ON PEDRO REYES ’ THE PEOPLE ’ S UNITED NATIONS ( 2013 – 2014 )
In doing so , pUN confirmed the relevance of Nick Couldry ’ s questioning of the assumption of symmetry that is present in Roger Silverstone ’ s definition of mediation . The latter author describes it as concerning “ the fundamentally , but unevenly , dialectical process in which institutionalised media of communication [...], are involved in the general circulation of symbols in social life ” ( Silverstone 2002:762 ). However , Couldry finds Silverstone ’ s definition “ too friendly ” ( 2008:8 ) towards the media . Rather , the former author also identifies
two possibilities only hinted at in Silverstone ’ s definition of mediation : first , that what we might call ‘ the space of media ’ is structured in important ways , durably and partly beyond the intervention of particular agents ; and second that , because of that structuring , certain interactions , or ‘ dialectics ’— between particular sites or agents — are closed off , isolating some pockets of mediation from the wider flow . ( 2008:8 )
An interest in the specific ways , in which such a “ closing off ” takes place through the visual mediation of the UN , underlies the understanding of mediation that was in operation in my doctoral thesis 6 , in which I discussed , namely , images of the UN such as its flag , photographs of its New York headquarters , the General Assembly and the Security Council as making the rhetorical argument regarding the continued relevance and legitimacy of the UN . That said , that is not the goal of this article . Rather , the next pages aim to demonstrate that the dialectical process that is identified by Silverstone can be activated — namely , through artistic appropriation .
In any case , two key discoveries of my analysis of the visual rhetoric of the UN are pertinent in the context of this article . First , the literature on aesthetics and the politics of representation often discusses the difficulty of representing violence and horror ; rather , my analysis demonstrated that the attempt by the UN to visibly represent ideas such as peace , universality and inclusivity also remains unrealised . The institutional failure of the UN to fully enact such promises lied at the core of Reyes ’ project . Second , I discovered that the images of the UN perform rhetorically the change of threshold from the national to the international level as a focus of attention , debate and political action . In doing so , they contribute to legitimising the existence of the UN itself . It could be said that , paradoxically , pUN made a related case — not through scholarly analysis but by means of artistic appropriation and recombination . However , by asking participants to represent specific nation states in a performance based on the structure of the General Assembly , pUN also suggested the difficulty of fully enacting the movement from the national to the international unless the UN ’ s structure is itself questioned .
The UN ’ s Rhetoric of Democracy and Deliberation
Indeed , I will now argue that pUN can be seen as reflecting upon the tension between the rhetoric of deliberation and universality of the UN , its cosmopolitan values and as-
6
I am currently transforming it into a monograph . 33