I was dealing with the myth of the scapegoat in the spiritual ritualistic sense but also in the context of the scapegoat child as a Jungian archetype, chosen by the narcissistic parent in a Nuclear family setting.
The term scapegoat stems from the tradition depicted in the book of Leviticus, but similar scapegoat practices also appeared in Ancient Greece and Ebla.
In the Bible, a scapegoat is one of a pair of kid goats that is released into the wilderness as a sacrifice to Asasel, taking with it all sins and impurities, while the other one is sacrificed on site. The scapegoats serve as a tool to free the people of their sins on the holiest day in Judaism and Samaritarinism: Yom Kippur.
ונתן אהרן על שני השעירם גרלות גורל Scapegoat" is an English translation of the Hebrew 'ăzāzêl" ,And Aaron shall cast lots upon the two goats: one lot for the Lord“ - אחד ליהוה וגורל אחד לעזאזל and the other lot for Azazel.”.
The dualistic character of Asasel was originally very connected to nature, holding more positive connotations. In later traditions he became more and more devilish throughout the centuries in his depiction (much like “witches”) and ended as the image of a fallen angel once sent by god to defeat demons, now working as the agent of the devil (in Koran he was transformed into a Satan and with his changed name of Iblis, trying to divert the people from their way to god).
In the Bible, a scapegoat is one of a pair of kid goats that is released into the wilderness as a sacrifice to Asasel, taking with it all sins and impurities, while the other one is sacrificed on site. The scapegoats serve as a tool to free the people of their sins on the holiest day in Judaism and Samaritarinism: Yom Kippur.
ונתן אהרן על שני השעירם גרלות גורל Scapegoat" is an English translation of the Hebrew 'ăzāzêl" ,And Aaron shall cast lots upon the two goats: one lot for the Lord“ - אחד ליהוה וגורל אחד לעזאזל and the other lot for Azazel.”.
The dualistic character of Asasel was originally very connected to nature, holding more positive connotations. In later traditions he became more and more devilish throughout the centuries in his depiction (much like “witches”) and ended as the image of a fallen angel once sent by god to defeat demons, now working as the agent of the devil (in Koran he was transformed into a Satan and with his changed name of Iblis, trying to divert the people from their way to god).
The parallels of the etymology and mythology of the scapegoat are also to be found in the social- psychological sense of scapegoating.
Seven deadly sins, twelve Jungian archetypes
Religious institutions as well the state have been abusing guilt and shame, that are in itself not bad but serve the purpose of conscious empathic togetherness, as tools for oppression.
Guilt and shame might be the most effective tools Christian institutions have found for that purpose on a macro-level, just like the narcissistic parent does on a micro-level.
After philosopher Rene Girard, humans must replay the founding event to experience again the salutary unity that came from violence.
As ritual relives violence against the scapegoat, myth remembers it, but like ritual it does so in a hidden way since humans must know, but must not know exactly, about the violence that founds their community. All myths, according to Girard, tell in their way about the original violent situation, about the founding of community through a lynching, about the victim who according to the myth was not lynched but deserved to suffer.
As ritual relives violence against the scapegoat, myth remembers it, but like ritual it does so in a hidden way since humans must know, but must not know exactly, about the violence that founds their community. All myths, according to Girard, tell in their way about the original violent situation, about the founding of community through a lynching, about the victim who according to the myth was not lynched but deserved to suffer.
Even as a culture moves away from sacrificial religion, the scapegoat mechanism and vengeance remain. Legal systems do not depend on repeated sacrificial rites to restrain violence, but even though they represent a development of rationality, they still are based upon revenge!
My Scapegoat Soaps are a study on collective violence - that has been the modus operandi for as long as the writings that influence our culture can be dated back.
A tool for freedom for the one side, a mechanism of oppression for the other.
Who becomes the scapegoat and why?
After Jungian philosophers, the “other” that is uncomfortably close to us becomes the scapegoat. They are the “shadows” - a projection screen for inner unspoken, repressed desires and needs.
The observer or truth teller will be scapegoated because they know the secret of what the other person so desperately wants to repress.
On the micro-level of a nuclear family, for example the child a) who feels all the grief that the parent doesn’t want to face is hated by them and condoned to become “the identified patient” aka the targeted source of a family system’s dysfunction — everybody in the family is okay except for child a), they carry the split of the denial of all difficult feelings — child a) as the scapegoat is the problem, it’s not the rest of the family.
Child a) being misunderstood in their sensitivity, blamed for all that is wrong in their parent’s life and outcasted of the family union, will as a result of this most probably develop symptoms of depression and anxiety or even personality disorders, continuing to attract more stigma based aggression from society as a neurodivergent (like a magnetic stamp on their forehead).
The observer or truth teller will be scapegoated because they know the secret of what the other person so desperately wants to repress.
On the micro-level of a nuclear family, for example the child a) who feels all the grief that the parent doesn’t want to face is hated by them and condoned to become “the identified patient” aka the targeted source of a family system’s dysfunction — everybody in the family is okay except for child a), they carry the split of the denial of all difficult feelings — child a) as the scapegoat is the problem, it’s not the rest of the family.
