The Present Is Not Enough - Performing Queer Histories and Futures 20.-30.6.2019 - Hebbel am Ufer
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The Present Is Not Enough Performing Queer Histories and Futures HAU 20.–30.6.2019
The photo series in this newspaper shows pictures from the Berlin of the Weimar
Republic. You can see activists, artists and theoreticians of this time.
The Present Is Not Enough
Performing Queer Histories and Futures
20.–30.6.2019 / HAU1, HAU2, HAU3, Schwules Museum Berlin
2019 marks the 50th anniversary of the The present is not enough – as long as people
Stonewall uprising. In 1969 a group of people outside of cis and heteronormative structures
from New York’s LGBTIQ community took a stand are still arrested, persecuted and killed. Queer-
against constant police raids, thereby triggering ness can be understood as a vision for the fu-
a new liberation movement and initiating the ture. The time to come will be determined by its
fight for legal and social rights in the USA. 2019 people and their actions, which are already
also marks the 100th anniversary of the Insti- showing today the potential for a queer future.
tute for Sexual Research, which was founded by
the German theoretician Magnus Hirschfeld. As part of the festival, HAU initiated an open call
Starting from these two major historical events, for artists based in Berlin, who were invited to
HAU Hebbel am Ufer presents an interdisciplinary submit proposals for the Manifestos for Queer
festival focusing on the notion of queer tempo- Futures. 270 artists replied to the open call, and
rality. The festival analyzes both political and 26 were selected and will be presented on the
artistic histories as a basis for the outline of fu- stage of HAU2. The spectrum of projects covers
ture scenarios as well as the active shaping of a wide range, from works with cultural and so-
a queer present. cio-political references, active examinations of
the past, to visions of a possible future.
Which narratives are still missing when we ad-
dress queer history/histories? With this festival,
HAU offers a contribution to the politics of mem-
ory by presenting artistic positions from diverse
countries which have been underrepresented in
mainstream discourse until now.
“The Present Is Not Enough – Performing Queer Histories
and Futures”. A festival by HAU Hebbel am Ufer. Funded
by the German Federal Cultural Foundation.
“Refusal of the Present” by Ricardo Carmona 4
“Public against our will?” by Ewa Majewska 9
“The 4 lessons Eastern Europe teaches us about tectonic shifts “Manifestos for Queer Futures”. A project by HAU Hebbel
am Ufer. Supported within the framework of the Alliance
at global LGBT+ frontlines” by Maxim Eristavi 13
of International Production Houses by the Federal
“2021” by Jota Mombaça 21 Government Commissioner for Culture and the Media.
Karl Giese, archivist and museum curator, partner of Magnus Hirschfeld. Manifestos for Queer Futures 24
Programme “The Present Is Not Enough” 26
Cover image: Transgender people in front of the entrance to the Institut für Sexualwissenschaft, during the First International Conference for
Sexual Reform on the Basis of Sexual Science, 1921.
heteronormative structures. A video installa- capsulate identities. Identities are fixed norms. acted upon queer people. It is an effective re-
Refusal
tion by Carlos Motta articulates this question How is it possible for queer people to fulfill and fusal of the present, a demand for something
through the testimonies of queer refugees. follow norms when these norms were struc- else.
The present also demands an ongoing action tured by politics whose principle is precisely
of complaining, a queer method, as we will the exclusion of queerness from that set of This act of refusal is also present in Mamela
hear in Sarah Ahmed’s lecture. norms? Nyamza’s work, as it questions the notions of
privilege in contemporary society. An installa-
Queer people navigate the world between sit- Theorist José Esteban Munõz writes: “Queer- tion and performance by Jota Mombaça,
uations of invisibility and hypervisibility. Travis ness is not yet here. Queerness is an ideality. which is accompanied by a text in this publica-
Alabanza speaks eloquently about this reality Put another way, we are not yet queer. We tion, speak from a place of critical futurity,
when speaking about his experience of walking may never touch queerness, but we can feel is where it is not a question of when and how
of the
in public spaces. Maria Kulikovska’s sculp- as the warm illumination of a horizon imbued things will get worse, but how to build strate-
tures and videos show the violence perpetu- with potentiality. [...] Queerness is essentially gies and active networks to go through the tur-
ated upon female bodies, and her resistance about the rejection of a here and now and an bulent times in front of us.
against forgetting such acts. Maxim Eristavi insistence on potentiality or concrete possi-
writes an article, which is also published here, bility for another world.” “The Present Is Not Enough” is hopefully a spe-
about the urgency and need to change the pre- cial event which participates and contributes
sent and asks not to accept that changes to- The festival takes queerness as a tool to con- to a vaster and common discourse in Berlin as
wards equality “just take time,” as many say. sider and rehearse futures. Future in this sense a city of present and possible queer futures.
is not linked to an idle wish for things to be-
Queerness is an ever-fleeting concept, an on- come better. It emerges from the indignation Ricardo Carmona (curator)
going becoming, which is why it doesn’t en- one feels upon the visible and violent harm and the HAU Hebbel am Ufer team
Present
Because I lived in Portugal for a long time, one ject “Manifestos for Queer Futures” that of time. In a text presented in this publication,
seminal episode always comes to my mind opens the HAU festival “The Present is not Ewa Majewska writes about archival activism.
