The video Century’s Container by Naeem Mohaiemen was created for State of Emergency: Politics, Aesthetics, Trumpism, a public forum that took place at New York University on December 10, 2016. Currently it is being screened at The Parliament of Bodies, documenta 14’s public program, curated by Paul Preciado. Below is a synopsis of the video. For the full screening schedule of Century’s Container at The Parliament of Bodies, visit the documenta 14 website.
The Muslim is the century’s container for the other; but the definition is also always changing, while the expulsion impulse stays constant—just ask Polish Jews, Iraqi Kurds, Bengali Hindus, Turkish Armenians, Japanese Americans. The same year we are horrified at the whitelash tornado of Trump (after Brexit, before Le Pen), the Bangladeshi government pushes Rohingya refugees back into Myanmar and toward certain danger under the eyes of Nobel Peace laureate Aung San Suu Kyi.
The video includes excerpts from Judith Butler, Toby Rollo, Mona Saeed Kamal, Hari Kunzru, and Sham-e-ali Nayeem and was written for the Andrew-Weiner-organized “State of Emergency” response to the Trump election.
Naeem Mohaiemen researches the tragic past of actually existing socialism, and the unwritten futures of an as-yet-unborn global left against sectarian unities of race and religion.