Page 108 - ARTE!Brasileiros #55

ENGLISH VERSION IN MOURNING I STRUGGLE

questioning why we fight, instead losing itself sequelae from their time in combat, others families were invited by the artist to participate
in the fact that we fight.”. The researchers add psychological ones, or even criminality linked to in the project and honor their loved ones in
that it is possible to observe a variety of citizens’ unemployment. Meredith Kleykamp, director of Queen and Country.
responses to this kind of content ranging from the Center for Research on Military Organization For the final version of the work, McQueen
“distraction, bedazzlement and voyeurism” to at the University of Maryland, points out that created an oak cabinet containing 120 double-
“being positively mobilised to actively support unemployment rates are higher among veterans sided vertical panels, which can be removed for
military action”. compared to non-veterans, with the largest viewing, and on which 160 sheets of stamps are
An important observation made in Visualizing disparity occurring among women. In the study displayed with portraits of the British military
War is that a considerable sample of studies Unemployment, earnings and enrollment among personnel who died in service in Iraq. Each sheet
on militarism “emphasize the ways in which post 9/11 veterans, Kleykamp points out that in contains details such as name, regiment, age
nationalistic and militaristic themes emerge 2011, approximately 12% of all post-9/11 veterans and date of death printed on its margin. In the
in conjunction”, in the interest of a State and and nearly 30% of those aged between 18 and 24 cabinet, the leaves are placed in chronological
its armed forces. Using the United States as a were unemployed. Given that today’s veterans order, from the seven casualties on March 21,
case study, Robinson and Schulzke claim that are more likely, than their peers from previous 2003, to raf Sergeant “Baz” Barwood, who
“the recent disillusionment with the wars in Iraq generations, to marry and have children, the died on February 29, 2008. For the BBC’s Jo
and Afghanistan, combined with a demand to effects of the transition between military and O’Connor, Steve McQueen said he hoped the
‘support the troops’ at all times, has led to a civilian life present setbacks that extend to their exhibition would allow people to think about the
subgenre of war media that demonstrate this”. spouses, children and communities. In previous victims of the war. “Over 650,000 or more Iraqi
This phenomenon is also described by Peter: research, she points out that not all soldiers men, women and children have also died in this
“Over recent years, we’ve had a president who enter military life with aspirations to grow in the conflict and I am hoping that by allowing people
created an atmosphere of deep fear by exploiting army. “Youth with lower socioeconomic status to identify with British soldiers who have died,
the idea of threats to this country, our freedom, backgrounds were nearly half as likely to enroll in they will also think about the people in Iraq”.
our security. So, when I look at the presidency of college rather than enlist in the military as their According to the artist, Queen and Country
Trump, I see the post-9/11 world written all over peers from more advantaged backgrounds”, can never be considered complete until the
it. The year of 2020 was, to me, the culmination explains. The results of her analysis show that Royal Mail allows the general use of the stamps.
of recent American history. It embodied all the educational goals play an important role in the The British postal service denied McQueen’s
political forces that have been in motion for the decision to enlist in the armed forces in the proposal, justifying that the families of the
last few decades, where nationalism and identity United States, even more with the “Post 9/11 dead and the public would find the stamps
politics took the forefront again”. gi Bill”, launched in August 2009, which pays “distressing and disrespectful”, despite the
The study also draws attention to the public school in-state tuition and fees. solid support shown by the families, the military
images of conflict created for video games and also by the public, who gathered 26,673
and, further, their marketing. It is estimated armY Dreamers signatures in a petition to support the project
that Call of Duty, for example, has approximately “Mourning in the aerodrome. The weather when Queen and Country finished its exhibition
100 million participants worldwide and that warmer, he is colder. Four men in uniform to across the uK in 2010.
sales of premium products encompassed carry home my little soldier,” sings Kate Bush
by the franchise have exceeded 400 million in Army Dreamers, one of 68 songs deemed iF i CoulD Do anYthing For You
dollars since its launch in October 2003. This “inappropriate” to play on the BBC, the uK’s public For art curator Moacir dos Anjos, in Introduction
is not an isolated case, however. As Roger radio and television corporation, during the Gulf to Aesthetics: A Conversation between Art,
Stahl, associate professor of Communication War, for which the British mobilized the largest Philosophy and Psychoanalysis, the works
Studies at the University of Georgia, identified: contingent of soldiers among any European of Steve McQueen and Emily Jacir suffer a
“September 11, 2001 and the ensuing wars in state that participated in combat operations. cross-pollinatation when they refer to mourning
Afghanistan and Iraq ushered in a boom in sales A little more than a decade later, the uK and the brutal consequences of conflicts; in
of war-themed video games for the commercial became involved in the Iraq War, which began in particular, Moacir cites the photographic
market”. 2003 and ended in 2011, with the official closure installation Where We Come From, by the
Citing the work of Vit Šisler, a researcher of British combat operations on 30 April 2009. Palestinian Jacir.