when looking back at queer history. The fascist enough. Performing Queer Histories and Fu- In the same spirit, Karol Radziszewski’s pro-
regime ended in Portugal on the night of April tures” follows up on this practice and states ject deals with queer archives from central and
24, 1974. On May 1st, placards were seen at the importance of not to be a single being. eastern Europe. The documentary films pro-
the demonstrations demanding “Freedom for What we witness is a group endeavor of a mul- duced by Mária Takács show the living condi-
homosexuals.” A few days later a manifesto titude that shares, acts, and performs a shared tions of lesbians and gays in Hungary before
was published in two national newspapers common. And that demonstrates a living dy- 1989. Mehdi-Georges Lahlou also traces his
bearing the title “Freedom for sexual minori- namic of cultural practices, intellectual circuits, queer cultural history, going back as far as the
ties.” After these events, a general of the army and affective networks that travel across time, Islamic medieval period. At the opening con-
that controlled the political transition went on imagine futures, and enact the potentiality of cert, Jam Rostron aka Planningtorock tells
national television to say that the revolution living differently. us how a personal timeline mirrors social tran-
was not fought for the benefit of prostitutes sitions. Michał Borczuch’s new creation re-
and homosexuals. It looked like freedom was The many works of this festival navigate flects upon the AIDS crisis in Poland.
not meant for everyone. I would like to bend through time and space; they take the shape of
time and go back to 1974 and say to that gen- performances, exhibitions, installations, and Through the work of these artists, the festival
eral: “we say revolution.” documentary films. The group Moved by the does not only trace the queer past, its memory
Motion (Wu Tsang & boychild with Patrick Be- and archive, but also reflects upon and con-
Manifestos are a powerful medium for transfor- laga, Josh Johnson, and Asma Maroof) refer- nects with the present.
mation. They are often not the product of one ences the 18th century “phantasmagoria” the-
single voice, but of a polyphony that con- ater using projections that echo stories of It asks how to face the absolute violence em-
denses ideas, energies, and opinions. The pro- trauma and resistance across, through, and out bedded in the relation between queer and cis- Costume party at the Institut für Sexualwissenschaft, 1920.
4 5
“My belief is that one cannot wish for
Artists’ thoughts on the question: the future without firstly looking back
“what are your wishes for the future?” on the past experiences with honesty
and credibility, and learn from those
experiences, in order to further improve
one’s current situation and the future.
“I want a future where things are less binary. My wish for the future is to work on this
Less good and bad. Less male and female. Less question: how can the democratic
stagnant – allowing room for us to be far more government of South Africa ensure
complicated, messy, and complex than we are that it also prioritizes arts, culture,
and heritage in the same breadth as
currently allowed to be. A world where failure they do with issues of education and
is expected, not punished. Where we can exist, health, for example. Because the arts
and change, and be – without fear of violence, are the heartbeats of this nation.”
and with a guarantee of care.” Mamela Nyamza
Travis Alabanza
Above: Women smoking in men’s clothing.
Below: Counselling of a transgender
woman by Felix Abraham, a pioneer of
early sexology.
“The future is a contested ground when
you live in a body and in a way that are not
part of a normative-colonial futurity. My
wishes for the future are concerned with
dismantling futurity as a privilege, and with
breaking the industries that hold the
imagination captive. They are about leading
into a proliferation of futures crafted and
enacted by all those from whom the future “History keeps repeating itself, and the old demons we thought we have
was stolen.” got rid of for good are coming back. I would like us to be able to draw
lessons and inspirations from our common past, so that changes would
Jota Mombaça follow. For the better, more open and fearless future.”
Karol Radziszewski
6 7
Public
against
our will?
The caring gaze of Leviathan, the “pink files” from
1980s Poland, and the issue of privacy.
Before “Hiacynt” the homosexual share of the Polish population was
practically invisible to the state. Between 1985 and 1987 extensive po-
lice and secret service operations were carried out under this flowery
name in order to control the “unknown” share of gay men in the popu-
lation. Cultural philosopher Ewa Majewska visited the archive and read
the files again. In her essay she explains what role the private sphere
plays for queers in Poland and what it has to do with state “care”.
“Privacy is the Oz of America” concerns, while the excluded are exposed in a tute of National Remembrance), conducted in
Lauren Berlant, “The subject of true feeling” variety of ways, from a forced publicity to seg- April and June of 2015. This account is embed-
regation, marginalization, and discrimination . ded in a wider investigation concerning the is-
Becoming public1 The gay population of the People’s Republic of sue of queering the archives – which I under-
The image of the public sphere reproduced in Poland enjoyed almost complete invisibility, stand as not only a production of grassroots
liberal media and political theory, academia with the exception of some key cultural figures archives of sexual minorities, but also as a
and to some extent also in art most often sug- in the 1950s and 1960s, who were investi- transformative critique of the modus operandi
gests that becoming public is not only harm- gated by the secret services. This changed of the existing state archives. In doing so, I crit-
less, but should also be seen as highly reward- with the sudden decision of the Headquarters ically address the issue of the archive, in the
ing . From the perspective of those who are ex- of the Polish police (MO) in Warsaw to examine form shaped by the Foucauldian “critique of
cluded, oppressed and marginalized, the public the population of homosexual men in the fall the repression hypothesis”.
sphere is not merely a blissful confrontation of 1985, in a nation-wide action called “Hia-
with common matters, but is also a zone of cynt”,which was repeated in 1986 and 1987. Zitat: “From the perspective of those who are ex-
privilege, in which those who are allowed to In this text I will give a brief account of the “Hi- cluded, oppressed and marginalized, the public
enter it enjoy the possibility of expressing their acynt” operations, based on my archival re- sphere is not merely a blissful confrontation with
political interests and sharing their political search at the state archives of the IPN (Insti- common matters, but is also a zone of privilege.”
