Manifestos for Queer Futures #3

Manifeste sind in Transformationsprozessen ein mächtiges Instrument. Meistens sind sie nicht aus einer einzelnen Stimme komponiert, sondern aus einer Polyfonie, die unterschiedliche Ideen, Energien und Meinungen kondensiert. Das Projekt “Manifestos for Queer Futures”, mit dem das HAU-Festival “The Present Is Not Enough – Performing Queer Histories and Futures” eröffnet wird folgt genau dieser Praxis und macht deutlich, wie wichtig es ist, sich nicht nur als Einzelne:r zu sehen. Was wir hier beobachten, ist das Bestreben vieler, ein gleiches Gemeinsam zu teilen, zu praktizieren und zu performen. Dabei wird die lebendige Dynamik kultureller Praktiken, intellektueller Kreise und affektiver Netzwerke sichtbar, die Zukunftsentwürfe aufzeigen und ein neues Potenzial alternativer Lebensentwürfe vorleben. 

Das HAU Hebbel am Ufer rief in Berlin lebende Künstler:innen dazu auf, ihre Manifeste zu einer queeren Zukunftsvision einzureichen. Aus 270 Einsendungen wurden 26 ausgewählt und werden nun auf der Bühne des HAU2 präsentiert. Die Bandbreite der Projekte ist beachtlich: von Arbeiten mit kulturellen und soziopolitischen Referenzen über aktive Beschäftigungen mit der Vergangenheit bis hin zu Visionen für eine mögliche Zukunft. 

Dies sagen die an diesem Abend beteiligten Künstler:innen über ihre Arbeiten:

Bráulio Bandeira, Nicky Miller & Stasys Žak
“Valentine Date with Space”

“‘Valentine Date with Space’ is a theme of today under the techno beats and strobing neon lights. The non-conformist bodies, the stylish Sex. Space is an element in which queer culture can reflect its future. Through a penetration into that space, we communicate to an oversexualized culture, moving to a repetitive trance that exploits the concerns of fluidity in gender on the matters of love, as if in the search for a soulmate. We morph ourselves into each other in repetitive motion and the music and dance cum as a futuristic queer manifesto.” 

Ian Kaler
“WE ARE THE CHANGE WE HAVE BEEN WAITING FOR”

“‘WE ARE THE CHANGE WE HAVE BEEN WAITING FOR’ is a re-write with excerpts from Kaler's piece LIVFE (an autobiographical fiction) and new materials. Text and performance (Kaler), live video (Imogen Heath) and music (rRoxymore) weave together present time with notions of longing and belonging, play with repetition and abstraction, associations, imaginations and fantasies of selves. As a manifesto WE ARE THE CHANGE WE HAVE BEEN WAITING FOR asks us to connect with our body_ies as condition_s that is_are joint, deeply personal, sometimes vulnerable, layered and experiential.”

Choreografische Rahmung, Text, Performance: Ian Kaler
Musik: rRoxymore
Live Video: Imogen Heath
Text-Coaching: Jane Palmer
Projektleitung: das Schaufenster

Iury Trojaborg & Ming Poon
“Mirror, mirror, here I stand. Who is the fairest in the land?“

“As what is queer today will not be queer tomorrow, we believe that a queer future must constantly re-invent itself through new strategies of resistance and production of knowledge. It does not place the dominant power at the centre of cultural knowledge and reference. It is one where we occupy the space that is rightfully ours as humans, in all our diversity and colours. We use the mirror as a symbol of our resistance and a call to self-awakening.” 

Konzept und Performance: Iury Trojaborg und Ming Poon
Musik: Canto de Oxum von Vinicius de Moraes and Toquinho (1979)

Candice Nembhard
“The Morning After Love”

“‘The Morning After Love’ is a cinepoetry project by writer, performance artist, and poet, Candice Nembhard. Combining spoken word and cinema, the short film examines the aftermath of a brief romance between an Afro-Caribbean woman and her Afro-Deutsche lover. In the hours following their short affair, the two women explore whether or not there is true love after lust.” 

Regie & Drehbuch: Candice Nembhard
Director of Photography: Mona Schlegel
Assistenz Director of Photography: Esther Heller
Editor & Post Production: Katrina Singleton
Mit: Candice Nembhard und Shelly Phillips
Musik: Shelly Phillips

Sanni Est
“Photophobia”

“‘Photophobia’ is a sound ritual by singer, composer and producer Sanni Est that incites the urgency of ressignifying eurocentric cultural and academic values from an afro-futuristic, trans:inclusive feminine perspective. Making use of sound manipulation and visual art, the 9-minute performance aims at to evoke an alternative perception of knowledge, once freed from the surety bond of the colonizer.”

Konzept, Research, Text, Musik, Visuals: Sanni Est
Musikvideo “Brain Damage“: Valquire Veljkovic

PAUSE

Jao Moon
“The Lifetime of Fire”

“It’s a ritual where a bunch of candles are lit on the head of a naked body, moving in circles, while the melted candles are falling on the body of the performer, the wax is leaving their marks on the skin, showing the pain and the pleasure when burning it. This sadomasochistic act is a metaphor of burning the norm. What really interests me is to decolonize our ancestral memory, deconstruct our traditions, break them, expose the cracks, questioning and pointing out the normativity.”

Konzept und Performance: Jao Moon

Jeremy Wade
“THE CARETAKER”

“The following performance is an excerpt from the first ten minutes of ‘The Clearing’, a one hour forty-five-minute solo recently created and performed by Wade with live music by Marc Lohr exploring five different characters engaging in technologies of impossible repair. In the rehearsal process Wade and his collaborators called tonight’s excerpt ‘The Caretaker’ and built a series of hallucinatory procedures around this figure for the work of dismantling reality, evoking solidarity and addressing the forces / structures that are making us sick. The Caretaker’s work is to write new myths and narratives so that future clearings might occur.”

Von und mit: Jeremy Wade
Musik: Marc Lohr

Ania Nowak
“To the Aching Parts! (Manifesto)”

“To the Aching Parts! (Manifesto)” dreams about a cure for the ill systems of body politics, soothing your chronic pain, autoimmune disattachment and chemical imbalance. In sickness and in health.”

Text und Performance: Ania Nowak
Sound: Justyna Stasiowska
Outside eye: Julia Rodríguez

Cointreau On Ice
“Laudatio”

“Cointreau On Ice wurde aus dem Bedürfnis heraus gegründet, in kollektiver Arbeitsweise experimentelle Performances zu entwickeln, die einer Öffentlichkeit queere Lebensrealitäten vermitteln und für die Performer:innen Subversion und Selbstermächtigungsgesten darstellen. Zwischen Rap, Dance, Lip Sync und politischer Rede nutzen sie im HAU die Form der ‘Laudatio’, um heteronormative Vorstellungen von Geschlechterrollen in Frage zu stellen.”

Von und mit: Claudio Campo Garcia, Johanna Köster, Justin Mamat, Sita Messer, Gregor Schuster, Meo Wulf