AHL ALKAHF أهل الكهف

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PRESENTATION.

PERFORMATIVE INTERVENTION.

JAN 2012.

AKADEMY OF FINE ARTS.

VIENNA, EUROPE.

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TEXT COLLAGE.

 

Wir entziehen diesem Raum unsere körper
die stelle der Diskutant_innen bleibt leer
die projektionsfläche dahinter bleibt leer
die videobilder bleiben aus

 

The body is crucial in its presence to form a political space, to claim the streets in their politicality. The body is present to claim, to demand, to negotiate and to interfere. The body is there to form together with other bodies a multitude of political subjects. If we see politics as a part of life, we have to see the body behind the demands and ideas. This body – in its presence – is a target of violence. It risks to be beaten, arrested, tortured, shot dead. The body has to be present to stand against this threat. It has to act.

 

هذا عهد الحركة
This is the era of mobility
حركة المواد الطبيعيّة المسلوبة
The mobility of raw materials
حركة المعلومة الملغومة
The mobility of mined informations
حركة البضائع المسمومة
The mobility of consumerist products
حركة الأوامر والتعاليم .. مرئيّةً ومكتوبة
The mobility of slogans .. visual or written
تم منع أحد أعضاء “أهل الكهف” من السفر, إذ قوبل طلب التأشيرة بالرفض
One member of the movement “Ahl al Kahf” was forbidden to move to Vienna, his visa request was refused

 

When we decided to somehow take part in the event of an international (what ever this means) meeting in Tunis, it took us one day to decide, one day to ask for financial support, one day to buy the ticket, and four days later we found ourselves standing outside the airport of Tunis, the capital of Tunisia.

 

Mobility for whom?
When the European community is speaking about improved mobility, it refers either to class A citizens which are mostly white middle class citizens with European passport in their pockets or it refers to goods, which for global capitalism have no borders and not documents needed. We are urged to take action by the absence of our colleague and the absent freedom of movement for all those people who want to migrate to whatever country for whatever reason. We are confronted with the forced legal criminalization of migrants created by the very concept of citizenship, the laws and the national and the supranational structures. There cannot be any reasonable argument to legitimize this anymore.

 

It is now one year ago, when the media displayed for the first time pictures of the streets from Kasserin, sidi buzid, tunis, Streets full of demonstrants demanding the end of Ben Ali’s brutal regime which they had to bear over the last decades. Pictures that where reduced to their visuality, pictures displayed in the common way for mainstream media and western journalism, lacking reflection, discursivity. In the beginning of the uprisings in Tunisia not much was reported as no one in the West expected that this would lead to a political change. Only after Ben Ali fled the country, western politicians and media rushed to solidarize with the revolutionaries and easily exchanged their vocabulary when referring to Ben Ali from “president” to “dictator”. And as easy as that – it was forgotten that this former “president” was one of the biggest allies with Europe in making Tunisia a safe place for tourists and Europe a safe place, by preventing migration flows coming via the short way through the Mediterranean.

 

Jetzt ist demokratie, wahlen und sowas… Und wir Können wieder auf Urlaub fahren. In tunesien zumindest und in Ägypten, vielleicht ja auch. Und in bahrein? in bahrein wird facebook vom staat benutzt um leute auszuforschen die an den protesten beteiligt waren und um sie dann ins gefängnis zu bringen. 5 jahre, 10 jahre, lebenslänglich. So ist das mit dem facebook… So ist das auch. Und in Tunesien jetzt wahlen und demokratie und so…

 

The vocabulary of support for a “democratic change” in the Arab world took over and Europe especially, in the usual way of supremacist ideology tried to position him self once more as the enlightener, as the one that is here to save you and to show you the way, the way to the fully integration to the global system of neoliberal capitalist democracy. And parallel to this, fortifying the borders, increasing the control of migration…