The sculptor Renee Sintenis and girlfriend. 9A la recherche des archives perdus. The tioned on November 15, 1985 alone. Wit- of the time, but also a desire to control the Interestingly, some form of resistance can be issued by the Warsaw General Police Head- without acknowledging its always already in-
“Hiacynt” operations files. nesses claim that some 11.000 men were in- “unknown” population of gay men. found also in the police files. In a small town quarters. In Białystok, on the other hand, it terrelated character, depending on the con-
“Hiacynt” is the name of 3 police and secret vestigated . The main objectives of the “Hia- called Police and three other small towns near seems that the police re-opened the files of un- text, including our own embodiment, historical
services operations in Poland, lasting approxi- cynt” operations, as defined in the documents On October 14, 1985 a “Framework of the Na- Szczecin, the police refused solved crimes against ho- and cultural conditions as well as the econ-
mately 48 hours each, conducted in 1985, issued by the headquarters of the police in tionwide Operation ” had been is- to conduct the “Hiacynt” op- mosexual men and actually omy. The Polish state often employs the caring
“”Gay activists
1986 and 1987. It is impor- Warsaw, were: to investi- sued by the headquarters of Polish police in eration, because – as they performed some police logic of protecting our privacy, neglecting the
tant to remember, that the gate homosexual circles, to Warsaw and signed by its vice-chief, general wrote in their notes, “no ho-
remember violence, work. There is no mention of fact that society should be allowed to investi-
“From the per-
archives of the Polish police register homosexual prosti- Zenon Trzcinski. In this framework we find a mosexual milieu was de- arrests and threats, any “registering” of gay men gate the clear cases of the state’s abuses of
spective of those
and almost 90% of the se- tutes, to establish knowl- general description of the aims, strategies, tac- tected in our region” . This yet the state did in that region, however we power. Gay activists remember violence, ar-
cret services were de- who are excluded, edge about possible AIDS tics, etc. of an action that was planned to be- might simply mean laziness must remember that the IPN rests and threats, yet the state did not con-
not condemn its
stroyed, differently from, for oppressed and mar- cases and to learn more gin at 8.00am on Nov. 15, 1985 and should be or insubordination, but per- files are generally incom- demn its past actions. It is thus an element of
past actions.”
example, their equivalents in ginalized, the public about these young men, in- terminated at 12.00 midnight on Nov. 16, haps it was more than that – plete . “archivist justice” and research ethics to de-
the Czech Republic or East cluding those who appar- 1985. Clearly the logic of the supposedly com- a sudden act of refusal bas- mand recognition for those targeted in actions
sphere is not merely
Germany, which were mostly ently became homosexuals munist Leviathan is a “caring” one. The first ed on decency? The chief of Privacy became a vital ele- such as “Hiacynt” as well as to pressure state
preserved. At the time the
a blissful confronta- while fleeing the country, reason given to legitimize the action is the lack police in Szczecin demanded to register all gay ment of the popular image of a “good life”, and institutions to assume their responsibility for
Polish state was composed tion with common etc. The initial document of success in solving murder cases in which the men in Szczecin, which led to a list of 450 men as such, it is obviously and nostalgically drawn them.
of 49 regions. The IPN ar- matters, but is also starting the “Hiacynt” oper- victims were homosexual. The state does in 1985 and 550 in the consecutive years. from a highly improbable and definitely inac-
chives provided me with in- a zone of privi- ation of 1986 specified that therefor not prohibit homosexual acts, but pro- Such registration of gay men was not men- cessible idyllic “past”. We are somehow “nos-
formation on only 9 of them. the operations initiated in it vides guidance and care. In line with Foucault’s tioned as a necessary task in the documents talgic” about privacy and do fantasize about it
lege..”
should not concern individ- somehow ironic narrative from The Society
The data from the IPN uals already under supervi- must be Defended, the Polish state’s agents This text is part of a larger discussion concerning resistance against the constantly changing apparatuses of sovereign power, recently acqui-
archive addressing the “Hia- sion by the Secret Services, also tried to “care” for their citizens, to protect ring surprisingly “caring” and “maternal” aspects, as opposed to the pater familias figure of the Roman law and pre-modern times . While the
cynt” operations should not be seen as the which most certainly means the political op- them in classically “pastoral” ways . caring aspects of state power have been analyzed at length since Foucault and his theory of bio-power, we still need a revision of the archive
sole source of information on these events. Ac- position. It actually seems that there was a practice from a feminist and queer perspective. This is an abbreviated version of a long article published in Queer Studies Journal Interalia in
cording to gay activists, some 3000 people genuine concern about “AIDS” and the un- 2017, please do consider reading it, too: http://interalia.org.pl/index_pdf.php?lang=en&klucz=&produkt=1513287939-283
were taken to the police stations and ques- solved criminal cases within the police forces
1
I would like to thank Agata Lisiak, Baruch Gottlieb, Robert Kulpa and to Claudia Peppel for the invitation to the conference Can we have some Privacy?, at the ICI Berlin (7-8 May 2015),
where the first version of this paper was presented.
2
J. Habermas, The Structural Transformation of the Public Sphere. An Inquiry into a Category of. Bourgeois Society, Massachussetts: MIT Press, 1989.
3
See: W. Montag and M. Hill, Masses, Classes and the Public Sphere (London: Verso, 2005); b. hooks, Feminist Theory: From Margin to Center (New York: south end press, 1984)
and M. Gatens, Privacy and the Body. The Privacy of the Affect, in: B. Rossler (ed), Privacies: Philosophical Evaluations (Stanford: Stanford University Press, 2004), pp 113-132.
4
Documents of the IPN: KR 0105/85 and KR I 020/87.
5
P. Kurpios, Poszukiwani, poszukiwane. Geje i lesbijki a rzeczywistość PRL, in: Magdalena Parus-Jaskułowska and Anna Stabrowska (eds), Kultura i społeczeństwo PRL,
Wydawnictwo Uniwersytetu Wrocławskiego, Wroclaw 2001.
6
M. Foucault, Society must be defended, Lectures at the Collège de France, 1975-1976, Picador, New York, 1997.
7
IPN documents : KR 04381.85; KR I 03363/85 and L.dz. 02229/85.
8
IPN documents: IPN Bi 445/15 19/5, KR III 154/ 85, KRIII 355/87, KR I 01829/87.
9
M. Foucault, Discipline and Punish (New York: Pantheon Books, 1977 [1975]) and M. Foucault, “Society Must Be Defended”, New York: Picador, 2003.
