances into the eye. However, can it be looked at as the ultimate power to protect oneself from attempts of a violation, like in the case with Poseidon? Gorgoneion, the protective pendant is worn later by Athena, can demonstrate the level of respect to Medusa’s stature – and therefore represent awe and respect instead of current fear and disgust.
Perseus, who performs the act of beheading Medusa for the sake of acquisition of her powers of stoning is appropriating her powers while forsaking the context in which they were acquired. The misogynistic nature of the story, therefore, emphasised on multiple levels.
What other arguments can we draw in defense of Medusa?
Etymologically, name Medusa - Ancient Greek Μέδουσα (Médousa), from μέδω (médō, “rule over”) means “sovereign female wisdom,” “guardian/protectress,” “the one who knows’ or ‘the one who rules”. It derives from the same Indo-European root as the Sanskrit Medha and the Greek Metis (the mother of Athena, Titaness of cunning smartness), meaning ‘wisdom’ and ‘intelligence.’
The normalised Greek myth of Medusa offers plenty to be angry about. The monstrous being with snakes instead of the hair starts out as a human woman, who Poseidon rapes in Athena’s temple. The goddess then punishes Medusa by turning her into a Gorgon ‘monster’ and exiling her. Athena here is depicted as an enemy of women, a traitor to her gender, an impression strengthened by the oft-quoted words put into her mouth by the classical playwright Aeschylus: ‘I am exceedingly of the father…’ – and later being picked up by feminist theorist Judith Butler in her critique of Athena’s archetype and character in relation to the cause of women’s rights.
Earlier Medusa myths, ascribed to Homer, Hesiod and Pindar, make no mention of enmity from Athena; nor do authors contemporary with Ovid, including Strabo.
Ovid and Aeschylus (whose prime is contemporary to Athenian Empire ‘Victorian decadence’ period of stagnation and decline) exemplify classic patriarchal strategies that blame the victim, set women against one another, and reframe ancient myths to the detriment of powerful females. Athena, Medusa, and Metis have all been diminished in this way, as has Athena’s mother Metis, who has been removed from the scene of Athena’s birth. In “Theogony” of Hesiod, which is seen as a Bible-like source of the genealogy of gods in Ancient Greek mythology, the moment of Metis destruction is vividly violent: “But Zeus… deceiving Metis although she was full wise… he seized her with his hands and put her in his belly, for fear she might bring forth something stronger than his thunderbolt… but she straightaway conceived Pallas Athene… and she [Metis] remained hidden beneath the inward parts of Zeus…”.
As we can look at Medusa from the perspective of her being empowering character – queenly and wise – radically opposing the normalised narrative of the monster doomed to be killed by another masculinity-propelling hero, we are ought to open the critical portals for the re-interpretation of the archetypal characters in Ancient Greek mythography that lay the foundation of the European political imaginary.
QUEERING MUSEUM. Part 2: Two Women
Performed by the mediators and educators for the public at Ny Carlsberg Glyptotek Museum in Copenhagen on August 15, 2019
Several sculptures in this room depict Athena. she is the symbol and protectress of asexuality: the goddess never had official spouse or children apart of adopted by her Erechtheus (sprang from the earth after the semen of Hephaestus was shovelled by the goddess from her thigh), the mythical king of Athens. Alongside with bisexuality, asexuality is one of the most ostracised subgroups of the queer sexual identity - being attacked and prosecuted by both strict homosexual (such as gay and lesbian) and heterosexual communities as “the ones who refuse to choose” or “traitors”. It is a fluidity that is constantly being looked at with suspicion as it defies the identitarian character of the sexuality’s politicisation. The extreme ‘otherness’ of Athena and her omnipresence in the cultural and political landscape as an archetype of wisdom, knowledge, defence and protection are the vivid example of superposition of impossible: the illustration of rationality juxtaposed and coexistent with irrationality, a human with the algorithmic.
Athena sports many traditionally ‘male’ attributes of power: spear, physical strength unrivalled by male gods - Ares, Hephaestus and her uncle Poseidon are among men who tried to battle Athena unsuccessfully.
The archetype of Athena transcends the rigid borders of identifying allegiance, identity and gender.