Ich sah österreich im Fernseher, ich war verliebt in diesem Land. Nun überlegte ich die Hauptstat von diesem wunderschönen EU Staat zu besuchen, wo sehr viel Geschichte sehr viele Menschenrechte gross geschrieben werden. Nun für die Reise brauch ich ein Visa und für ein Visa braucht man Geld was ich zu der Zeit nicht hatte. Ok dachte ich dann gehe ich doch diesen Sommer arbeiten um mir das zu finanzieren. Geld Geld Geld Arbeit Arbeit Arbeit, das erledigt kümmerte ich mich um mein Visa. Das Visa: für ein Visa brauche ich geld und Papiere Papiere Papiere diese blöden Papiere. Übersetzen begleubigen von innen aussen und und und noch so manch andere ministereien. Das erledigt, lege ich das hart ersparte Geld wieder bei der Botschaft ab mit den blöden PApieren. Jetzt beginnt das warten , warten das bedeutet stress stress stress, ich dachte mir warum tut man mir das an ? Hat nicht dieser Europeischer Staat zu den Human Rights eingewilligt .??!! Ja natürlich , aha das hiesse ja dann das ich mich frei bewegen kann auf uneserem Planeten Erde, das ich frei entscheiden kann wo ich arbeite oder auch bleibe. Warum muss ich dann das Geld die Papiere und und und und noch andere sachen einer Botschaft vorzeigen und darum bettelt dass sie einwilligen ? ….

 

Paper issued by the european commission
on May 4th 2011:
Title: “on Migration”
Quote: “The events in the Southern Mediterranean bring hope for a better life for millions of people in our neighbourhood, as well as for greater respect of human rights, pluralism, the rule of law and social justice.”
Quote: “The control of the EU’s external border must be continuously improved to respond to new migration and security challenges. Recent events have shown how quickly a section of the external border considered as low risk can quickly become subject to critical migratory pressure. Organised crime is responsible for trafficking human beings or facilitating irregular migration and it constantly adapts its methods and routes. At the same time the overall trend is for travel flows to increase and for people to expect fast and easy border crossings.”

 

إنه زمن البول فوق المناضد والبرلمانات والوزراء”..” والسفارات
«It’s time to piss on the podiums, parliaments, ministers » .. and embassies
أهل الكهف” ليست تونسيّة, ولا مصريّة, ولا عربيّة, ولا من أية جنسيّة. هي وباء ينتشر عبر العدوى
The “Ahl al Kahf” Mouvement is not Tunisian or Egyptian or Arabic, or from any nationality. It is an epidemie that spreads by contamination
هذا عصر الأمن
This is the era of security
الأمن في الغذاء
Security in nutrition
الأمن في الدواء
Security in Medicin
الأمن في الإستشفاء
Security in healing
الأمن في الصلاة
Security in prayer
الأمن في النيك.. في البورنوغرافيا.. في الإستمناء
Security in fornication .. in porn .. in masturbation
الأمن في التلفزيون.. الأمن في ثقب الدبر والفم والأذن والأنف والعيون
Security in television .. Security in the ass hole, in the mouth hole, in the ear hole, in the nose hole, and eyes
لقد صرنا ماكنات آمنة مطمئنة
We have become secured and quiet machines
حين تركب التاكسي لتلحق بالثورة, لماذا تنسى دائماً أن تدعو السائق ؟
When you take a taxi to the revolution, on the eve, why don’t you invite the driver to go down with you in the street?
تم منع أحد أعضاء “أهل الكهف” من السفر, إذ قوبل طلب التأشيرة بالرفض
One member of the movement “Ahl al Kahf” was forbidden to move to Vienna, his visa request was refused

 

