'The Romanians are Coming': Labour Migration and the Politics of the Observational Documentary. Issue 2 (3rd March 2020)

• Record Type: Journal Article
• Authors: Kemp-Welch, Klara
• Is Part Of: Third text. Volume 34:Issue 2(2020)
• Page Start: 255
• Page End: 270
• Publication Date: 2020-03-03
• Subjects: Klara Kemp-Welch -- labour migration -- free movement -- Adam Chodzko -- Stefan Constantinescu -- observational documentary -- Romanian art -- Brexit -- EU enlargement -- video art; Art and society -- Periodicals; Art -- Developing countries -- 20th century -- Periodicals; Developing countries -- Intellectual life -- Periodicals; 700.91724
• DOI: 10.1080/09528822.2020.1765601
• Languages: English
• ISSNs: 0952-8822

Abstract

ABSTRACT: This article analyses a selection of creative projects engaging with Romanian migrant labourers, in relation to the controversy in the UK and in Romania prompted by the Channel 4 television series The Romanians are Coming (2015). The case studies are a co-production exploring post-communism and the history of Romania through the history of the Dacia car, My Beautiful Dacia (2009), by Romanian artist Ştefan Constantinescu and Spanish documentary maker Julio Soto, and British artist Adam Chodzko's short film The Pickers (2009), a collaboration with a group of young Romanian strawberry pickers working in Kent, who co-edit and comment on found historical footage of agricultural labour. The article considers the modes of address and tactics deployed within these different observational documentary-style productions in relation to the politics of Brexit, drawing on TJ Demos's work on the reification of migrants in documentary image-making more globally.