Performing Urban Collectivity

An van. Dienderen. (2007). Visual Intervention:Applied Visual Anthropology. Sarah Pink (Ed.).

Dienderen records her observation of the community film project held by an artist in an immigrant neighborhood in Brussels.

In the author's interview, one of the participants, who acted in the film, said, "I believe it was, I'm sure it was therapy for me, precisely helping me to digest what had happened to me. Just by talking about it, I freed myself. At least I felt relieved from this feeling locked inside me for such a long time" (p. 204).

The author quotes Pink's perspective about visual anthropology in social intervention, "In these projects applying visual anthropology involves promoting self awareness by representing individuals and groups to others and to themselves" (Pink, 2004:8, Visual Anthropology Review. 20(1), 3-16; as cited on p. 253). Pink calls this intervention intersubjectivity between researchers and the local, developed through reflexive process of collaboration and research.

But the artist who directed this project hired professional crew to shoot and edit the film, which seemed to entail incongruity. The author writes this aspect by quoting the concept that Raoul Ruiz used to describe a Western cinema: a Central Conflict Theory (Ruiz, 1995:14). The authors writes, "According to him, this theory has turned into a predatory theory, a system of ideas that devours and enslaves any other idea that might restrain its activity" (p. 266). As the author writes, Pink clearly differentiates visual anthropological production from commercial film/video production.

Raoul Ruiz (1995). Poetics of Cinema. NY: Distributed Art Publishers.
Fabian, J (1990). Power and Performance.