‘Locked out in nature’: Films on the European Asylum System, Latent Violence, and Ghosts

Michaelsen, Anja Sunhyun

Book Section

Anja Sunhyun Michaelsen

‘Locked out in nature’

Films on the European Asylum System, Latent Violence, and Ghosts

In: Weathering: Ecologies of Exposure, ed. by Christoph F. E. Holzhey and Arnd Wedemeyer, Cultural Inquiry, 17 (Berlin: ICI Berlin Press, 2020), pp. 207–25

Open Access

Following Hannah Arendt’s remarks on refugee camps as spaces of ‘worldlessness’, I examine how, in films on European asylum facilities, systemic violence ‘makes itself known’ in images of nature. Nature separates and isolates (La Forteresse, Forst), it constitutes a sphere of domination and control (View from Above), and it functions directly as a murder weapon (Purple Sea). Nature, in these films, indicates the Outside within, haunted by the latent and ghostly presence of systemic violence.

Part of Weathering Containing:
Preface / Arnd Wedemeyer, Christoph F. E. Holzhey
Weathering Ambivalences / Christoph F. E. Holzhey
Radiating Exposures / Alison Sperling
Weathering the Afterlife / Nicolò Crisafi, Manuele Gragnolati
Scaling from Weather to Climate / Daniel Liu
Enduring Ornament / Amelia Groom, M. Ty
The Weathering of the Trace / Damiano Sacco
Glaze / Umut Yıldırım
Weathering Weather / Yolanda Ariadne Collins
‘Locked out in nature’
On Bad Weather / Facundo Vega
Representing the World, Weathering its End / Marlon Miguel
Enduring Rain / Claudia Peppel
Life Never Stops Being Violent / Vajiko Chachkhiani, Claudia Peppel
Confined Weathers / Delfina Cabrera

Title	‘Locked out in nature’
Subtitle	Films on the European Asylum System, Latent Violence, and Ghosts
Author(s)	Anja Sunhyun Michaelsen
Identifier	https://doi.org/10.37050/ci-17_10
DOI Target	https://press.ici-berlin.org/doi/10.37050/ci-17/michaelsen_locked-out-in-nature.html
HTML Page	https://press.ici-berlin.org/doi/10.37050/ci-17/michaelsen_locked-out-in-nature.html
Description	Following Hannah Arendt’s remarks on refugee camps as spaces of ‘worldlessness’, I examine how, in films on European asylum facilities, systemic violence ‘makes itself known’ in images of nature. Nature separates and isolates (La Forteresse, Forst), it constitutes a sphere of domination and control (View from Above), and it functions directly as a murder weapon (Purple Sea). Nature, in these films, indicates the Outside within, haunted by the latent and ghostly presence of systemic violence.
Is Part Of	Weathering
Place	Berlin
Publisher	ICI Berlin Press
Date	2020
Subject	Nature images European asylum system refugees Hannah Arendt documentary experimental video
Rights	© by the author Except for images or otherwise noted, this work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 International License. http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/
Harvested	yes
Language	en-GB
short title	Locked out in nature
page start	207
page end	225
Source	Weathering: Ecologies of Exposure, ed. by Christoph F. E. Holzhey and Arnd Wedemeyer, Cultural Inquiry, 17 (Berlin: ICI Berlin Press, 2020), pp. 207–25
Bibliographic Citation	Anja Sunhyun Michaelsen, ‘“Locked out in nature” : Films on the European Asylum System, Latent Violence, and Ghosts’, in Weathering: Ecologies of Exposure, ed. by Christoph F. E. Holzhey and Arnd Wedemeyer, Cultural Inquiry, 17 (Berlin: ICI Berlin Press, 2020), pp. 207–25 <https://doi.org/10.37050/ci-17_10>
Format	application/pdf