Nun habe ich gewartet gewartet und gewartet und nach 2 endlos lang erscheinenden Wochen gibt man mir in der Botschaft ein Blatt Papier in dem alles auf deutsch steht , AAAAAAAAAAAAAAha nun frage ich was da steht als Antwort von dem Netten Botschafter erhlate ich gerade mal diesen beschissenen Satz : “Wenn du kein Deutsch kannst dann lern es doch !!Bücher gibt es ja genug” Na bum
das ist ja eine freundlichkeit, so frage ich meine Österreichische bekannte was dies hiesse, als Antwort sagte sie mir dass der wunsch meiner Rückehr in mein geliebten Land nicht garantiert sei und dass ich den einkommensnachweis meine Eltern benötige um das beliebte land Österreich betreten zu dürfen. fuck das heisst das ich den ganzen sommer um sonst gearbeitet habe. Das gibts doch nicht Für was brauch ich den beschissenen einkommensnachweis meiner Eltern wenn ICH als freier Mensch ALLEIN nach Österreich möchte !!!
Zurück zu dem Thema Garantie der Rückehr Welche garantie habe ich denn morgen noch zu leben!!!!???? wenn man sich umschaut versingt man ja in Sorgen und man erstickt am Dreck…
Was mir hier übrich bleibt ist zu sagen shit scheisse kacke khra zu dieser geschichte , oydaaaaaaaaaaaaaa ich will ja nur das land kennen lernen und es NICHT plündern, im gegenteil ich werde ja dort auch Geld lassen und somit ihre wirtschaft ankürbeln. Ich werde wohl noch mich frei auf diesen planeten bewegen können !!!!!

 

When after months of bureaucratic tortures you come to the next appointment at the Austrian embassy in Tunis and you get a visa-refusal, no explanations, a german written paper and a word-of-mouth statement such as “If you want to know what it’s written in the paper go on Google Translate”.
This is humiliation and racism.
When the reasons of your refusal are: first to not have shown sufficient means of economic sustainability for your daily life and second the impossibility to verify your wish to come back to your homeland, then we are thrown in the perverse circularity of a broken and even more exploitative capitalistic system that had made our existence completely dependent from it and precarious.

 

If we read – in the western news – about tunisia now, the tunisian revolution, it’s history seems already normalized. The shock and surprise vaporized. The common sense is that Tunisia is trying to build a democracy. And in this way, there is no question on the meaning of democracy. Easily it seems, even the protests, that are partly anti-capitalist protest can be absorbed and integrated in the consumerist circle generating surplus. Occupy wallstreet and the spanish democratia real! Movement and all other protests that happened in the past year are said to be generated by the same unemployed highly educated youth as the protests in the arab space. Young, middle class, with no future.

schon die uni-proteste haben vor einigen jahren den glorreichen demopsruch hervorgebracht: wessen zukunft, unsere zukunft.

And what does this future mean for a person born in Austria, a person born in Spain, a person born in the states, a person born in Tunisia, a person born in Syria? What is this lost future? It is not a lost future that we mourn, but we fight against a system, that is called democracy, that we would rather call capitalist, white supremacist parliamentary democracy, that is systematically criminalizing, alienating, managing people, advertising liberalism. We fight together for freedom, that is not a liberal illusion but we mean it: freedom of movement for all, freedom of working together, freedom of self-organization and freedom of thinking further.

 

Channeled through the media, the uprisings in the arab world took a connotation of inspiration for all other fights and revolutionary spirit caught fire all over the globe. The times magazine named the person of the year 2011 „the protestor“ claiming a common history between all this struggles. Its easy to fall into a general excitement. We can get nice pictures of masses, of individuals, everything seems possible and the marketing/advertisement industry catches up with a new trend: being a protestor; the person of the year is having a new appeal, a freshness, a rockstar attitude!

 

So often have I stood, watching
the crowds of people passing before me.
Rallying for their causes, Their beliefs
Sometimes for causes i relate to
sometimes for causes that relate to me

but yet here i stand
time and time again
from the sidelines
away from the public eye
simply by ways of eliminating my physicality
this visibility often so pronounced
just from my very being
but then a luxury
perhaps a choice
not so many of my peers could even decide on
by the mere lack of opportunity

to un-fulfill my role
as the communal other
the role bestowed upon me
and my migrant peers by this city
this country
even before my very entry
barriers that define me
differentiate me
marginalize me

 

تم منع أحد أعضاء “أهل الكهف” من السفر, إذ قوبل طلب التأشيرة بالرفض
Einem Mitglied der Bewegung “Ahl al Kahf” wurde es verboten nach Wien zu kommen. Sein Visumsantrag wurde abgelehnt.

