Paper short abstract:

Based on a collaborative anthropological arts project, the presentation discusses how methods of (visual) anthropology combined with artistic approaches may help to come up with more nuanced and complicated readings of people that challenge the anthropologists' personal and political convictions.

Paper long abstract:

While mass media confronts us more and more with polarizing images of the current political landscape and numerous international film festivals put portrayals of "political opponents" at center stage, the question of how to do research with people who challenge our personal and political convictions has not yet received large attention within visual anthropology. The presentation asks how methods and forms of (visual) anthropology combined with artistic approaches can bring a new perspective to the topic and its challenges? How can collaborations with artists help establishing more nuanced, complicated, partial and local readings of people that challenge the anthropologists' personal and political convictions, and where are its limitations? Based on a collaborative anthropological arts project in a small Austrian village close to the Slovakian boarder, I will propose answers to these conundrums and discusses its consequences for a widespread distribution of anthropological research while at the same time reflecting on how art and anthropology converge and diverge based on one concrete collaboration.