Borders are invisible lines. Some are drawn into the sand and shape our perception of reality. Borders exist only in our minds and challenge us to constantly re-evaluate the delineations of our identities.
Borders are invisible lines. Some are drawn into the sand and shape our perception of reality. Borders exist only in our minds and challenge us to constantly re-evaluate the delineations of our identities – they should be agile, permeable, queer and blurred. The destabilizing effect of this reexamination influences what people’s values are, putting up to discussion what identity is. Which roles do origin, history and geography play in it? The repression of thoughts and feelings renders visible a person’s relationship to their past and their connection to their values. It raises the issue of self-acceptance. We care about the visibility of those who are oftentimes forgotten or marginalized in our collective memory. We insist and we remain insistent.
Covid-19 has shifted the scope of our perception. Longstanding values and concepts have proven to be useless and new ones are yet to be found. Where are we? We wander around in the dark. Where are we going? Will we ever arrive?
Dark is dangerous. You can’t see anything in the dark, you’re afraid. Don’t move, you might fall. Most of all, don’t go into the forest. And so we have internalized this horror of the dark. – Hélène Cixous
The marginalised, migrating body is very central in this context. This is about much more than refugees or asylum seekers. As an example, Paul B. Preciado, transgender theorist, writes in his latest book of the trans body as a migrating body. During transition, the trans body embarks on a journey and tries to arrive again and again. Social and activist movements function as dislocations. They push for change and systemic and structural renewal. Allyship and the development of new forms of collective identities are crucial to this. With that in mind, the institution is confronted with its limits and their reassessment and displacement.
Just as respect and acceptance presuppose the recognition of the other, the condition for contempt and hatred is often the failure to recognize the other. In hatred too, the cause of the emotion is not necessarily the same thing as its object. – Carolin Emcke
– Marc Streit