 

Your body is not needed here, not even your labour force. The capitalist suckers make much more profit
to come to your land,
to buy your land,
to pollute your land
and finally to exploit you directly at home.
Watch out, our blood is infected.
We spread the disease of resistance.
We are urged to take action even more when Fortress Europe barricades its doors after endless bloody invasions, enslavements, robberies and killings, in the name of civilization, democracy and Christian values.

 

for fear of reasons
that this country
could decide
at a moments whim
to end the years, that i have spent
if i make this decision to fight
so here i stand
within these walls of bureaucracy
these very walls
that allowed me in
to watch you
as you pass by before me

 

الثورة تنتقل عبر العدوى. أخرج للشارع وقبّل أول من يعترضك من فمه, إذا لم يكُن شرطياًّ أو بيروقراطياًّ أو صرصور.. فهو ثوري
The revolution moves by contagion. Get out on the street and kiss the first person on the mouth, if he is not a police officer, or a bureaucrat, or a cockroach .. then he is a revolutionary
الثورة ليست عرض يُبث على شاشاتكم, إنها كرنفال يومي في شوارعكم. ما أقول؟ إنها تراجيديا جماعيّة, نصارع فيها, كل عصر, آلهة العصر
The revolution is not a show broadcast on your TV screens, it is a permanent carnaval in your streets. What am I saying? It is a collective tragedy which we fight, at every era, the gods specific to this era
“ثمة هدفٌ، لكن ليس ثمة طريق”
“There is a purpose, but there is no way.”
حركة “أهل الكهف” هي مجموعة من الشبكات الإرهابيّة تمارسُ وتنشر الإرهاب الأستتيقي
The movement “Ahl al Kahf” is an amount of terrorist networks, who practice and preach aesthetic terrorism
الثورة لا تنتمي لوطن. إنها بنفسها موطن. موطن القصيد. هنا والآن
The revolution does not belong to any country. It is, itself, a country. The country of poetry. Here and Now
تم منع أحد أعضاء “أهل الكهف” من السفر, إذ قوبل طلب التأشيرة بالرفض
One member of the movement “Ahl al Kahf” was forbidden to move to Vienna, his visa request was refused

 

We are here to disrupt the artificial barriers that still exist between art and life, actor and spectator, subject and object. How can art still be conceived as a space for abstraction from reality, an empty tool for individual career, a mere product to be consumed and a passively medium for free one self? And what about the capitalist appropriation of those artistic practices that reflects critically and politically the concept and social function of art and depict reality as such? When on the art institutional level, also the most critical exhibition circulate in a safe place, for the same community of pseudo intellectual elite, when international people are invited for the sake of exotic representation, only, Art becomes an end to itself.
Art is not a pure entity, neutral and untouched from structures of domination and oppression. It is rather like every sphere of our life contaminated from the ideological and repressive power, which wants to enslave us, alienate us, separate us. And nonetheless wants us dead or overproductive. When your visa to come to Europe, to take part to an art project supported by an institution of art as the Academy of fine arts in Vienna is refused, then the art bubble explodes and you brutally face how mechanisms of exclusion are continuously reproduced.
Intervene, agitate, hunt the system. Now and here!

 

..وظيفة الفن ليست التواصل, بل نقل عدوى
Die Rolle der Kunst ist nicht zu kommunizieren, sondern zu kontaminieren.
أوروبا اليوم ترفض التأشيرة لإيزيدور إيزو, إلياس صنبر, غيراسيم لوكا, تريستن تزارا, مصطفى الخياطي
Heute hat hat Europa das Visum von Isidore Isou, Elias Sanbar, Gherasim Luca, Tristan Tzara, Mustapha Khayati … abgelehnt.
أوروبا أوصدت أحصنة قلاعها. أوروبا صارت إمبراطورية .الأمن
Europa hat seine Tore geschlossen. Europa wurde zum Sicherheits-Empire.

