CEU Electronic Theses and Dissertations, 2024
| Author | Peterlini, Rahel Eva Marie |
|---|---|
| Title | The Art of Reimagining South Tyrol: How Artist's Engagement with Migration Creates new Understandings of Belonging, Home, and Community |
| Summary | This thesis explores how (South) Tyrolean artists, who depict the topic of migration in their art, reimagine, and thereby create a solidary South Tyrolean community that encompasses the inclusion of new citizens. South Tyrol, a region in Northern Italy with a German and a Ladin speaking minority, is oftentimes cited as a model case for interethnic living (Peterlini 2023). At the same time, historical oppression of South Tyrol’s cultures led to the presence of nationalistic and place-bound forms of identification that can lead to the rejection of migrants (Peterlini 2011). To become more inclusive towards migrants, it is important for South Tyrolean collective identity to move away from understanding cultural groups as fixed and distinct. In my research, I identify artists and art as key players in this social change. I use a postmigrant phenomenological approach introduced by Anne Ring Petersen (2019) to understand how artists create encounters between peoples, foster affect, and reimagine notions of home, community, and belonging, and thereby engender new ways of living together as South Tyroleans. I conducted interviews with five artists living in (South) Tyrol, who are actively engaged in assisting migrants and advocate for a more solidary approach to migration . The IPA analysis of the interviews shows that art is central to social change and community making. With art, we can imagine and create new worlds, deconstruct stereotypes, denounce wrongdoings, foster affect, and mediate encounters that move beyond othering. The society that artists envision moves away from nationalistic fixed forms of identification towards more open, ambiguous, and fluid understandings of belonging. |
| Supervisor | Jones-Gailani, Nadia |
| Department | Undergraduate Studies BA |
| Full text | https://www.etd.ceu.edu/2024/peterlini_rahel.pdf |
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