Another woman in the hall is Aphrodite. Her mythology has to be a contested field. The more ancient version, such as Hesiod’s Theogony, present her as an aunt of Zeus instead of later versions ascribing her to be Zeus’ daughter from Dione. The queer aspect of the ancient myth presents her a child of two male beings, the first gods on the verge of cosmos and chaos: Oceanus and Ouranos. She is born out of the foam which arose after the Ouranos was castrated by his son, Zeus’ father, Kronos – in what had become the first generational change in the divine of the Ancient Greek mythography. Ouranos fallen phallus fertilised the ‘body’ of Oceanus – conceiving Aphrodite, the goddess of beauty and love. And she is a child of unwanted intercourse between two male deities.
Aphrodite is associated with a rich variety of the types and forms of love and has a male associated deity - Aphroditus - who shares the look of hers and has men’s genitalia. The rites of Aphroditus were celebrated by with a festival of transvestite communities of the ancient world, of which we know very little to the date. It is believed that Aphroditus arrived in Athens from Cyprus - several depictions of them came down to us in form of archaeological finds, one of which is preserved in Nationalmuseum in Stockholm and in the works of writers and historians such as Pausanias, Philostratus and Alicphron.
The archetype of Aphrodite in all her layers of multiplicity and complexity represents the infinite richness of the concept of love.
QUEERING MUSEUM. Part 1: The Sarcophagus
performed by the mediators and educators for the public at Ny Carlsberg Glyptotek Museum in Copenhagen on August 15, 2019
Dionysus (modeled on Antinous) in Ny Carlberg Glyptotek Auditorium
This object represents the life path of Dionysus, the son of Zeus and mortal woman Semele. Dionysus is referred in ancient literature as ‘thrice-born’: as he, beyond his birth, was resurrected according to some sources two times from the dead. The image of Dionysus in mythology and especially in following it appropriations in monotheistic religions such as Christianity is a question of the hot debate. Look at the face and appearance of the Dionysus - does he remind you someone? Some hints: Dionysus was described as well-built, but effeminate in appearance young man, tender and beautiful, with long curly hair and sometimes accurate beard and mustache. In fact, the resemblance of the physical appearance of Dionysus and Jesus is striking - especially if you compare the imagery produced in the early ages of Christianity. There is strong evidence to claim that Jesus’ character is based on Dionysus: the similarities in rebirth, sacrifice and all-loving nature of the god are omnipresent. But a lot of taken away: Dionysus multidimensional character is reduced to a simplistic dogma. Dionysus referred to as a child-god, eriphos, with his mortal mother being raised to the status of divine (as was Christian Mary). Dios-nysus is ‘the son of god’.
The sarcophagus can be read as a book with different scenes being the chapters in it. It tells the queer story of difference of Dionysus from all the other gods and about him being representation of the multiplicity of life in all possible forms - as well as resistance of life to attempts of its destruction by ‘the normality’. The latter is signified in the figure of Hera, the consort and primary wife of Zeus, whose jealousy of Semele and hatred of Dionysus as being the offspring of Zeus from mortal woman brought upon Dionysus death and oblivion.
He (or rather they?) is unusual, our we could say ‘queer’ god for the Olympus for many reasons. He isn’t a purely immortal as his mother is mortal. He is distinctively polysexual and pansexual, gender-fluid, cross-dressing, connected closely to transgender transitions. It is strongly illustrated in Euripides tragedy “Bacchae”, where effeminate appearance of the god is the centre of the plot - the repulsion of king Pentheus, who doesn’t believe that a male god can be feminine, leads him to the ultimate and tragic end. The depictions of Dionysus as androgynous beauty are omnipresent in the archeological finds which are now part of the collections of National Archeological Museum in Athens and Metropolitan Museum in New York, among others.
He is a god that embraces the change over any established status quo, as opposed to the idea of everlasting stability represented in the figure of Zeus. He represents the ‘life’-side of dichotomy between ‘existence’ and ‘living’ - with the first one being the continuous production of sameness and pre-established normative structures, such as a family and a state. Dionysus shared a special relationship with Athena: both are parthenogenic (born of the one parent’s body) after Zeus’ ‘conquest’ of their mothers. Panathenaea and Dionysia, celebrated in Athens and other poleis, were among the most important festivals of the year.
The theatre of Dionysus played the political function: being ‘a moral parliament’ where the challenging normality concepts could have been addressed. ‘Creative madness’ that had been assigned to the followers of Dionysus: such as driving women ‘mad’ in the sense of inspiring them to challenge the patriarchal rule of men, the maenads living in separate communes and bringing up children on their own – in fact can be seen as his gestures towards their liberation. One of the epithets of Dionysus is “the Waker of Women”. In comparison to Apollo he is the democratic and pluralistic god: accessible in prayer to all, seeing the beauty in all the forms of life. The coming of Dionysus and his returns symbolised the return and possibility of restitution for the repressed, hope for the oppressed and future for the doomed.
