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THE INNOCENCE OF THE MEDUSA - THE EXILE IN THE CITY OF THE SELF. AN ANTHROPOLOGY OF EXILE

Alina Cristea

Abstract

The anthropology of exile is the new field of research of the present with Europe becoming a fortress with high walls and gloomy gates through their very opening. The accommodation of the exiled is just an appearance, is a terrible joke, dimensioned by the camps' fences in which they are "housed". It is true, they can see the sea through these fences, but it has become a border rather than freedom. Caught in a purgatory space, migrants have no place to take refuge but into themselves, in that self-culturally and intelligibly furnished from the perspective of anthropological research. From these interior, it could start the creation of a bridge between civilizations, a culture of transition, a real possibility of integration, and art is the key that can open these gates. Anthropologically, the monsters we fear are those invented by us, and the refugee crisis is such a monster. Like the Medusa, the monster of Greek antiquity, an artificial creation of the will of a god, paying a terrible price without any blame. Exile itself was a bitter punishment than the loss of beauty. The Art managed to reconcile Medusa with the people and now they can admire it. Contemporary Art must become the common language on which the bridge of understanding between Europe and the "land" of refugees should be built, wherever this “land” they may be: interior, outside, in cities, camps or tents. Because Art, in whatever form it is, can do that. Thinking actions - philosophical, psychological, theatrical, choreographic and plastic – and artistic value judgments are needed in order not to look at the refugees as monsters and to become stones at the idea of cultural contact, like ancient Greeks near Medusa. The aesthetic emotion of contemplating the essential beauty of another culture can save us all, regardless of citizenship. I believe that the phrase "anthropology of exile" defines perfectly the new field to deal with the understanding, transition and perhaps the integration of refugees into the great European socio-cultural scheme.

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