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20240429｜Critical Curatorial Practices in the 21st Century: Public Space, New Media and Geopolitics
moreICCS WPS 21 The Coronavirus as Interregnum
Author/Speaker｜Juan Alberto Ruiz Casado
Publication Date｜2020-04
Abstract
The coronavirus crisis is changing more aspects of the status quo than the purely economic ones commonly stated. In this article I discuss my travel experience in India during the outbreak of the pandemic, which I accompany with reflections on the identity and antagonistic effects it is provoking. A mixture of ignorance and fear in face of the invisible enemy is causing in many parts of the world the rejection of people from countries of the so-called first world: a new experience for many. The foreigner, no matter from which nationality, and even the compatriot coming from “abroad” are adopting the role of the enemy/virus within the dangerous warmonger narrative unleashed during the pandemic. There is a temporary mutation in the perceived passport value, as a paper element that underpins the way we evaluate individuals outside their borders. But the coronavirus crisis has shaken the sense identity for many not only when abroad but also when in the homeland, at a time of interregnum when the old is dead and citizens feel lost in the absence of a clear and unifying hegemonic project. For instance, the European Union has failed to exercise its supranational role and has left the solution to the crisis in the hands of local nationalism as traditional constructor of subjectivities, whereas China and the Chinese has become the preferred target of antagonism, the number one public enemy, with dangerous ramifications and implications for the post-coronavirus future.
Author's bio: Juan Alberto Ruiz Casado is PhD Candidate at the Institute for Social Research and Cultural Studies, National Chiao Tung University, Taiwan. He earned his MA in Culture of Peace, Conflict, Education and Human Rights at Malaga University, Spain. His work focuses on nationalism, populism, discourse analysis, independence movements, and political communication.
