Trikster Blog

This summer between July 20-26 the 4th Copenhagen Queer Festival will take place at Gøglerskolen at Kigkurren. The organizers have just presented this years theme: “Fuck money: Commercialization – Mainstreaming – Anticapitalism”. This is what they write on the festival’s homepage about what to expect of this year’s festival:

“Copenhagen is this year hosting the World Outgames and the games are beginning the weekend that the Queerfestival is ending, on the 25th of July. The Outgames has gotten a lot of focus and media attention in Denmark, and Copenhagen has been busy labelling itself as “gay-friendly/pink-city”. We see this only as a capitalistic attempt to make money on the expected 5-10.000 participants, but at the same time the World Outgames is charging 2200 dkr (290 euros) just to participate in a conference. So we decided that its time for an anti-capitalistic queer perspective!

Copenhagen Queermanifestival

With the Copenhagen queer festival we wish to create a queer space. But what is queer? How do we define it, use it, make it part of our lives? How do you define “queer” in relation to “non-queer”? these are just some of the questions we want to work on understanding during the festival. We wish to create a forum where people from all over the world can exchange impressions, viewpoints and ideas. Where we can play, learn, teach, move our boundaries and go places we didn’t know existed.

The festival is strictly D.I.Y. meaning that YOU as a participant must take an active part in making the festival successful. A few things have been planned in advance by the organizing group, but otherwise it is up to the participants to decide in unity how they want the festival to proceed. It is expected that everyone help out as much as they can to ensure that the festival will be a fun and enlightening experience for all.

Non-profit is another keyword for the festival. We wish to create a space which is not based on money, as we find this is the case in society today. The festival is open to all, whether or not they have money.

To create a place that is free for all it is important that we all try radically confront some, if not all (?) of the structures exiting in society today. We need to help each other to break free from structures and norms imposed on us by the capitalist, heteronormative, racist society. At the festival we need to respect each other, listen and think before we act and keep in mind that calling the festival “free” and “queer” doesn’t automatically make it so. We expect everyone to analyze their own actions and what effect they have on other people.

And even though the list is long, we still won’t tolerate racism, sexism, heterosexism, homo/bi/queer/hetero/trans –phobia, in other words: No discrimination based on sexuality, age, gender, ethnicity, class and so on. There will be room for those who make room for others.

Despite our political agenda we must not forget that the festival is also about having fun and meeting new exiting people of all genders and sexualities

We hope to see you in late july for a great week of discussions, workshops, parties and politics!”

The exhibition and publication Lost and Found: Queerying the Archive has gotten its own homepage. Visit it on www.trikster.net/lostandfound and read more about the exhibition, see images of the publication, and read the co-curator of the show Jane Rowley’s interview with the artist Aleesa Cohene.

On May 29 at 17.00 you are all invited to the opening of the exhibition Lost and Found: Queerying the Archive at Nikolaj, Copenhagen Contemporary Art Center, Denmark.

The exhibition Lost and Found: Queerying the Archive is curated by Jane Rowley and Louise Wolthers, and “presents a series of spectacular, thought-provoking works that generate new narratives based on private memories and experiences beyond gender and sexuality norms. Using the potent and emotionally laden detritus of society, like found silent-movie footage, garments from the family past, and desecrated and fictionalised photo albums, the works in Lost and Found recreate, deconstruct and reconstruct the past as we allegedly know it, questioning the power structures that are created and preserved through the archives we’ve inherited.”

Participating artists in the exhibition are Elmgreen & Dragset (DK/NO), Mary Coble (US), Ingo Taubhorn (DE), Tejal Shah (IN), Benny Nemerofsky Ramsay (CA), Conny Karlsson (SE), Flemming Rolighed (DK), Aleesa Cohene (CA), Kimberly Austin (US), Cecilia Barriga (CL) og Heidi Lunabba (FI), Al Masson (FR/DK).

At the opening there will also be a book launch of the publication Lost and Found: Queerying the Archive, published in conjunction with the exhibition. Edited by Mathias Danbolt, Jane Rowley and Louise Wolthers, this 160 page publication takes up questions of the archive, history writing, and memory from a queer perspective.

