The killer skies
Tina Farifteh
Thousands of people died in drone attacks. The psychological impact of this constant threat from above is enormous. Tina Farifteh shows innocent skies of the days of attack in another part of the world. What is it like to fearfully look up at a beautiful clear sky, when drones have the best view?
Armed drones are an efficient way of waging war. Since 2001, the US military has been using them in Afghanistan, Somalia, Yemen and Pakistan. They ‘enable you to exercise your power without showing vulnerability’, concluded a former air force officer. Between seven and ten thousand people have died in drone attacks in the past three years. The psychological impact of this constant threat is enormous.
‘These drones have turned the eye into a weapon’, says Tina Farifteh (Iran, 1982). She tried to imagine what it is like to fear a beautiful clear sky, when drones have the best view. Every day she photographed the sky and searched the database of the Bureau of Investigative Journalism whether a drone attack had taken place that day. On average, she counted one attack every four days. She only shows us the skies of the days of attack.
What does this technology mean for the future of warfare, asks Farifteh. ‘Is it still war if the opponent can not defend himself? And what does it mean for democracy when citizens are barely aware of the structural war that their country is involved in?’
Tina Farifteh is a Dutch-Iranian artist based in The Netherlands. She obtained master’s degrees in Economics and a bachelor’s degree in Arts. Thanks to this academic and cultural background, she is used to seeing the world from different angles.
She is a visual researcher whose work lies at the intersection between arts, politics and philosophy. Her interest lies in human nature and the politicization of ‘life’ – particularly, the administration and control of life. She is inspired by the work of philosophers Agamben, Foucault and Arendt. Specifically their concepts of ‘bare life’ and ‘biopolitics’.
In her work, she reflects on the impact of man-made power structures such as nation states and corporations on the lives of ordinary people. Often focusing on people stuck between the ‘natural’ life and the ‘conventional’ life. People not only excluded from the privileges granted by the ruling political and economic systems, but often damaged by these to make the system ‘work’. Her photographic approach is research-based and conceptual. Often combining images, text and data. The goal is to seduce us to look at topics that we prefer to look away from because of their complexity or discomfort.
In her earlier project Killer Skies (2018), she explored the impact of the ‘dronisation’ of armies. Currently she is researching and reflecting on the situation of refugees on the move or stuck at European borders. This work focuses on borders, bodies, and the political language used to normalize the absurdity of how we are currently dealing with these topics.
The Flood
I was born in Tehran (Iran). I came to the Netherlands when I was 13. The only thing I knew about the Netherlands was that it was below sea level. I had heard the story of the boy who put his finger in the dike and saved the country from flooding. The decision to move to Holland didn’t sound like a wise idea to me. Why move to a country that could be flooded at any moment?
During my 25 years here, the political climate has shifted. The public debate on migration has become harsher, heated and polarized. What would have been considered right-wing xenophobia back then, is now considered mainstream. Populists simplify complex realities into good and evil, victims and perpetrators: ‘us’ versus ‘them’. Their rhetoric often consists of dehumanizing words and metaphors. One of these is ‘water’.
We are inundated with headlines on how migrants are streaming into Europe, flooding the continent, bursting through national borders, threatening to submerge our culture and destroy everything we hold dear. Their rhetoric is gradually being adopted by mainstream politicians and media. It seeps into laws and policies and leads to direct action. Words are the first step in legitimizing walls and violence.
In reality, water is a huge threat to the thousands trying to reach European countries like The Netherlands. People trying to survive the Mediterranean Sea in rubber boats. Trying to survive winter on the Aegean coast in primitive tents. To them, water really is deadly.
In this project I aim to dissect the water metaphor, to understand and visualize the dominant discourse on migration and question the current. framing of refugees as a natural disaster.
Who is afraid?
Who is really threatened?
What is the price of fear?
Who pays this price?
The Flood (2021). Audiovisual installation, 9’27”.
● Concept, research, video: Tina Farifteh
● Sound design: Tijmen Bergman
● Video engineering: Daan Hazendonk
● Data: UNITED for Intercultural Action
● Design of the publication: HouseTMM