“Beyond” the “Metaphysics” of “the West”: an Exercise of Critical Deconstruction
for Arts of the Working Class, issue 8 (fall 2019)
The vast multiplicity of the post-colonial criticism raises the issue of the necessity to find a way of the new framing for structuring the process of thinking about the fundamental subjects of socio-political discourse, such as justice. I would argue that without new structures of thinking and vocabulary we are hardly equipped in the quest of a search for viable alternatives to the neoliberal capitalist acceleration. The effective way to approach this tricky issue is the method of deconstruction, adopted from the philosophical (or rather essayistic?) practice of Jacques Derrida, an ‘incorruptible’ French thinker whose work still irritates analytical philosophers. I would propose to disassemble the notions within the title of this issue - “beyond”, “metaphysics” and “the west” - and strip them of preconceived imperialist and colonial notions, which go against a certain kind of supremacy in the definition of power, normality and domination.
Beyond —> Transpolitical Osmosis
Let’s start with the notion of ‘beyond’. It presupposes the presence of something “inner”, familiar, charted and enclosed and “outer” - other, unknown and probably posing danger. The separation between the known and the unknown creates the allegiances, identities and the sensation of belonging that is crucial for construction of the cultural and political imaginary in a traditional way. “Beyondness” gives a way for marking up the territory in geopolitical framing, but even more importantly - charting the borders in the mind. Not thinking beyond specific ‘red lines’ is a fixation on familiarity within the world of the possible in the imagined. Creative writing, arts and even psychedelic drugs can be described as the known passages towards transcending into “the beyond” from the familiarity of the known.
The illusion of a normative border, even as oppressive as it can be, serves the function of providing the safety in the psyche that is as important as physical safety - allowing planning, extrapolative thinking or extending the trends of the present and anticipation of the specific scenarios of the future as most probable, for example. Going “beyond” means a dangerous trip that cost one loss of the stability, home and belonging.
Cultures of the ancient world were interested in breaking through the inner-outer dichotomy, that is in the root of the suspiciousness towards the stranger. For example the protocol of theoxenia in the Ancient Mediterranean, which obliged everyone to treat strangers as if they were gods in disguise, as ‘xenos’ (etymologically ‘friend/enemy/guest’), effectively undermined the fixation of the political imaginary membranes of the poleis and kingdoms. In comparison to theoxenia, the practices of contemporary hospitality (in tourism for instance) or diplomacy (in politics) clearly highlight the distance between “the host” and “the guest” from somewhere beyond.
I propose to counter the notion of beyond with inclusive transpolitics of osmosis. Osmosis is defined biologically as the process by which “the molecules of a solvent tend to pass through the semipermeable membrane from the less concentrated solution to a more concentrated one” or culturally as “a process of gradual or unconscious assimilation of ideas and knowledge”. Osmosis is the process which in both cases requires the concept of a border as something immaterial and penetrable, invisible and unnoticeable. Therefore communications of the molecules and bits of knowledge are transpolitical - they are not defined by the dichotomist “us and they, friend and enemy” logic but presupposes impossibility of sustaining life without the constant flow of exchange that is not governed by the changing constructs of the socio-political imaginary, installed by the power agents in order to emphasise and accumulate control in the system.
“Metaphysics” —> Anti-cavial
Now metaphysics. Since Plato’s allegory of the cave, and further into Aristotles’ introduction of the domains of philosophy and science, the fundamental boxing of the human experience includes the opposition of physics and metaphysics. Imperial adventures in Athens, Macedonia, Rome and Christendom, were simplified as a justification of conquest in the name of“enlightening” the barbarians and “lesser peoples”, were the ones to universalized science and humanism towards post-Aristotelian standard.
Metaphysics got “dumped into” anything that epistemology cannot deal with via uncompromising logic and empirical experiment, as well as cannot ‘touch’ or prove materially. The inherent inferiority of the humanities had planted unglamorous seeds, while further European-led (often with blood and fire) Enlightenment and establishment of the “cilos” in academies, effectively diverting the knowledge pathways in proximate inquiries with different methods further from one another. The allegory had become over time a dogma. Any holistic or polymathic pathways towards knowledge have been gradually referred to as charlatanisms, magical and unscientific in nature. A stark example is the current state of brain research (countering “left-right” lobes enclosed functionalities and zooming in on the all-penetrating and uniting neural networks) and a movement against organ-based medicine (the way most of the medical infrastructure, research fields and hospital buildings are built).