“One day we will wake up in an amazing world
of beauty, freedom, love for every dust of
the universe. Cruelty, lies, fears, eating each
other, poverty, power, hierarchy, inequality
will be unknown horror tales from the past.
The telepathic exchange of thoughts and ideas
will have replaced all electronics. We will
have saved our planet, and left it for it.”
Berlin bar for lesbian women. Maria Kulikovska
10 11The 4 lessons
Eastern Europe
teaches us
about tectonic
shifts at
global LGBT+
frontlines
Maxim Eristavi, an openly queer journalist from Ukraine, observes
how LGBTIQ* communities expand safe space locally. At the same
time, with regard to all of Eastern Europe he has to state: In the age
of globalization, digitalization, worldwide waves of migration and
transnational hate movements the suppression of LBGTIQ* lives is
becoming more and more complex. He therefore calls for a new
tactic in the struggle for equal rights: wider in scope, international
and intersectional.
Berlin, “Eldorado” bar at the corner of Motzstrasse and Kalckreuthstrasse. 13“Transborder Hate Movements” is new, but over- In 2017–18 I was part of the global awareness jikistan in 2017–19 have been denied asylum or
looked phenomenon of internationally organi- outreach bringing the stories of Chechen gay po- visa requests by Western governments at least
zed effort by vast spectrum of hate groups utili- grom victims (predominantly of Muslim minority, once.
zing politics and disinformation to trump equa- too) to light and briefed a number of foreign go-
lity movements all across emerging democra- vernments and diplomats, including members of Third, repressive regimes exploit international
cies. Take World Congress of Families (WCF) – the U.S. Congress. I faced a surprising knowledge policing law for more effective anti-queer op-
once a fringe club of the American conservati- gap among some key officials when it comes to pression.
ves, has now emerged as everyday life of queer com-
well-organized and influen- “The global fight munities from Global South. I’ve been documenting dozens of cases in the re-
tial global force. Through this Specifically, some found it cent year telling the same story: from Turkey to
against homopho-
well-funded organization, puzzling that LGBT+ victims Russia, authoritarian states got much better at
anti-equality groups from all
bia won't be winna- from more community-ori- abusing international anti-terrorism laws in the
around the world have disco- ble without addres- ented Muslim cultures find it hunt for those running from the terror. Take for
vered the power of organi- sing those hate impossible to sever ties with example the Chechen authorities in Southern
zing in the international groups, based in their families and are entan- Russia who logged more Interpol ‘red notices’
arena. They codify their ideo- gled in opposite-sex marria- than Americans and Chinese combined. Most of
the Global North.”
logy into regressive laws and ges serving more complex those accuse the suspects of terrorism and ISIS
policies for global export. The role than similar forced mar- links, including the victims of the 2017 gay po-
organization is not alone in riages of LGBT+ individuals in groms. If you are a Russian, Turkish or Azeri dis-
this international crusade and it is important to the Global North. Dealing with hundreds of cases sident or oppressed minority person seeking re-
acknowledge that global fight against homo- of Muslim dissidents, including queer refugees, I fuge in the West, you know that the internatio-
phobia won't be winnable without fully addres- keep hearing the same story of how they get re- nal policing system has been rigged for years.
sing those pockets of well-organized hate jected asylum because of a failure on behalf of
groups, based in the Global North. Western authorities to understand what is like Forth, we can’t ignore the role of disinformation
to be a queer person in a Muslim-dominated or weaponizing identity politics anymore.
Second, intensifying global migration reshapes non-Western communities. As a result, this
the portrait of a queer refugee and our migration knowledge gap resulted in misguided or some-
policies aren’t ready for it. times damaging asylum and migration policies –
In the transgender bar “Eldorado” in Motzstrasse. most victims running from gay pogroms in Mus-
lim-dominated Southern Russia, Azerbaijan, Ta-
If I had a euro every time someone would com- the region, I see safe space for my people expan- These conflicting developments of the last de-
pare my frontline fight for civil rights equality ding. cade tell us a story of fundamental changes hap-
with the Western successes and assure that ‘it pening at all global frontlines for LGBT+ equality.
just takes time.’ We deal with the same dichotomy all around Four main lessons stand out.
“Today it is difficult or dangerous to have any wishes for the
Eastern Europe. future. Everything changes fantastically quickly. We should pray
Back in 2015 I did an interview “But I don’t want First, globalization has forever transformed that this future will be at all. Pray? But to whom? I come from
with inspirational Edgars to wait 30 years, On one hand, extreme anti- frontline battles for civil rights equality.
Rinkēvičs, the Latvian foreign queer policies by Russian a very Catholic country, but it also changes. I wish the churches
I want to live my
minister, the first and only President Putin contribute I like to tell the story of the 2018 Kyiv Pride, to be only beautiful ruins, deserted interiors, visited without
openly gay cabinet member in life now.” to the rising violence when a sizeable group of American conservative
the post-Soviet space. He deli- against LGBT+ communi- protesters tried to prevent me and other mar-
specific emotions. The same applies to shopping malls. I wish
vered the same line, though, ties in the region. In the chers from accessing the event’s area. They re- to work less and travel more often. Meet fewer people but get
saying ‘the progress will probably take 20–30 worst regional outbreak since the World War II, vealed to me that they’ve traveled from Pitts-
years’. I remember I suddenly snapped: ‘but I the 2017–2019 ‘gay pogroms’ in Russian region burgh, PA to protect ‘traditional Ukrainians from
to know them more intensively. I wish the technological progress
don’t want to wait 30 years, I want to live my life of Chechnya left dozens executed in extrajudi- Western homosexual conspiracy.’ From Ukraine of our civilization to be slower but the emotional development
now.’ cial manner or disappeared in government se- to Uganda, and from Brazil to Taiwan, a frontline to be faster.”
