‘HUMANISING’ STATELESSNESS THROUGH AN ARTISTIC APPROACH MD MIZANUR RAHMAN * In this article I critically examine an art-based approach to statelessness in institutional settings, to show how art can produce alternative insights on statelessness. Drawing from ethnographic observation, I show how an art-based approach tries to go beyond the predominant legalistic and political frames and representations of statelessness, but stay married to the same legal and political discourses. I found the art-based approaches observed do not subscribe to the idea that statelessness is only a legal anomaly and instead emphasise the creation of empathy for stateless individuals or groups. This humanises statelessness by showing their human vulnerability and creatively recognising their hope and agency. Regardless, artistic approaches can struggle to challenge the legalistic and political nature of the problem. It remains a question whether such approaches are appropriately promoting the views, perceptions and feelings of stateless persons themselves, as their participation in creating such art projects are minimal. As such, I argue for an ‘ethnographic turn in art practices’, which can ensure the participation of stateless people in the process of creating and demonstrating art. I believe this ‘turn’ could play a crucial role in the development of statelessness studies. TABLE OF CONTENTS Introduction........................................................................................................... 273 Methodology ......................................................................................................... 274 The State of Statelessness Research: A Short Literature Review ......................... 277 Defining Statelessness: Legal Framing and Representation ..................... 277 Solving and Preventing Statelessness: A Focus on the ‘Nation-State’ and Law .................................................................................................... 278 Human Rights Perspective: Emphasising the Nation-State ...................... 280 Dominant Framing and Representations of Statelessness: Invisibility in Statelessness ......................................................................................... 281 An Artistic Approach to Statelessness...................................................... 282 ‘Humanising’ Statelessness through Generating Empathy ................................... 283 Freeing Neha: An Art Experiment to Make Participants Feel ‘Legal Limbo’ ........................................................................................... 287 Unseen and Untouchables: Searching for Hope with Hope ..................... 291 How Do You Survive in a World That Does Not Recognise You?: Recognising ‘Agency’ .............................................................................. 294 Conclusion ............................................................................................................ 297 * Md Mizanur Rahman is an Assistant Professor of Anthropology at Jagannath University, Bangladesh. He holds an MA in Development Studies with track Governance of Migration and Diversity from the International Institute of Social Studies of Erasmus University Rotterdam, Netherlands. This article is an amended version of his Master’s thesis.