Séminaire : « Productions et circulations des biens culturels : le cas des pays d’Afrique du Nord et du Moyen-Orient » , « Becoming stranger » : ambivalent distance and proximity Experiences and subjectivities of Egyptian artists in Europe
Les séances auront lieu désormais les jeudis entre 16h et 18h dans la salle 3.023 du bâtiment Sud du Campus Condorcet (5 cours des Humanités 93322 Aubervilliers) qui est situé à la sortie de la station Front Populaire (ligne 12 du métro francilien). Il sera possible de suivre le séminaire à distance en s’inscrivant ici : le lien Zoom qui vous sera communiqué sera inchangé pour l’année. Si vous êtes déjà inscrit sur notre liste de diffusion, il est inutile de répéter cette opération.
L’équipe d’organisation : Maria Adib-Doss (Université Paris 13, LabSIC), Asmaa Azizi (Université Paris 13, LabSIC), Abdelfettah Benchenna (Université Paris 13, LabSIC) et Dominique Marchetti (CNRS, CESSP)
Contacts : maria.doss[at]univ-paris13.fr ; asmaa.azizi[at]univ-paris13.fr ; benchenna[at]univ-paris13.fr ; dominique.marchetti[at]cnrs.fr
Jeudi 15 mai 2025 – Ophélie Mercier : « Becoming stranger » : ambivalent distance and proximity Experiences and subjectivities of Egyptian artists in Europe
Following the popular uprising that began on 25 January 2011 and led to the ousting of President Hosni Mubarak eighteen days later, the revolutionary events overturned norms and status quo in the Egyptian society. The arrival in power of El-Sisi (in July 2013), the intensification of censorship, new laws restricting foreign funding (in 2015), and the closure of the public sphere gradually undermined the revolutionary momentum. As a result, from 2016 onwards, many artists left Egypt. Their move to Europe and the reconfiguration of their artistic practice and political reflections are the subject of the doctoral research that is explored in this presentation. Through analysis of life trajectories and political subjectivities of artists who recently established themselves in Berlin and Marseille, this research analyses how “becoming stranger” has affected artists’ lives in Egypt and through the mobility and settlement processes in Europe.
Borrowing the term “becoming stranger” from Sara Ahmed, I analyse how Egyptian artists experienced estrangement and alienation in Egypt while being connected to global artistic and cultural milieux. And consequently, how, although this proximity facilitated international mobility to Europe, processes of alienation on the basis of race and origins has contributed to reflections on experiences of estrangement in Europe. Based on ethnographic fieldwork in Berlin and Marseille, this research combines the analysis of interviews with artists and cultural workers; online publications and articles; as well as art works. This diverse material provides the content to parse out how “becoming stranger” has affected artists subjectivities in Egypt and then through the mobility and settlement processes in Europe, therefore moving away from considering international mobility as rupture but rather highlighting dimensions of continuity.
Ophélie Mercier is a PhD Student in Anthropology at Ghent University and affiliated with the Centre Marc Bloch. She graduated from Sciences Po Rennes and SOAS. Her first research explored theatre as a form of resistance in Palestine, focusing on the Freedom Theatre. She worked in Cairo from 2013-16 as a street clown performer with the collective Outa Hamra. In her thesis, she is exploring the life trajectories of Egyptian artists who (re)settled in Europe in recent years, focusing on the reconfigurations of their artistic practices and looking at the transnational dynamics of the production and distribution of their art works.