cret prisons, hundreds were subjected to brutal fighter for queer equality faces bigger set of
The history proved us both wrong: things got torture. On the other hand, a number of popular
worse and better, at the same time. uprisings against Russian-backed kleptocracy
challenges, than an activist from the global
North would during early stages of LGBT+ move- Michał Borczuch
brought a civilizational U-turn towards the Euro- ments. Rising power of international homopho-
Despite unprecedented LGBT+ visibility and le- pean Union integration and greater political will bic groups and their export of disinformation
gacy of public figures like Rinkēvičs, Latvia has for adopting progressive legislation. For exam- messages places enormous pressure on indige- “A slower and greener world, more time and love for each other.
never delivered more equality and been sliding ple, the region’s only anti-discrimination laws nous human rights movements around the More balanced social circumstances for the people. And their own
in LGBT+ rankings ever since. But back in my protecting queer citizens were passed by globe.
homeland Ukraine, public queer events broke Ukraine, Georgia and Moldova as a conditionality cultural house for the Hungarian LGBTQ community in Budapest.”
free of violence and now attract thousands and, for a free trade deal with the EU.
as the only openly queer journalist coming from Mária Takács
14 15As we learn more about growing wave of disin- zed disinformation campaigns. As the latter has nutshell, Ukraine is a good illustration of the sta-
formation campaigns, including those designed become instrumental in launching discrimina- sis that plagued most emerging democracies:
and deployed by the Kremlin, one thing stands tion efforts against queer communities – lear- global proliferation of identity politics brought
out – the anti-equality message is a core part of ning more about how disinformation works and more visibility for minorities, but it has also po-
it. The concept that sexual supporting independent jour- larized public debate and locked pro-equality le-
or gender diversity is an nalism are now officially part gislation in a logjam. While the Kyiv Pride in
“Most victims run-
‘alien Western concept’ is of the newly-emerged inter- Ukraine emerges as the biggest pride event in
now a strengthening ideo- ning from gay po- sectional toolbox for addres- Eastern Europe and the visibility of local queer
logy binding millions from groms have been sing LGBT+ discrimination. community is at historic high, legislative process
Russia to the US and from denied asylum or for any LGBT+ protection has been dead for ye-
Brazil to Uganda. The Rus- I want to end in Ukraine, which ars. Many queer Ukrainians seek dignity and ful-
visa requests by
sian disinformation cam- grabbed recent headlines filment of their basic rights abroad (as I did my-
paigns pioneered it in late
Western govern- with fascinating presidential self marrying my partner, also a Ukrainian, in
2000s with the ‘Gayrope’ ments at least elections bringing landslide Denmark last year), which only fuels an ongoing
concept portraying homose- once.” victory for anti-establishment brain drain of colossal proportions.
xuality as a Western conspi- comedian. Despite being a ‘li-
racy to undermine Russian beral’ ticket and a darling Nowadays, state policies are just not enough to
President Vladimir Putin as a among young voters, Presi- make the pivot towards LGBT+ equality sustai-
self-proclaimed defender of conservative moral dent-elect Volodymyr Zelensky have utilized ho- nable. Reimagining our frontline tactics, making
values. The narrative is designed to help Putin to mophobic and misogynist tropes in his comedy it them intersectional, seeking broader groups
justify neocolonial expansion into neighboring before and avoided backing LGBT+ equality in of allies – including abroad and among transbor-
countries and preserving regional kleptocracies his campaign. der businesses – a combination of all it is some-
under the façade of protecting ‘a civilizational thing I believe will break the mold.
block.’ We can’t blame politicians only: for example, just
1% of Ukrainians would accept a queer person The first step, though, is to let go an outdated
There’s no coincidence that the societies where to their families, according to a recent poll. Ho- notion that LGBT+ progress ‘just takes time.’
institutions of journalism are weakened or sup- wever, lack of political leadership and weaponi-
pressed are among the most affected by organi- zed identity politics make it much worse. In this
Maxim Eristavi is a Ukrainian-Georgian journalist and fellow at the Atlantic Council.
16 Group around Magnus Hirschfeld.2021
In Jota Mombaça’s journal entries – less a dystopia than a poetic
description of the status quo – the hierarchy of the world above and
below materializes. In secrecy, in the labyrinths of tunnels, accom-
panied by sadness and constant losses, those present have to rely
on their instincts, therefore holding on even more to community.
November, the 21st. 2021 the sound of our breaths, by the vibration that lose everything.
WE LOST EVERYTHING AGAIN. This is the third passes through our skins and reverberates in
time this has happened since the time has each and everyone. We also read the tunnels November, the 22nd. 2021
come. The days are long, almost eternal. We this way. Every aspect of this unusual geogra- WE ARE TIRED. We no longer know how to
walk indefinitely through the tunnels, we have phy speaks to us. The humidity, the smells, the count the time because, here below, nothing
been thrown out from everywhere, always in sound of the creatures that are also here, just ever dawns. I am writing this desperate journal
the shade, always together. Down here, the vi- as that black, almost purple light that from while pressing my left temple with my finger-
bration of the world can be disturbing. There time to time emerges from a deep place of the tips, looking for some sign or telepathic event
are those among us who still dream of return- earth and floods everything, illuminating it all that will allow me to pass on anything about
ing to the surface, some dream of taking the without becoming visible. Whenever we lose us. I’m not asking for help. Most of us refuse the
world back and restoring the integrity it everything, the light comes and enters and idea of being saved, for we know that the
seemed to have had before. There are also, stays our bodies, as well as in the very struc- world – or at least the world as we know it –
among us, those who mock the nostalgics, in- ture of all tunnels. holds no hope for us. What I seek when I try to
sisting that the world, after all, has never been tune my mind to any other mind up there is a
wholesome and that somehow we have al- “To lose everything” is the expression we use way of disturbing the peace that buries us, to
ways been here. when one of us dies. We stop saying “die” be- invade the pacified consciousness of those
cause, after all, we have all been dead since who live above us and to shake it with the pain
We have always been here, indeed. The tunnels the first bomb... and even long before, since the that we are made of.