In order to be able to take the conversations about the holism of alternative approaches to structuring human experiences into forms of knowledge, we ought to leave the dogma of Plato’s cave. An anti-cavial approach to ideas and structuring knowledge leads to opening up critical capacities looking beyond the familiar ways of building up epistemological blocks of the self-referential pyramid of knowledge, which if they continue to build in this form will eliminate the other ways of looking at knowledge just from the perspective of transactional costs, inertia and swamping co-dependencies in mutually reaffirming references. Leaving the cave means opening up the mind towards possibility of radical alternatives in functionalization of the phenomenological experiences of the world around us.
“The West” —> Oecumene
The geopolitical idea of “The West” roots in the separation of the Eastern and Western parts of the Roman Empire by the emperor Constantin which was later in history legitimised and instilled as “natural” in the imaginary by the succeeding Romans Christendom orchestra of the European kingdoms. If we rewind the history back towards 1 millennia BCE, even the mythological origins of the word “Europa” has little to do with how it is understood currently. Europa was a Phoenician ( Lebanon) princess, that was seduced and stolen by sky-god of Cretans Zeus, to be held in captivity on the island and give him children, that metaphorically represent the tribes of the Mediterranean basin.
In this time, as we can judge from the objects of literary and material heritage, the idea of the “geopolitics” wasn’t as dogmatic as it had become centuries later with the arrival of the concept of nation and united sovereignty -Leviathan. The world was seen instead as lined-up in borders of solid rock as the Oecumene - united by customs and protocols of interaction (like the aforementioned theoxenia example) trans-geographical space, where boundaries are fluid to the extent of the establishment of the contact between peoples inhabiting the shores. If we translate Oecumene borders in contemporary geopolitical language, it spanned the whole Mediterranean, Anatolia (modern Turkey), Middle East, Near East, Egypt, Horn of Africa, Persian Gulf, the Caucasus, modern Kazakhstan (probable location of the Amazons’ state) and Afghanistan, and arguably included regions as far as contemporary Ireland, the UK (there is evidence of cultural exchange and trade of objects in Archaic period, around 8 BCE) - and probably further.
This geography spanned far beyond the established Christendom allegiances that are perceived as transhistorical and somewhat eternal and was, quite possible, the truly cosmopolitan space united by the protocols of exchange and engagement many of which we have lost. The “island mentality” of contemporary Europe is a historical consequence of “caving in” the imaginary - what also led to intolerance towards otherness and imperial ambitions of standardisation of thinking, as I referred to in the section on metaphysics.
So what can be summed up as this new state of thinking, and be defined as the start of a new vocabulary? Here it is. An anti-cavial transpolitical osmosis in Oecumene
“I am trying to bring together invisible borders”
Published in The Brussels Times Magazine (September 2019)
Diana Campbell Betancourt has chosen Brussels as her base for many reasons. “It is not really an art world center”, she highlights. But it is a meeting point in terms of flights, trains and at the same time an ideal calm place to retreat yourself from seasonally swarming places like Basel and Venice or constantly hectic Paris and London. Brussels is a place for thinking and processing.
She is convinced that art can make a difference in places beyond those familiar names, which had become the attractor points for the art world tourists. She is a chief curator and initiator of Dhaka Art Summit, “an international, non-commercial research and exhibition platform for art and architecture related to South Asia”. The Summit’s core focus is on Bangladesh. It was founded in 2012 by the Samdani Art Foundation—which continues to produce the festival—in collaboration with the Ministry of Cultural Affairs, People’s Republic of Bangladesh. The Summit also has the support from the Getty Foundation’s Connecting Art Histories initiative. DAS is hosted every two years at the Bangladesh Shilpakala Academy.
Denis (D): You work mostly with so-called MENASA (the Middle East, North Africa and South Asia) region - geopolitically defined area.
Diana (DI): Kind of, although the problem with ‘MENASA’ is that Islam will be the overarching header within which to frame Bangladesh. But we are much more interested in this kind of ‘global majority’ dialogue in this edition of the Summit. In the previous edition, we looked at Bangladesh as being the cross-section between South and Southeast Asia. India dominates South Asia discussion, while Singapore dominates the Southeast Asia discussion - so the two don’t meet yet. But if you look at indigenous cultures weaving South and Southeast Asia there are tonnes of connections - so it is absolutely essential that these two meet. These are the stories that are talked about in one of the shows that was commissioned for the last Summit, which was curated by Cosmin [Costinas] from Para Site [independent art space in Hong Kong] and the show traveled from us in Bangladesh to Hong Kong, from there to the Museum of Modern Art in Warsaw and so on.
