Symposium: The Other Queers

For a long time, queer cinema, queer art, queer activism, even queer life, were considered as existing predominantly in the “West” and, in Central and Eastern Europe (CEE), as well as Central Asia (CA), thus imported after the end of socialism. While the truth is, non-heteronormativity and queer cinematic images have always been part of the cultural landscape on Europe’s “periphery”. As part of this year’s Cinema Archipelago motto UN:RECOGNIZED the curators Jasmina Šepetavc and Yulia Serdyukova bring together marginalized yet rebelliously vital queer artistic images from the different CEE and CA countries, while engaging critically with the concept of “Eastern/post-socialist queerness”: What is it exactly? Is it an imitation of “Western” frameworks or something different, multiple, potentially disruptive? In lectures, discussions, an exhibition, a performance, four feature-length films and five short film programs, artists, filmmakers, activists and scholars explore their unique kinds of queerness in the temporal dimensions of the past, present and future. As diverse as they are, all program items of the symposium draw from the potential of queer art to imagine different, better and more just futures and societies.

Short film programmes

PRECARIOUS JOY
POSTSOCIALIST TIME SLIPS
POST-YUGOSLAV QUEERNESS
NAKED BODIES, BARED SOULS: QUEER FEMINIST PORN
RENEGADE JOY TILL THE END OF THE WORLD: QUEER / SUBVERSIVE CINEMA FROM UKRAINE

More information on the short film programmes can be found here.

Lectures & Discussions

Museum Wiesbaden Fr, 26.04. until Sun, 28.04.
in English
Admission free

FRIDAY 26.04.
10:00 – 11:00 LECTURE
Memory, Resistance and (In)Visibility: Queer Cinema in the Region of Former Yugoslavia
with: Anamarija Horvat (UK)

11:30 – 13:00 PANEL DISCUSSION
Queer Art, Film, and Activism: A Look from Our Side
with Galka Yarmanova (Ukraine/Deutschland), Tea Hvala (Slowenien), Antonija Stojanović Almesberger (Kroatien)
Moderation: Mariam Agamian (Ukraine/Deutschland)

SATURDAY 27.04.
10:00 – 11:00 LECTURE
Queering the Yugoslav Fifties
with: Nebojša Jovanović (Bosnien-Herzegowina)

11:30 – 13:00 PANEL DISCUSSION
Queer Archives and Festivals as Memory Agents
with: Augustas Čičelis (Litauen), Viktorija Kolbešnikova (Litauen), Olena S. Dmytryk (Ukraine/UK), Călin Boto (Rumänien)
Moderation: Jasmina Šepetavc (Slowenien)

SUNDAY 28.04.
10:00 – 11:00 LECTURE
Utopian Disidentifications – Pleasure, Critique and the Future in Queer Art
with: Katja Čičigoj (Österreich/Slowenien)

11:30 – 13:00 PANEL DISCUSSION
“This world is not enough”: Queer Utopianism as a Tool of Political Transformation
with: Ira Tantsiura (Ukraine), lucine talayan (Armenien), Ruthia Jenrbekova (Almaty/Wien), Ton Melnyk (Ukraine)
Moderation: Yulia Serdyukova (Ukraine)

Political Textile: An exhibition by TON MELNYK and MASHA RAVLYK

Exhibition opening and conversation with the authors: Murnau Thu, 25.04. / 18:15 (in English)
Opening hours: 26.-29. April 16:00-22:00

The exhibition Political Textile by Ton Melnyk and Masha Ravlyk offers a number of textile works created using different techniques – sewing and applique from upcycled fabrics, embroidery and painting. It reflects on experiences of queer people from Ukraine facing the existential horror of the war. The exhibition consists of three works: Anti-war Textile Banners – Homage to Maria Prymachenko, made after the series of works dedicated to World War II by the 20th-century Ukrainian artist; Textile Book of Items From an Emergency Bag, which illustrates the process of collecting things to take with you when leaving home, probably forever; and Anti-war Embroidery made after a child’s drawing.

Lecture Performance: LAYING EGGS AS ARTISTIC PRACTICE

Murnau Thu, 25.04. / 19:45
in English

Today’s world is torn apart by practices of othering based on skin colour, language, income and so on. But nothing divides humans more than different ideologies of reproduction and doctrines of gender and sexuality. In this situation, laying eggs is transformed from a mere bodily act into a controversial statement challenging public morality. What can it mean for us? Ruthia Jenrbekova and Maria Vilkovisky from krёlex zentre will try to answer this in their mini-lecture.