which we now live in were made by the first very first slave ship, when our lives were all
ones of us who traveled through this territory marked as part of a single undifferentiated We are tired and we are also furious. There are
– enslaved people, fleeing from the lashes of mass of death-in-life. As the living-dead, some moments when we desire so firmly the aboli-
those who claimed to be their masters. Over of us like to identify as Zombies. We are, in fact, tion of all things done through our social death
the years, the paths have been opening up and Zombies because, strictly speaking, we are nei- that we feel the earth to start trembling
multiplying, like an underground labyrinth, an ther alive nor dead, but also because we de- around us. We then hold hands, refusing the
ancestral infrastructure embedded in the earth scended from the warrior Zumbi dos Palmares. fear, in order to wish together that the earth fi-
under the white feet of those who, by the force In the happiest hours, when our hearts quiet a nally vibrates their apocalypse this time.
of their weapons, have imposed themselves as little and we can feel small sparks of life burn
masters of the world. everything inside us, we like to imagine that November, the 23rd. 2021
Palmares is here and that on the opposite side THE BLACK LIGHT LIGHTED THE LABYRINTH OF
It is dark in here. We often lose sight of one an- of all apocalypse, there is a Black life that man- TUNNELS ALL AT ONCE AND WE, TOGETHER, WE
other, so our senses are sharpened. We have ifests itself and vibrates and shines like that MADE EVERYTHING VIBRATE AROUND US. We are
learned to communicate by touch, by smell, by light that rises from the depth every time we tired of always losing everything. It will be
The artist Anita Berber (right) with girlfriend. 21needed to take something too, to cut the Until an exhaustion came and fell upon us and As I walked, I remembered a phrase I had
Zukunft? Der Begriff wirft Fragen auf. Geht es bei ihm um die langsame
world. This time, it was the oldest warrior. She upon the earth itself. Our hands loosened and learned shortly before the morning of January
had been sick already, mumbling against our we began to fall, one by one. The labyrinth of 1st, 2012, “May the victory reward those who Verschiebung der Kontinente oder, näher bei uns, um den Alterungsprozess
condition, sad, deeply sad, but still haughty in tunnels remained intact. For a moment, we all have made war without loving it.” I felt the der Körper? Wie dem auch sei, die Zukunft spricht von den Zusammen-
her own fury, raised to her own anger. In tribute wondered, silently, about where and how memory of it rebounding from the walls of the
to her, this time, after losing everything, we many we were. How deep, how at the heart of tunnels, and it vibrated with all the people who brüchen, die kommen werden. Doch bleibt uns nichts anderes übrig, als
made something remain, as if the pain that everything had we ended up? accompanied me. Nothing vibrated in re- aus diesem – geografischen, ökonomischen, persönlichen – Ruinenfeld
passes through us had finally reached a point sponse. We continued in silence, studying the
of overflowing. November, the 24th. 2021 labyrinth. Everything seemed oddly calm. We
fruchtbare Erde zu machen.
WE DEEPLY WISH THE WORLD - AS IT HAS were alive.
We held hands. Around the sleeping body of SHOWN ITSELF TO US - TO END. And this is an Mehdi-Georges Lahlou
our old woman, we made a great shudder indestructible desire. We have been subjected We would live.
come. Some were afraid that the earth would to all forms of violence, fecundated in the im-
collapse upon us, but deep down we all wished possible shade of all social forms, condemned
for some form of collapse. The shuddering to be born dead, and to live against all struc-
earth vibrated beyond the tunnels, and we felt tures, at the opposite core of all structure. We
the waves of fear come to us from those who deeply hope that the world as it is given us
over these years have made us exist in fear. It ends. And that it ends discreetly, on a particle-
was an attack; we were catching up. We radi- level, in the catastrophic intimacy of this
ated with a sorrowful fury, and we felt that the world-deprived world, this world that even the
more we shook each other’s hands, the more earth itself rejects. These words circulated
we became intimate with the earth around us. telepathically among all of us, not so much as
Stunned by our own power, we also swayed, a thought, but as something vibrating from the
shaken by the shudder we were generating in body, in the flesh of the tunnel, from our old
their world, frightened by the materiality of our woman, from us: we deeply wish that the world
own power, with its ability to affect, so directly, as it is given us ends.
the structure of their world, the health of their
world, the architecture and grammar of their The black light, which had flooded all and with
world. We were there, bound by a force that all intensity, gradually slipped through the cor-
came precisely from the gathering of our ners of the labyrinth, bathing our body, and
fragilities. We were weak, broken, and we had sinking again into the depth. We were there for
lost everything so many, many times ... Some- a long time, cooking together with the earth.
how, from that labyrinth of tunnels under the Little by little, as our bodies regained access
earth, we were operating an earthquake to our legs, we decided to split and move
against their world. In fact, it suddenly seemed through the labyrinth of tunnels, trying to cap-
like we were about to break their world into ture the repercussions of our attack, and study
pieces forever. the implications of what we had done.
“My wish for the future is to participate in the rejection and
witness the inversion of violent models of social oppression
and injustice, which continue to affect the majority of people’s
lives around the world.”
Carlos Motta “Transgender Pass” – these passports were introduced by the Magnus Hirschfeld Institute in order to certify that their holders dressed in con-
trast to their gender assigned at birth. These could be useful, for instance, during police operations.
22 23The “Manifestos
for Queer Futures”
come from ...
Ania Nowak > artist, choreographer, performer Iury Trojaborg > interdisciplinary artist who works prac-
tically and theoretically in theatre, opera, dance and
Bráulio Bandeira > Transdisciplinary artist. Mover. performance
Producer. Maker. Ming Poon > choreographic interventions, social poetic
Nicky Miller > French-Vietnamese artist/filmmaker action, resistance in vulnerability and care
based in Berlin
VLK > sex-positive, taboo challenging performance and Jair Luna > a body where different everyday situations
design intersect, a body where multiple identities coexist, a
Stasys Zak > multifunctional visual artist from upside body in the process of transformation
down
Jeremy Wade > Performer, Choreograf, Lehrer und
Candice Nembhard > writer, artist, curator, poet & Kurator
prophetess Transgender people at the Berlin bar Marienkasino, 1920.