D: Is it your intention to critically redraw this geopolitical mapping?
DI: Absolutely. For instance, Bangladesh and Thailand are in fact much more connected than Bangladesh and India, for example, you can’t get a direct flight from Delhi to Dhaka, so traveling gets expensive, for Bangladeshis getting visa to India is really complicated. And there are tonnes of daily flights to Bangkok. So the perception that India and Bangladesh must be very close in the current geopolitical climate is actually wrong. Then you can look at other lines of connection - like copper trade and so on.
D: Do you plan to expand beyond Bangladesh in the spirit of “global majority”?
DI: Yes, absolutely, that’s why I just spent a month in South America, and I speak Spanish and Portuguese, so I was able to draw these connections. The whole art world is operating in English and this is the biggest critique of myself. I like the idea of the epicentre - because it can erupt anywhere, right?
D: Indeed. Speaking of the topic of the next Summit in Dhaka - “Seismic Movements” - could you name three top political seismic shifts of nowness you’d consider the most important?
DI: Personally, I would say that an agency for women is a seismic shift that needs to happen. Obviously, we’ve seen the #MeToo movement, but there are move shifts that need to happen in this direction.
Then it is the power of an assembly to instigate change. I am super impressed by what I am seeing in Hong Kong right now - it is one of the largest protests ever in the region.
Then racism is a huge problem. The way that I construct my team is diverse in terms of gender, race, class, and language. What is interesting in the context of Dhaka is that there is nothing in terms of the Western style of art structures - so I can build what I want to see, almost leading by example.
D: How do you safeguard from possible attempts of censorship or possible tensions that can arise in programming the Summit?
DI: The government is not involved at all in the contents of the Summit. Basically, the give us the building, which is a lot as without it we couldn’t do this. The thing we try to do with the summit is to keep it purposely messy. There are over 300 artists shown and it is not about being the best, excellence, etc - it is something I really try to fight against.
Dhaka Art Summit “Seismic Movements” will take place in February 7-15, which full program being an announcement in September.
The Failure of Neoliberal Hospitality
published in Obieg magazine, issue 11
Avenir Institute, Theoxenia, digital print, 2019.
The term “hospitality” has many distinctive definitions and origins. In Ancient Greece, one of the most important protocols of social life was called theoxenia. Xenos (θεός – “god”; ξένος, – “alien,”“foreign,” “strange,” “unusual,” “guest”) is an ambiguous term that had been used in Greek poetry from at least Homer onwards. The interpretation of it fluctuates from “stranger” to “guest friend” all the way to “enemy.” Further I would use “xenos” as the term referring to “newcomer” that isn’t defined from the perspective of the host’s understanding of an identity. Xenos is not a particular fixed identity such as guest, stranger, enemy, Other, visitor, partner, etc. – but it is all of them and much more at the very same time.
Theoxenia as a protocol of relating to the Other played an incremental role in the narratives that came down to us from Ancient Greek poets. In the last book of Homer’s The Iliad the king of Troy Priam comes to the camp of Achaeans to claim the body of his fallen son Hector and the Greek hero Achilles, abiding by the rules of theoxenia, allows him to stay and provides him with food, a warm bed,and entertainment despite the hostilities on the battlefield and his own personal rage over the death of Patroclus.
The respect towards an unknown Other was a subject of special importance since (s)he/them could have been a disguised god. In the first book of The Odyssey, Telemachus welcomes Athena (masked as a humble maiden) into his home and protects her from the advances of Penelope’s rude suitors. He exercises the ritual of theoxenia and earns her favor, which leads to a change of heart in the goddess towards aiding his father Odysseus, who was abandoned by Athena for stealing a sacred statue of her from Troy’s temple in order to bring victory to Achaeans in the 10-year war. The return of Athena’s favor and further aid to Odysseus was justified by his son’s respect of theoxenia.
Gerard Lairesse, Hermes Ordering Calypso to Release Odysseus, oil on canvas, circa 1670.
Let’s have a closer look at the key differences between hospitality and theoxenia. Hospitality in a neoliberal democratic Western-led world is one of the industries with key performance indicators,production, quality standards, is immediately and contractually reciprocal, and has attached to it an economy of profit.
