Je suis arabe – A Right to Poetics
a performance by transparadiso

Operation Goldhaube
Volkskunde Museum/ Salzburg Museum, Salzburg, 2015

Volkskundemuseum/ Monatsschlössl

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   Schwarzenberg Barracks

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The performance „Je suis arabe – a Right to Poetics“ was developped for the exhibition „Operation Goldhaube/ Operation Golden Barret“ at the Volkskundemuseum / Salzburg Museum (Museum of Folk Art / Salzburg Museum, Austria). It interprets the „golden barret“ (Goldhaube) in its ambivalence between traditional cultural heritage and the Austrian air surveillance system which was named after it. transparadiso developed special „golden barrets“ as gilded satellite dishes which were equipped with CB-radio for transmitting the poem „La volonté de vivre“ by the Tunesian author Abou el Kazem Chebbi in Arab and in a German translation in two locations in Salzburg: Volkskundemuseum / Monatsschlössl and the Schwarzenberg Barracks, where the air defense system „Goldhaube“ was tested for the first time.
The performance addresses emotions like „love for home“ and „fear of foreigners“ which are often misused by politics and introduces instead a central piece of arab culture which is widely unknown in Europe (there is no complete translation in French and obviously not in German available), even though it was essential for the Arab Spring.

The video shows the performance and thus the text for the first time in full length in German and Arab. The performance took place as „art piece of the month“ on April 11, 2015. Due to the ongoing stream of refugees the Schwarzenberg Barracks were opened as refugee camp in Sept.2015.
„Je suis arabe – a Right to Poetics“ thus experiences a current actuality, especially since the longer term impact on our society cannot be foreseen. To further new forms of cohabitation on an emancipated level between „homebased people“ and „arrivals“ (see Vilém Flusser „The Freedom oft he Migrant“) means to get to know the mutual cultural backgrounds and to acknowledge the people who are considered „homeless/ arrivals“ in our area as cultural producers simple attributions of roles.

„Operation Goldhaube/ Operation Golden Barret“
Volkskundemuseum/ Monatsschlössl, Salzburg
11.04.-01.11.2015

curated by Eva Jandl-Jörg and Ernestine Hutter (Volkskundemuseum)
Thanks to Kurt Mitterer (Heeresgeschichtliches Museum Schwarzenbergkaserne)

Video
https://vimeo.com/142362957

Credits
Akram al Halabi (Performer), Tatia Skhirtladze (Videography, editing), Marie-Christin Rissinger (Video-Camera), Matthias Jahn (Video-Camera), Violetta Rajakovics (photos)