Johannes Müller & Philine Rinnert > Musiktheater –
Cointreau On Ice > You got me feeling emotions, eine Archäologie – Popkultur
Political Fatties ft. Antigoni Tsagkaropoulou Romily Alice Walden > socially-engaged, research-led,
Haut, smell my armpits and jiggle my fat, wir, die
> activists, researchers, performers, artists practice-based, transdisciplinary artist
erleuchtet sind, High Five, fick dein Leben, bitch better Keith Zenga King > writer, performance artist, educator,
pay my taxes // mit Claudio Campo Garcia, Johanna political activist
Przemek Kamiński > performer and choreographer Sanni Est > musician, actress, film-maker and founder of
Köster, Justin Mamat, Sita Messer, Gregor Schuster und
Empower
Meo Wulf. Kübra Varol > performer, writer, drag queen, music
Quilombo Allee:
producer, professional amateur
Marissa Tarsse Lobo > hospitalidade afeto impaciência Simon*e Jaikiriuma Paetau > transcultural mutant
Elisa Purfürst > audio-video artist, proficient in mon-
bonde fuga ficção lover, Technicolor obsessionist, semipermeable
tage and collage Mohamedali Ltaief > born 1984 in Tunis, visual
Sandra Bello > Blackwomansapatãomotherandgrand- monotasker, gender cat, story witnesser/gossip girl,
Joni Barnard > audio-video artist, proficient in mon- artist/director and author
mother. Aquilombadainberlinforsomeyears. Gründerin filmproviser
tage and collage
des Kollektivs QuilomboAllee. Und more. Survivor Aérea Negrot > phoenix, artist of hundred expressions,
Mmakgosi Kgabi > master physical-storyteller, pup- Neo Hülcker > composer and performer
wanting existence. nocturnal composer, voice acrobat, something with
peteer, virtuosic oral/aural manipulator of sound
Luezley Só > ∉€⊃∃|∴∄ wings
Olympia Bukkakis > empress of despair, performer &
Ian Kaler > Choreography beyond movement, happens event organiser
Ricardo De Paula > Tanz-Künstler, Performer, Tucké Royale & Hans Unstern & Orlando de
to be trans, felt age varies Isabel Gatzke > Dramaturgin
Choreograf, Regisseur und Mitglied der Grupo Oito Boeykens > Tuba, Testosteron, Text, Harfe, Tenderness
Isaiah Lopaz > Multilocal. Afro-Descendant. Geechee. Of Parisa Madani / Psoriasis > Zoroastrian drag monster -
Odessa. Present. choreographer - Bad A$$ Bitxh
Pêdra Costa > brasilianische*r Performance-Künstler*in,
visuelle*r Anthropolog*in und Schriftsteller*in
24 25Mi 19.6. Mi 26.6. Ausstellungen
19:00 / Schwules Museum Berlin
Karol Radziszewski
Eröffnung: Queer Archives Institute
20:00 / HAU2
Mamela Nyamza
Black Privilege
& Installationen
AUSSTELLUNG PERFORMANCE, TANZ Karol Radziszewski
Queer Archives Institute
Do 20.6. Do 27.6.
AUSSTELLUNG
20.6.–2.9. / Schwules Museum Berlin
Eröffnung am 19.6., 19:00
18:00 / HAU2 / Eintritt frei
18:00 / HAU3 Houseclub / Eintritt frei
Festivaleröffnung Maria Kulikovska
Jota Mombaça Let Me Say: It’s Not Forgotten
19:00 / HAU2 / Premiere Transition and Apocalypse #3 INSTALLATION, FILM
Manifestos for Queer Futures #1 PERFORMANCE
20.–22.6., 25.+26.6., 29.+30.6., 18:00–22:00 /
PERFORMANCE, TANZ / Englisch, Deutsch
19:00 / HAU3 / Deutsche Premiere HAU2 / Eintritt frei
21:00 / HAU1 Travis Alabanza 26.6., 19:00 Performativer Artist Talk in englischer
Jam Rostron & Hackney Showroom Sprache mit Maria Kulikovska
Non-binary them – 1972–2019 Burgerz
MUSIK
PERFORMANCE, THEATER / Englisch mit deutschen und englischen Übertiteln Carlos Motta
The Crossing
Fr 21.6. Fr 28.6.
INSTALLATION, FILM
20.–22.6., 25.+26.6., 29.+30.6., 18:00–22:00 /
HAU2 / Eintritt frei
17:30 / HAU1 19:00 / HAU3
Sara Ahmed Travis Alabanza Jota Mombaça
Mind the Gap! Complaint as a Queer Method Transition and Apocalypse
Im Anschluss: Gespräch mit Nikita Dhawan / & Hackney Showroom INSTALLATION, FILM
Moderation: Margarita Tsomou Burgerz 21.–23., 27.–30.6., 17:00–21:00 /
PERFORMANCE, THEATER / Englisch mit deutschen und englischen Übertiteln
DIALOG / Englisch mit deutscher Simultanübersetzung HAU3 Houseclub / Eintritt frei
19:00 / HAU3 / Premiere 20:30 / HAU1 / Deusche Premiere
Michał Borczuch Moved by the Motion (Wu Tsang
Untitled (Together Again) & boychild, Patrick Belaga,
THEATER, PERFORMANCE / Englisch
Josh Johnson und Asma Maroof)
20:30 / HAU2 / Premiere Sudden Rise
Manifestos for Queer Futures #2 PERFORMANCE, TANZ / Englisch
PERFORMANCE, TANZ / Englisch, Deutsch
Sa 22.6. Sa 29.6.
