MIGRATIONS, POLITICAL BORDERS AND THE DIGITAL REALM

• Main Author: Paulo Silva Pereira
• Format: Article
• Language: Portuguese
• Published: Universidade do Minho 2019-05-01
• Series: Diacrítica
• Online Access: http://diacritica.ilch.uminho.pt/index.php/dia/article/view/388

Many studies have addressed the issue of migration and displacement, one of the main geopolitical challenges of our time, but far fewer have analysed it using an interdisciplinary framework and selecting literary and artistic practices from a transnational context. !e purpose of this paper is to describe the way in which the artists use the specificity of medium and mechanism in their projects to reflect on the current migratory crisis and forced migration, to critique the securitization or the politics of immigration in recent years and to explore a tactical use of technologies in order to expand public consciousness and political debate. It is directly focused on the migratory processes involving Mexicans who go to the United States and its connection to the complex political imaginary of these regions, and on the relationship between identity and marginalization, particularly the influence of the conceptualization of migrants as the Other in contemporary European society. Based on the analysis of a series of case studies both from a theoretical and from an artistic point of view –, this research intends to understand how these projects explore forms of critical intervention, dissent or disruption of a dominant semiotic regime by stimulating critical thinking about consolidated narratives and sign systems of identity and difference.