Child a) being misunderstood in their sensitivity, blamed for all that is wrong in their parent’s life and outcasted of the family union, will as a result of this most probably develop symptoms of depression and anxiety or even personality disorders, continuing to attract more stigma based aggression from society as a neurodivergent (like a magnetic stamp on their forehead).
As examples for the macro-level of a society scapegoating social groups, we have countless systemically executed genocides, committed against oppressed social groups and marginalized communities worldwide, crushing indigenous traditions.
The European witch-hunts have yet to be understood as genocide, though, despite the procedures of the upper classes checking all the boxes. The executions were directly linked to“women's resistance to the spread of capitalist relations and the power that women had gained by virtue of their sexuality, their control over reproduction, and their ability to heal” by Silivia Federici in Caliban and the witch. Capitalism turned poor women into witches, establishing mechanisms of oppressing women for free labor of child care and have them serving as the pillars of capitalism, producing more labor power to preserve the power positions of the upper class.
The people of Iran are being scapegoated right now, before our very eyes and everyone standing by them in their fight for autonomy and freedom is becoming collateral damage.
It is not about religion, it was never about religion, it’s about preservation of power of the ruling class.
It is not about religion, it was never about religion, it’s about preservation of power of the ruling class.
The choosing of the scapegoats is most often motivated by greed for dominance and power and influenced by classism, racism, antisemitism, sexism, ableism and queer-, homo- and transphobia.
How can the scapegoat free itself and take autonomy of its destiny?
How clean is the soap you use to cleanse you of your sins?
Materials and techniques
This will be the debut of an ongoing series where I am planning to set the process of externalization in motion, through building these sculptures (alone now and later collaboratively).
This will be the debut of an ongoing series where I am planning to set the process of externalization in motion, through building these sculptures (alone now and later collaboratively).
I am forging heavy steel into cutting spikes for the horns of the kid goats and the stands of the soap cubes.
I am casting the kid goats and eleven liter cubes as olive oil soaps, using a Marseillaise recipe consisting of olive oil, NaOh, distilled water and essential oils. The 70-year-old soap cubes I found at my grandmother’s house were made in similar ways, they sparked my interest in working with soap last year.
I was thinking of soaps in terms of cleansing from sins etc. which immediately stood in the darkness of negative connotations it has, especially in the German context and Nazism, the Catholic Church, European imperialism, colonial terror, witch hunts, ... I saw the poison rushing through Europe’s veins, destroying everything on the outside before poisoning the inside, how Aimé Césaire describes it in “About Colonialism”. Later, I was also seeing the caring moment of washing my best friend’s hair in the bath tub or my baby sister’s feet after playing outside. I was then also thinking of my friend Lemohang Jeremiah Mosese’s film, where the daughters are nursing their dying mother, washing and rubbing her body, face and feet as a spiritual act of care and rebirth.
I am casting the kid goats and eleven liter cubes as olive oil soaps, using a Marseillaise recipe consisting of olive oil, NaOh, distilled water and essential oils. The 70-year-old soap cubes I found at my grandmother’s house were made in similar ways, they sparked my interest in working with soap last year.
I was thinking of soaps in terms of cleansing from sins etc. which immediately stood in the darkness of negative connotations it has, especially in the German context and Nazism, the Catholic Church, European imperialism, colonial terror, witch hunts, ... I saw the poison rushing through Europe’s veins, destroying everything on the outside before poisoning the inside, how Aimé Césaire describes it in “About Colonialism”. Later, I was also seeing the caring moment of washing my best friend’s hair in the bath tub or my baby sister’s feet after playing outside. I was then also thinking of my friend Lemohang Jeremiah Mosese’s film, where the daughters are nursing their dying mother, washing and rubbing her body, face and feet as a spiritual act of care and rebirth.
A material with endless connotations of various forms.
I am adding essential oils to the recipe that serve different purposes of spirit cleansing, protection, vitalizing, etc. to bring another layer of materiality and interpretation to the work. Scent is an effective provocateur of our relational memory processes. For that, I am getting help from the Amba soap manufacture’s scent experts.
After the tradition of (political) prisoners, that I discovered in a beautiful catalog book called “prisoner’s objects” by Musée Genève in collaboration with the international red cross, I will be carving image and text into the soap cubes.
After the tradition of (political) prisoners, that I discovered in a beautiful catalog book called “prisoner’s objects” by Musée Genève in collaboration with the international red cross, I will be carving image and text into the soap cubes.
Carvings of Christian iconography of the devil, Asasel, Lilith, Snakes, freedom fighters, childhood, thorns, a poem I wrote about the two scapegoats and a poem that multimedia artist Kani Lent is writing for this occasion about the liberation movement in Iran.
Kani Lent is an artist, writer and musician living and working in Berlin. Currently they are studying fine art at University of Arts Berlin.
Kani Lent is an artist, writer and musician living and working in Berlin. Currently they are studying fine art at University of Arts Berlin.
In the future I am trying to get to work with detainees of women’s prisons on those soaps, them being the ultimate scapegoat sent to the wilderness (in the middle of our cities).
I enjoy process oriented working and want to let the traces of the process not only be visible but key to the interpretation of the final objects.