First, theoxenia is unconditional. It is offered to anyone without imposition of the host’s moral,ethical, and political understandings as if they are universal or have prevalence in this geopolitical context. The mourning Achilles welcomed Priam into his camp without expecting reciprocity and wasn’t plotting a stratagem to use the king of Troy for the sake of some future act of revenge. He didn’t attempt to demonstrate moral or ethical superiority by being generous towards the enemy. He obeys theoxenia as if it were an answer to the equation of two plus two or following a health ritual like brushing your teeth before going to bed. In order words, his approach there is beyond selfish: it is cultural rather than opportunistic, pitiful, or predatory. Hospitality, on the other hand, is strictly reciprocal. The Cambridge dictionary defines hospitality as “the act of being friendly and welcoming to guests and visitors” or “food, drink, entertainment, etc. that an organization provides for guests or business partners.”4 Guests, visitors, and business partners are identified and sorted into the categories of newcomers. None of them are meant to stay longer than a specific period of time and are meant to recognize, as dominate, the host’s order of things, all the written and unwritten rules. The exchange and the dialogue should happen according to conditions established by the host. Conditionality of hospitality presumes that the guest, visitor, or business partner is meant to bring the value that is recognizable within the axis of the host’s understanding.Therefore, the unexpected is not expected and unwelcome. A stranger cannot be the subject of hospitality. The Other is meant to be categorized – and this is the first form of violence inflicted on him/her/they by the “hospitable” host.
Second, theoxenia protects the condition of perpetual peace and excludes psychological or any other form of violence. The contemporary political interpretation of the term hospitality is closely related to terms like integration, assimilation, and tolerance. All three of them are presuming, although not admitting, an act of violence on the subjectivity of a xenos. The agencies of integration and assimilation demand from the Other to assume traditions and norms of the society, in which her/him/them are integrating as the new fundamentals. Ultimately, they violently break the subjectivity that the Other had before the integration or assimilation process had begun. The tolerance of a host towards a guest, on the other hand, is a mental construct of the borders of acceptable freedom within the cage of subjective reality defined as the principal within the society that is tolerating a guest. Telemachus protects Athena disguised in a clothes of a poor woman from the drunk suitors thereby risking his life in order to prevent an act of rape that is not unordinary towards a woman of unknown provenance in Ithaca. He places the respect of theoxenia over “the normality” of the order, preventing the violence even as it is justified by local norms, therefore he stands up against the local habits. The industry of hospitality is violent against the cultural subjectivity of the one subjected to it. The conditions of the host are the default form of the engagement between host and him/her/they. Xenos is meant to be assimilated, pacified, educated,or being performed on another act of the psychological and often physical violence. Hospitality,therefore, is a condition of strict distinction between “the good” and “the bad,” “the useful” and “the useless” and most importantly – “the friend” and “the enemy.” Hospitality is falling into the orbit of the political relations as they were defined by Carl Schmitt who famously claims that “the specific political distinction ... is that between friend and enemy.”5 In the perpetual war of the sociopolitical imaginaries and competing world images, the genuine hospitality is meant to be provided only to those who either comply with host’s understanding of the reality or share it.
Third, theoxenia is transnational, transcultural, and universal. While contemporary hospitality is distinctly different among the people belonging to the same tribes – racially, socially, politically,ethnically, linguistically, etc. – theoxenia is equal in the face of any otherness. Trojans are foreigners to Achaeans, Achilles however treats Priam as a relative of his own. Hospitality is a multiplicity of nationalized cultural forms, where expectations of the format and particular rituals turned into mechanistic habits at best or into tradable forms of service at worst. Hospitality is compared to other fictionalized “national” things: food, dress, folklores, etc. The transcultural and cosmopolitan nature of thoxenia can be seen as the precursor of universal human rights and equality. The disguised Athena is a traveler of unknown origin, the ultimate foreigner, but she receives the protection of the prince of Ithaca. For that the latter is rewarded not in the immediate form of a tangible resource, such as payment which “closes” the deal, but with Athena’s aid to his father Odyssey who eventually makes it back home and reunites with his son and wife. Theoxenia is performed without the expectation of an immediate or, in fact any, gain. It is a principle of living a life that cannot be therefore reduced to an industrial form. Theoxenia cannot be traded and compensated in similar reciprocal transaction, while hospitality is exactly that.