 

And why the images from Lampedusa took so long to reach us? Why just when the situation came to be unbearable, when the meditarean sea became the cemetery for hundreds… AGAIN!! It is the very concept of detention centers, to isolate refugees, to cut them up from the rest of the world, to make them invisible, to make them unable to organize them selves.

 

Tunisian migrants occupied a building in Paris after the traditional demonstration of May 1st.
One banner carried at the demonstration read:
“No Police Nor Charity: A place to organize”
signed by “The Tunisians from Lampedusa to Paris”

 

أهل الكهف” هي صيغة الحزن العنيفة. لذلك جاءت ساخرة”
“Ahl al Kahf” is the violent formula of grief. And that’s why it is so cynical
الثورة آلة شوق متنقلة, لإيقافها يكفي أن تضغط على زر “إنتخاب”. أوفي حالات الخطر, اضغط على زر “الهوية
The revolution is a desiring machine deterritorialized, to stop its operation simply click on “elections”. In case of danger, click “identity” ..
الثورة تموت حين تسكن شاشة التلفزيون. لأنها تتحوّل من واقع إلى صورة
The revolution dies when it is broadcast on television screens. Because it ceases to be reality, and becomes an image
حين تُوزَّع الثورة على موائدكم, ضعوا منديلاً كبيراً تحت المائدة.. كي لا تضيّعوا فُتاتها
When distributing the revolution in banquets, be sure to put a large sheet under the table .. so as to not miss a crumb
نيكولا ساركوزي مدعو إلﯩتونس للإحتفال بعيد ميلاد الثورة. الجماهير مدعوة لمواصلة الثورة
Nicolas Sarkozy is invited to Tunisia to celebrate “the first anniversary of the revolution.” Multitudes are invited to continue the revolution
“هذا عهد الأرانب”
This is the era of rabbits

 

By establishing a collaboration we aim to build an alternative to the usual one-way-communication, journalism and veuyorism. we try to understand the difference of our positions that is nevertheless a result of the differences of spaces we inhabit. This is the basis to be able to fight together. for us, this is a way to work against the capitalist system that is penetrating our lives and bodys. like in occupations, assemblies, self-organized, emancipatory movements, we want to fight against the normality of deprivation, abandonment, isolation and the management of live and death.

 

Warum also nicht eine skype-konferenz? Warum nicht eine live-schaltung in echtzeit. Über alle grenzen hinweg. Eine virtuelle erscheinung projeziert in lebensgröße? Warum nicht wie millionen migrantische arbeiter_innen kontakt über skype zu den kindern haben und präsenz suggerieren. Warum nicht den schein waren, dass alles möglich ist und sowieso alle den gleichen raum teilen können. Warum nicht glauben dass wir alle menschen sind auch wenn eine begegnung nicht möglich ist? Warum nicht den glauben an die liberale globale eine welt aufrechterhalten? Warum nicht buisness as usual, the show must go on, usw.

Wie ein trotziges Kind?
Nein.
Wie die scheiß realität.

 

بينك وبين أرض نشأتكَ حبلُ الولادة, والثورةُ أن تقطعه
Between you and your native land, there is an umbilical cord. And the revolution is to cut it
أهل الكهف” ليست أشخاص, هي جيل”
“Ahl al Kahf” is not an amount of people, it is a generation
سيخرجون عراة من التعريف, آبقين عن التوريد
They will emerge multiple, anonymous, imperceptible and elusive
وسيخرجون من الخراب, وسيخرجون زغاريد
They will emerge from debris, and emerge as ritornello
وسيخرجون, زحف شعبٍ طريد
They will emerge, a march of a people exteriorized
أنبياءُ هامشيُّون من عصر جديد
marginal prophets from a new era
أغاني عبيد
songs of slaves
وسيُهزمون
they will lose
ويُهزمون
After, they lose
ثُمَّ يُهزمون, ثمَّ ينتصرون
they will lose again. After, they will vanquish
ثمَّ يرفعون ذلك العلم الكونيَّ الملعون
Then they raise the damned universal flag:
عاشت بلاد القصيد
The flag of the country of poetry

 

——————————————————-   AHL ALKAHF أهل الكهف