18:00 / HAU3 Houseclub / Eintritt frei
Tickets
18:00 / HAU3 Houseclub / Premiere / Eintritt frei Jota Mombaça Online-Buchung 24/7: www.hebbel-am-ufer.de / Tageskasse
Jota Mombaça Transition and Apocalypse #4
im HAU2 (Hallesches Ufer 32, 10963 Berlin) / Montag bis
PERFORMANCE
Transition and Apocalypse #1
Samstag ab 15 Uhr bis jeweils eine Stunde vor Vorstellungs-
PERFORMANCE 19:00 / HAU2 / Deutsche Premiere
19:00 / HAU1 beginn, an vorstellungsfreien Tagen 15 bis 19 Uhr. / Sonn- und
Mehdi-Georges Lahlou
feiertags geschlossen. / Tel. +49 (0)30.259004 -27 / Online-
Mária Takács The Ring of the Dove
Secret Years PERFORMANCE, TANZ Buchung: www.hebbel-am-ufer.de
FILM / Ungarisch mit englischen Untertiteln 19:00 / HAU3
19:00 / HAU3 Travis Alabanza Ticketing & Service
Michał Borczuch Tel 030.259 004 -102, service@hebbel-am-ufer.de
& Hackney Showroom
Untitled (Together Again) Burgerz Telefonisch: Montag bis Freitag 12–18 Uhr
THEATER, PERFORMANCE / Englisch PERFORMANCE, THEATER / Englisch mit deutschen und englischen Übertiteln Bestellen Sie unseren Newsletter oder unseren Leporello unter
20:30 / HAU2 20:30 / HAU1 www.hebbel-am-ufer.de.
Manifestos for Queer Futures #3 Moved by the Motion (Wu Tsang
PERFORMANCE, TANZ / Englisch, Deutsch
& boychild, Patrick Belaga, Adressen
Im Anschluss / WAU / Eintritt frei HAU1, Stresemannstr. 29, 10963 Berlin
Party / DJ: Ziúr Josh Johnson und Asma Maroof)
Sudden Rise HAU2 und WAU, Hallesches Ufer 32, 10963 Berlin
PERFORMANCE, TANZ / Englisch HAU3 und HAU3 Houseclub, Tempelhofer Ufer 10, 10963 Berlin
So 23.6. 22:00 / HAU2
Light Asylum / Konzert
Schwules Museum Berlin, Lützowstraße 73, 10785 Berlin
18:00 / HAU1 / Deutsche Premiere MUSIK Impressum
Mária Takács Im Anschluss / WAU / Eintritt frei Hrsg & ViSdP: HAU Hebbel am Ufer, 2019 / Intendanz & Ge-
Hot Men Cold Dictatorships Party mit No No No! DJs: Zacker, schäftsführung: Annemie Vanackere / Konzept und Programm
FILM / Ungarisch mit englischen Untertiteln
Claire DeCoer & Escape “The Present Is Not Enough”: Ricardo Carmona / Redaktion:
Im Anschluss: Artist Talk mit Mária Takács
und Eike Wittrock / In englischer Sprache Lisa Mara Ahrens, Ricardo Carmona, Annika Frahm, Annika
18:00 / HAU3 Houseclub / Eintritt frei
Jota Mombaça
So 30.6. Reith / Gestaltung: Jürgen Fehrmann / Korrektorat: Iris Weis-
senböck / Mit herzlichem Dank an die Magnus-Hirschfeld-
18:00 / HAU1 Gesellschaft, Schwules Museum Berlin und den Suhrkamp
Transition and Apocalypse #2
PERFORMANCE Histories of Our Future Verlag.
20:00 / HAU3 Mit Josch Hoenes, Ewa Majewska, Omar Kasmani
u.a. / Moderation: Margarita Tsomou
Michał Borczuch DIALOG / Englisch mit deutscher Simultanübersetzung
Bildnachweis
Untitled (Together Again) Seite 1 © bpk / Kunstbibliothek, SMB, Photothek Willy Römer /
THEATER, PERFORMANCE / Englisch
19:00 / HAU3
Willy Römer / Seite 2 © Archiv der Magnus-Hirschfeld-Gesell-
Im Anschluss: Artist Talk mit Michał Borczuch Travis Alabanza schaft, Berlin / Seite 5 © Archiv der Magnus-Hirschfeld-Gesell-
und Martin Reichert / In englischer Sprache & Hackney Showroom schaft, Berlin / Seite 8 Copyright: ullstein bild – ullstein bild /
Burgerz
Seite 10 © Schwules Museum, Berlin / Seite 12 © Bundesar-
Di 25.6. PERFORMANCE, THEATER / Englisch mit deutschen und englischen Übertiteln
20:30 / HAU2 chiv, Bild 183-1983-0121-500 / CC-BY-SA 3.0 / Seite 14 ©
bpk / Seite 17 © Schwules Museum, Berlin / Seite 18/19 ©
20:00 / HAU2 Mehdi-Georges Lahlou
@newfrontears / Seite 20 © Archiv der Magnus-Hirschfeld-
Mamela Nyamza The Ring of the Dove
PERFORMANCE, TANZ Gesellschaft, Berlin / Seite 22 © ullstein bild – ullstein bild /
Black Privilege
PERFORMANCE, TANZ Seite 25 © Archiv der Magnus-Hirschfeld-Gesellschaft, Berlin /
Im Anschluss: Artist Talk mit Mamela Nyamza Seite 30 © Schwules Museum, Berlin / Seite 35 © ullstein bild –
und Lisa Tracy Michalik / In englischer Sprache Elli Marcus / Seite 36 © bpk / Josef Donderer
Artist Muguette, transgender woman from the Eldorado bar in Motzstrasse, Berlin.www.hebbel-am-ufer.de Artist and singer Claire Waldoff as “Pausen Girl” at the Berlin Scala.
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