Bard College Berlin
I am the Ghost
“I am the Ghost“, exclaimed Rafat Alkotaini on Facebook, acknowledging the identity crisis in a moment of double surprise: not only calling out the ghostliness of his existence since having left Syria, but also realizing that he is THE ghost, the ghost he formerly perceived outside of himself, the ghost that used to be “the other“.
The history and memory of forced migration and exile revolves around this startling discovery: to see oneself the way one used to see the other – and around its denial/defence: to refuse to see oneself the way one sees the other.
But you can't anticipate or plan a discovery. Our class “Research-Creation: New Approaches to the History of Forced Migration“ gave the students complete freedom in developping their projects. They needed to be based on individual research, conceptionally convincing and as well constructed as possible, that was all. We didn't call the ghosts, they just appeared, from the present and from the past.
How do we meet the ghosts, once we can see them? At least half of the students had projects that addressed the situation of the bystander, the observer, the supporter, or thematized the limitations, fallacies and manipulations that prevent us from looking into their eyes.
To be able to work on these ghosts together is a great privilege. It needs unique circumstances to make a course like this happen, and countless people, working or studying at Bard College Berlin or supporting it, helped to create these circumstances. Our exhibition is therefore also an attempt to thank all these people, and to show our gratitude that this endeavor at Bard College Berlin is possible, especially in difficult times like ours, when the fear of the ghosts is driving our liberal democracies into paroxysms.
Instructors: Marion Detjen, John von Bergen
With contributions from: Lena Kocutar, Omar Haidari, Maria Jose Sarmiento, Theo Trotter, Thomas Brogan, Rafat Alkotaini, Miranda Kerrigan, Esme Thompson, Mary Grace Campbell, Elisabedi Mchedlize