focused on the intersection of culture and In the course of the conflict, Steve McQueen In July 1950, the Law of Return was adopted
digital media and assistant professor at was selected by the official artists program of by the Knesset in Israel, according to which
Charles University in Prague, the study points the Imperial War Museum to produce a work every Jew - regardless of their origin in the
out that military games typically contain of art on the British Armed Forces. In 2006, he world - could claim the right to citizenship and
stereotypical depictions of Muslims. Šisler traveled to Basra, one of the three largest cities residence in the State of Israel. In contrast, more
argues that “the enemy” is collectivized and in Iraq, where he spent six days embedded with than 700,000 Palestinians were expelled or fled
linguistically identified as “various terrorist British troops. Having worked with video art for at the region during its foundation. Exiled by the
groups”, “militants”, and “insurgents”, while least a decade at that point, McQueen planned to exiles. Peter Beinart, in an opinion piece for The
American or allied troops are humanized and produce a testimonial film about troops serving New York Times, suggests that “acknowledging
individualized, with playable and non-playable in Iraq; however, even integrated with the fighters, and beginning to remedy that expulsion — by
characters “portrayed with nicknames or he was subjected to movement restrictions that allowing Palestinian refugees to return — requires
specific visual characteristics”. In addition, left him frustrated and nullified his plans. Later, at imagining a different kind of country, where
the “allied forces” are also shown as part of his home in Amsterdam, McQueen was posting Palestinians are considered equal citizens, not
a multilateral force (a coalition of the willing), his income tax return when he realized that the a demographic threat. To avoid this reckoning,
which would justify “the rhetoric of a war on stamp on the envelope had a portrait of Vincent the Israeli government and its American Jewish
terror with the Middle Eastern enemy seen as Van Gogh. The proportions of the portrait on allies insist that Palestinian refugees abandon
requiring near continuous military intervention the stamp and the fact that they can reach the hope of returning to their homeland”.
and restraint”. But not only: taking as a starting various corners of the world, made the idea For Edward Said, whose text Orientalism
point such representations, it is possible to sound promising to the artist. Imprinting the is considered one of the founders of post-
assume, controversially, that complex social stamps would be the portraits of soldiers who colonialist thought, “It is as if the reconstructed
and political problems can be solved in a solely had died in combat, as a form of tribute. McQueen Jewish collective experience, as represented
military way. With resistance to this visual declared: “An official set of Royal Mail stamps by Israel and modern Zionism, could not
typification, Peter Van Agtmael reports to Tanya struck me as an intimate but distinguished way of tolerate another story of dispossession and
Habjouqa: “When my eye is directed towards highlighting the sacrifice of individuals in defence loss to exist alongside it—an intolerance
the Iraqis, Afghans, and Syrians caught in the of our national ideals. The stamps would focus constantly reinforced by the Israeli hostility
middle of this mess, it’s a lot more gentle. And on individual experience without euphemism. to the nationalism of the Palestinians, who for
that’s partly because I have a greater degree It would form an intimate reflection of national forty-six years have been painfully reassembling
of sympathy for the true victims of this conflict. loss that would involve the families of the dead a national identity in exile”.
And partly it’s a reaction to the fact that these and permeate the everyday – every household In this context, taking advantage of her ability
groups have generally been visually marginalized and every office”. to move with relative freedom in Israel with an
and only seen in moments of extreme violence Faced with the lack of interest shown by the American passport, Emily Jacir proposed the
and grief over the history of photography. I want Ministry of Defense when McQueen presented following question to other Palestinians: “If I could
to push back against those forces”. his project, the artist hired a researcher to do anything for you, anywhere in Palestine, what
Even though, as stated at the beginning of contact each one of the families of the fallen would it be?”. In a non-material exchange, they
this article, his look at the Americans is more soldiers and request an image of their lost ones, provide their desires, longings and dreams, and
analytical, in Sorry for the War, Peter directs as the ministry had also refused to provide the she promises to realize them. “She makes her
his poignant criticism to the State and to portraits. Initially, 115 families were contacted, of body an extension of these people’s bodies to
imperialism, not depriving the individual soldiers which 102 responded and, of these, 98 agreed to fulfill their desires,” as Moacir dos Anjos puts it.
from his homeland from a humanized portrayal participate. Since the beginning of the project, In the presentation of Where We Come From,
too. Some of these characters deal with physical however, casualties occurred and, likewise, all against white panels, black letters describe
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