Thanks to the ‚Ruhrresidence’ program I am going to visit the ‘Autonomous Region Kurdistan‘ in North Iraq. In November 2017 my photographic research will focus on natural site as a place of mythological origin in…
GO: Sebastian Forkarth
KR-I (Safe Haven)
Sebastian Forkarth’s (*1985 in Herdecke) photographic pieces are focused on national identity and how it can be generated. Which symbols elicit the feeling of togetherness, and who creates it for whom? How are ethnically homogenous spaces created? The natural space is thus always understood as a “mythological origin and its legitimising relationship to that of the politically occupied space”.
As part of the photographic long-term project KR-I (Safe Haven), Forkarth now plans his fourth trip to the “Autonomous Region of Kurdistan”. Here, Forkarth examines the tensions between political and geographical realities on the one hand and a constructed mythos of the state on the other hand. After completion, the piece is set to be published as a book in cooperation with researchers from the fields of International Relations and Development Studies.
To Sebastian Forkarths’ website
Defining Territory
On September 25th 2017 the Kurdish Regional Government (KRG) in the Kurdistan Autonomous Region of Iraq (KR-I) held a referendum to vote for or against an independent state. The Iraqi government declared the referendum unconstitutional…
IV Extraction
Extraction of resources from would-be state‘s territory and population to be able to carry out I – III
III Protection
Eliminating of internal or external adversaries
II State Making
Eliminate or neutralise competitors inside the territory
I War Making
Eliminate external rivals
The Four Activities Of State Building
According to Max Weber the state is “a human community that (successfully) claims the monopoly of the legitimate use of physical force within a given territory. (…) James Tilly then suggests that state-building processes are…
Legitimate Territory
At the Middle East Centre of the ‚London School of Economics’ Dr. Zeynep Kaya and I discussed the emergence of (kurdish) nationalism and the interrelation of liberal democratic notions to ethnic nationalist claims. ‚the meaning…
existing territory
The research in the UK and the meeting at the LSE raised the question if the KR-I is, or has ever been existing in its form of an autonomous region. Lacking territorial and economical sovereignty,…