Resisting Erasure independence of Azawad in 2012. 15 Here, Ag Assarid adopts what Roland Barthes referred to as ‘trick effects’, where you use the objective mask of photography to represent something as truth and, in doing so, naturalise the existence of Azawad into our sensory experience. 16 Also, the fact that these feature on the local architecture gives an idea of long-term permanence, as a building, permanent and difficult to demolish, prompts one to associate Azawad with enduring and stable features. With these two visual cues, Ag Assarid cements Azawad as a home that has a territorial reality, to an audience that may have disagreed before, due to its internationally unrecognised status. Moreover, this architecture does not stand alone but is accompanied by bustling communities, some of which are also wearing the flag on their clothes. In capturing this, Ag Assarid underlines not only that Azawad is a real entity, but that many people recognise it as ‘home’. Here, Ag Assarid effectively reconfigures the European system of knowledge that Azawad is a failed proto-state, to the home of many proud Azawadians. In fact, Ag Assarid, in the interview, described his art as ‘destabilising’, acknowledging a concerted attempt to alter perceptions of Azawad. In doing so, Ag Assarid cements their existence as an ontologically real ‘home’, creating a space where he can negotiate for respect and recognition. Therefore, the arts show that despite being stateless, they too have a territorially bounded ‘home’, marking their existence into the European system of knowledge. Figure 3: Azawad Flag on Clothes. 15 16 Moussa Ag Assarid ‘The Revolution is without Frontiers’ in Jonas Staal J and Moussa Ag Assarid (eds), The Art of Creating a State (Basis Voor Actuele Kunst 2014) <http://newworldsummit.org/wp-content/uploads/2015/09/The-Art-of-Creating-a-State.pdf> 140–73. See also Figs 3–5. Roland Barthes, Image Music Text (Hill and Wang 1978) 21. 319