Colonel & Khaled D. Ramadan
In the debate on expatriatism, nation-states most fear the satellite dish and the Internet—in other words, any facility aiding the construction of a “virtual identity. “This concept of virtual identity is the focus of the multimedia project cast by the artists Colonel (Thierry Geoffroy) and Khaled D.Ramadan.
The project presents the way in which expatriates become the “authors” of their own identity and the processes by which they constantly draft and redraft themselves in virtual/personal logic. Much of the literature on expatriate identity focuses on the construction of so-called false identities and the notion of identity swapping. <back
Such a position has been critically analyzed by Edward W. Said in his
book Orientalism, which states that criticism should not be
directed at the construction of identity but rather at the way cultures
and identities of so-called others are presented as timeless, archaic,
irrational, wild, and dangerous. Bio Colonialism negotiates
such arguments and attempts to reconstruct the postcolonial identity
and the perception of cultural primacy in the age of networking and mass
migration. Theorist Magdalena Donea has discussed the concept of “virtual
identity,” the (re)construction of identities, and their challenge of
traditional notions of our ways of indicating who we are. She highlights
how assumptions such as physical appearance, accent, and mannerism tell
us that one has a fixed identity related to one’s sex, geographic location,
history, and social class. Nonetheless, in the disembodied world of the
virtual community, identity is ambiguous.
The project consists of manufactured objects, videos, sound effects,
prints, and design items related to the current condition of postcoloniality,
immigration, and resistance. Colonel and Ramadan exhibit their own bodies
and family histories by using performance art (video) to convey the complex
ways in which these two non-Danish subjects are presented in the Danish
society and the ways they have been affected by the continued encounter
with stereotypes of themselves. In three different videos, one of them
produced jointly Colonel and Ramadan use their own family photos and
footage archives to negotiate and demonstrate their original social status,
life style, and condition before they both stepped into Denmark and obtained
a new social status—that of the immigrant.
Ramadan’s country of origin, Lebanon, was formerly a French colony. In
his video slide-show Wide Power, Ramadan chooses to reflect on
the status of his country under the French intervention and again in
the late modern period. During the Lebanese Civil War, French soldiers
patrolled Beirut’s streets and, as a child in Beirut, Ramadan and other
children were asked by French soldiers to pose in front of their lenses.
Ramadan’s video questions the motive and fate of these photos taken by
French soldiers. He also questions whether he has become some sort of
Orientalist when he, at a later stage in life, takes up photography.
Does his life in the West have anything to do with his adopting of colonialist
manners? Is it possible that he has started to eroticize anything that
is different and remote?
Colonel’s video consists of sequences of an old documentation video shot
in Algeria by his parents, who were both working in Algeria during French
colonial rule. His father was a captain in the French army while his
mother was a teacher. The parents shot the voiceless video during Colonel’s
early childhood. The video shows how Colonel’s father describes the living
conditions during the Algerian war to his son with all that they entail—from
domination to identity cancellation and occupation. About his video Colonel
has said: “I am just an abstract French comedian using family film to
find my identity. In this personal project I am an introspective person.
I am questioning the family—family love and geographical position—and
Perceptions of actuality. To me, the project is about an honest moment,
facing the hidden sides and emotions.” Tracing the genealogies of their
own family histories, as well as that of the idea of site specificity,
offers the project an anthropological approach towards themselves as
subjects.
The joint video performance Art Talk by Colonel and Ramadan
asserts the cultural difference, the “otherness” in relation to the Danish
society, which is inscribed on non-Danish subjects. Art Talk plays
with the setting of the BBC World program Hard Talk, hosted
by Tim Sebastian. Shot in a similar esthetic style, Art Talk is
a conversation between Colonel and Ramadan, who negotiate their dissimilar
cultural backgrounds during one stage and their current cultural similarity
during another. One subject of particular interest is the phenomenon
of placing immigrants into one scoop of the social fabric, a practice
undertaken by the Danish media and a considerable amount of the Danish
public.
In the video, Ramadan clarifies the experience of being an Arab in contemporary
Denmark in light of the cartoons published by the conservative newspaper Jyllandsposten in
2006, which caused an international uproar. Colonel, on the other hand,
declares the end of his social status as the legacy of self-proclaimed
fine French colonialism. “Living in Denmark makes me feel like an Arab,”
Colonel says in the video. What becomes part of both artists’ new identity—the
immigrant identity—is the concept of mobility and [re]presentation within
a particular context. The activities in the project Bio Colonialism reflect
mobility, travel, and [re]presentation as an ideological move to and
from different locations, and back and forth in a continuous exchange
of cultural patterns. Bio Colonialism presents diverse views and perspectives
on the notion of powerful/powerless and colonizer/colonized. It debates
the current living conditions and sociocultural status of immigrants
and examines how their critical status affects, but not reflects, the
local culture in Denmark and perhaps the rest of Europe.
Stine Høxbroe and Khaled D. Ramadan