Joseph Natoire, Telemachus listening to Mentor [disguised Athena] or The Story of Telemachus. Oil on canvas, circa 1725-75
The failure of hospitality is structural rather than positional. Hospitality is analyzed and looked at as a continuation of theoxenic tradition from the ancient world. It is perceived as a positive achievement of the sociopolitical and cultural progress of Europe that led to the cultural openness, wider horizons of social learning and readiness for cultural exchange. I disagree with that. I think hospitality shares the aesthetic resemblance with theoxenia, ritually, and mechanistically, but it is an entirely different behavioral phenomenon. Theoxenia’s elements however were partly incorporated by monotheistic religions that followed the decomposition of the Ancient world, including Christianity and Islam. The presence of the remnants of theoxenia in there makes cults often more attractive than neoliberal societies and the ISIS recruiters sensed it.
The trouble with hospitality is that it is perceived as an essential and exhaustive concept of interaction with the Other. It is dangerously false. In the face of planetary challenges such as climate change, the resurgence of narrow mindedness, nationalism, and imperialism it is the time to get rid of this tribal understanding of the world and explore the universal protocol of humanity within all of us.
Notes:
[1] Katrin Elger (2009) Survey Shows Alarming Lack of Integration in Germany, Spiegel Online,January 26, 2009:http://www.spiegel.de/international/germany/immigration-survey-shows-alarming-lack-of-integration-in-germany-a-603588.html
[2] Thérèse De Raedt (2004) Muslims in Belgium:a case study of emerging identities, Journal of Muslim Minority Affairs, 24:1, 9-30,https://doi.org/10.1080/1360200042000212160
[3] Anna C. Korteweg (2017). The failures of ‘immigrant integration’: The gendered racialized production of non-belonging. Migration Studies,Volume 5, Issue 3, 1 November 2017, Pages 428–444, https://doi.org/10.1093/migration/mnx025
[4]https://dictionary.cambridge.org/dictionary/english/hospitality
[5] The Concept of the Political. Expanded Edition (1932), trans. by G. Schwab, Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 2007.
Politicians always promise to build a bridge at the place where there is no river
Babi Badalov in conversation with Denis Maksimov for The Brussels Times
Babi Badalov’s latest exhibition, “ZARA Tustra” at YARAT Contemporary Art Centre in Baku, Azerbaijan is running from 2 March till 16 June. It comprises approximately 250 textiles hung in rows suspended from the gallery ceiling. The artist uses old sheets, pieces of curtains, found clothes and materials. Each textile is overlaid with Badalov’s poetic texts, that play with grammar and phonetics of the languages to which the artist was exposed to in his life.
Babi Badalov is an unconventional artist. Born in a small village in Azerbajan, he served in the armed forces in Russia in Chekhov, close to Moscow, and spent formative years in bohemian apartments in St Petersburg, then still called Leningrad. He later moved to the UK for two years until he was deported, and lived in Paris as a ‘sans-papiers’ for many years before becoming French citizen in 2018.
Badalov’s work is influenced by his own personal experiences of exclusion, and focus on geopolitics, gender and sexuality. His current solo exhibition in Baku is the first of this scale and arrives to the city in peculiar times. Openly gay, the artist doesn’t hide his queer outlook on the signs, symbols, language and iconography - which are all very present in his work.
The exhibition features fabric and various textiles as the main mediums in his multidimensional work. The installation comprises approximately 250 textiles hung in rows suspended from the gallery ceiling. The artist uses old sheets, pieces of curtains, found clothes and materials. Each textile is overlaid with Badalov’s poetic texts, that play with grammar and phonetics of the languages to which the artist was exposed to in his life. Apart from the textile works, the exhibition features drawings on paper that themselves act as the real evidence of the impurity and messiness of the used language, symbols and notions.
Denis Maksimov (DM): Do you feel your personal identity was affected by the linguistic barriers you faced post-emigration? Are there different ‘Babis’ within you - Russian, Azeri, British, French?
Babi Badalov (BB): When I just arrived to St Petersburg I actually didn’t speak proper Russian. But I was very attracted by the city. I fell in love with Fyodor Dostoevsky’s writings for example. The Museum of Freud in the city had become a very special social place, where I first presented my poetry. I spoke with harsh accent, the words in the rhymes often didn’t make any sense from the perspective of ‘correct’ and ‘pure’ language, and this linguistic complexity became attractive to the people who were gathering for a saloon for those interested in Freud’s heritage.
