Migratory Aesthetics Proximity and Mutuality

To avoid the problematic prefix “post-” in the disingenuous term “postcolonialism,” as well as the hypercapitalist connotations attached to “global,” I have developed an alternative terminology, with the consequences for reality this may entail, to discuss the current condition of the world. The key element in this endeavor is the qualifier “migratory” for cultural and aesthetic events and elements. This describes not migrants per se, but the culturally mixed world in which we live. Migrants are part of it and belong to it as much as everyone else, but the crucial event in it is “encounter”: an experience in the here-and-now in public space. In this chapter, I discuss a few examples of documentary films I have made on the basis of, and about, such situations and events of migratory encounters. The films open up and show the political aspects of everyday life. The three video projects I present here all contribute an element to the ongoing search for what a migratory aesthetic can be and do without falling back into stereotyping, generalization, or condescension. They contribute to an aesthetic that hopefully sensitizes us to what matters beyond the ongoing divide between “us” and “them,” in an attempt to foreground connectedness, interrelation, and learning to engage with and enjoy relationality instead.