“Männlich Weiß Hetero – A Festival about Privilege” examines the power position of a figure described in cultural studies as the “white heterosexual man”. For a long time this figure had the privilege of being the standardized “user surface” of Western society. The starting point for the series is the theatre piece “Straight White Men” by Young Jean Lee. The American dramatist and director conceived her performance as “straight” – as thoroughly conventional. Her object of study is a group of male protagonists. The renowned director Luk Perceval and international performers such as Mamela Nyamza, Ana Borralho & João Galante or Thabiso Heccius Pule & Hector Thami Manekehla will expand on the theme, posing the question of whether we are really witnessing a crisis of the melancholy heterosexual male subject – or whether its tenacity doesn't in fact consist in its very ability to permanently cast doubt on itself and reflect on itself. Contributions by the choreographers Marlene Freitas, Josep Caballero García and Andros Zins-Browne as well as the visual artist Frances Stark and the musician Jens Friebe will counter the hegemony of the heteronormative paradigm with exciting strategies of selfempowerment of previously marginalized life plans. The same goes for the discussion programme created in collaboration with Missy Magazine.
Accompanying "Männlich Weiß Hetero. A Festival about Privilege," this edition of the HAU Hebbel am Ufer publication series features texts by Stefanie Lohaus (Missy Magazine), Young Jean Lee, Chris Kondeck, Josep Caballero Garcia, Thabiso Heccius Pule, Ana Borralho and João Galante, Öszlem Topçu, Hector Thami Manekehla, Annemie Vanackere ... and a series of images showing men fighting snakes, bats, communists, killer ants, Nazis and what not!