I have also never studied art, but cherished the idea of becoming a contemporary artist since I arrived to St Petersburg. Everyone who I was interested in from the art history, for instance Robert Rauschenberg, was harshly criticised by the official Soviet academic dogma then. The life was very harsh if you were striving for something alternative and unconventional. It was especially difficult due to my sexuality. Attraction to contemporary art I guess was also a way to discover myself. It seemed as strange, non-conforming to the norms, as I felt about myself and my position in the world. Beyond linguistic juxtapositions, there was also this identity searching and issue of not being even able to dream about being accepted for who I am and call any place I found myself in ‘home’.
DM: How did you arrive to the medium of textile as a canvas for your work?
BB: It is a hard question to respond actually. I can interpret it from several perspectives. First of all, it is cheap to work on when there is nothing else available. Secondly, the clothes as a symbol is very connected to the notion of honesty for me. One of the exhibitions I recently produced was called “To make art is to take the clothes off”, and took place in Palais de Tokyo in Paris. When you are undressing, everybody sees you, you are sort of transparent. We are so full of complexes that we need to hide our true selves behind things, and clothes is one of the strongest representations of this gesture. The clothes are always with us and around us: it is our reaction, our desired image, our character. We feel we have to cover ourselves as if we are constantly feeling ashamed.
DM: Your work with text and languages suggests you’re critical to the static definitions of symbols and signs that represent political ideas. Do you see it as a way of subverting power or rather as a visual critique, meant to inspire rather than define?
BB: As a person who suffered a lot in search of a home, and being a nomad for quite some time, I’ve always had complex struggle with politics. I haven’t become Russian or Azeri, I will never be French or English. I was suffering a lot from all these visas and borders. My protest against all these borders extends to the alphabets and language, and I am convinced that these notions are very connected. The linguistic differences are as violent. All these borders, countries – they’re all so extremely oppressing. People are living through complexes and nationalisms in the prisons of minds, and the passport is like a prison identity tag.
A lot of my work is operating through differences between the visible, symbolic in languages, and their phonetic meanings; geographical and linguistic confusions, dictated by the identity-forming cultures. Trauma of migration is heavy and irreparable. For example ‘my English’ needs to be translated to some sort of common ‘English’ by one of my friends if I need to communicate with someone in the titular culture. The same goes for ‘my French’ being translated to common ‘French’ by my partner, when I need to talk with the bank for example. Those little things - wrongly pronounced words, or names for the same type of things like coffee or bread - define our otherness wherever we are, mostly in a negative way. My art is about these challenges of languages, that shape the complexity of social and political experiences in life.
DM: The ironic word-play of ‘Zara’ and ‘Zarathustra’ is peculiar: Is it coincidental irony or do you refer to a specific function that fast fashions like Zara play in the lives of people in our globalised world?
BB: It came to my mind when I arrived in Baku to plan this exhibition. I didn’t recognize the city, as so many things had changed since my last trip to Azerbaijan. Capitalism changed the landscape of the city very much. A lot of this change, as I see it, is clear barbarism. I thought it was important to emphasize the resistance to this ‘sameness’, that is introduced everywhere.
I have a tattoo of [Mikhail] Bakunin on my arm, a famous Russian anarchist and one of the fathers of the anarchist movement. I initially thought of naming my exhibition after him - to highlight the essential need for the resistance in our times. ‘ZARAtustra’ comes from mixing the name of the founder of Zoroastrianism, Zoroaster (Azerbaijan often referred to as the place where this religion was born), and high street brand Zara - one of the symbols of homogenisation through violent capitalist globalisation and introducing this ‘sameness’ everywhere. Combining them in one word I think is one of the ways to represent the ‘nowness’ of our culture.
I am not a patriot of anything political, but I have cultural identity and I do cherish it. I think this nomadic experience allows you to create critical some distance from yourself and from where you come from. There is nothing radically new in my message, but the actuality and urgency of it is very relevant. How to resist this blind capitalism which destroys livelihoods and to shift attention from what is unimportant - like all these signs of sick consumerism and tones of ready-made clothes - to things that actually matter for a good life.
DM: What is your take on the artists’ role in politics? Is it a permanent societal role or something that changes over time?
BB: I myself don’t like to associate with politics as it stands now. I wouldn’t want to be connected to the political world closely. I don’t want my struggle to be appropriated by some politician or a group in order to obtain power. I don’t think an artist should be the tool for politicians. I believe in stronger alternatives for future generations - where politics should be produced from other sources. ‘Political politics’ is dirty already and entering it leads to almost automatic disgrace and loss. Former Soviet Premier Nikita Khrushchev once said that politicians always promise to build a bridge at the place where there is no river.