The book includes new articles by the influential cultural theorists Ann Cvetkovich and Heather Love, as well as articles by the editors, poems by Joe Brainard, and artistic contributions from the artists in the exhibition.

The book is avaliable for only 150 DKK. Order it by emailing Kunsthallen Nikolaj: sh@kunsthallennikolaj.dk or buy it online on Audiatur bookstore.

[English below]

Trikster – Nordic Queer Journal lanserer i dag sitt tredje og største nummer hittil, fylt av queer litteratur i tekst, lyd og bilder.

Triksters tema-del “Queerlitt” inneholder bidrag fra nordiske og internasjonale forfattere som stiller skarpt på begjæret og kroppens betydning i litteraturen. Felles for bidragene i “Queerlitt” er at man ikke alltid vet hvor man har dem – de forstyrrer både seksuelle, språklige, og sjangermessige grenser.

Trikster er stolt av å kunne presentere den New York-baserte spoken word-poeten Staceyann Chin, som i sin performance setter fokus på kroppsliggjorte erfaringer av rasisme og sexisme. Men humor er aldri langt unna, som i diktet hvor Chin instruerer lesbiske i hvordan man forfører streite kvinner. I “Manlighet” undersøker og utfordrer de svenske poetene Hanna Hallgren og Johan Jönson maskulinitet og kjønnstilhørighet, mens Dennis Cooper og Eli Levén flørter med det pornografiske i deres tekster om flyktige erotiske møter i “Switch”. Andre bidragsytere til “Queerlitt” er Christian Yde Frostholm, Kajsa Sundin, Tova Gerge, Jonas Brun, Kristofer Folkhammar, Ulrika Dahl, Britta Tegby Frisk og Carlos Díaz. Flere av bidragene tar utgangspunkt i Queerlitteraturdagen i Gøteborg i 2008, organisert av Linn Hansén og Athena Farrokhzad, som sammen med Mathias Danbolt har redigert Trikster #3.

Trikster #3 byr også på et intervju med den britiske kunsthistorikeren Gavin Butt, som forteller om hans nye prosjekt om seriøsitet, og hans ønske om å gjøre queer teori morsommere. I nummerets kritikkdel utfordrer Sara Edenheim norske queer-forskere i sin anmeldelse av Når heteroseksualiteten skal forklare seg, Jon Helt Haarder leser med og mot Stephen J. Walton, Peter Edelberg jubler over boken Criminally Queer, Susanne Christensen svarer på Wenche Mühleisens kritikk av feministisk litteraturkritikk, og Tommy Olsson ønsker han var homo, etter å ha sett Slava Mogutins fotografier.

Trikster er et flerspråklig, gratis webmagasin som utkommer to ganger i året.Trikster #3 er redigert av Mathias Danbolt (ansvarlig redaktør), Linn Hansén og Athena Farrokhzad, og er Støttet av Fritt Ord, Nordisk Kulturfond og Senter for Kvinne- og Kjønnsforskning ved Universitetet i Bergen. For ytterligere informasjon, besøk www.trikster.net eller kontakt Mathias Danbolt påmathias@trikster.net / +45 41 15 16 13.

Trikster #3: Queer literature

The third issue of the web magazine Trikster – Nordic Queer Journal is now online on www.trikster.net.

Trikster #3 is entitled “Queerlitt”, presenting queer literature with contributions from several Nordic and international writers and artists. Through video, images, and texts this issue of Trikster focuses on the body and desire in literature – giving attention to the sound of the voice, as well as bodily and textual gestures.

Trikster is proud to present the spoken word poet Staceyann Chin through video performances, and a conversation with the Swedish activist-theorist Ulrika Dahl. In her energetic performance, Chin touches upon the bodily effects of racism and sexism. But humor is never far away, as in the poem where she instructs lesbians how to seduce straight girls. Seduction is also central to Dennis Cooper and Eli Levén’s contribution “Switch”, where they read each other’s texts about the erotics of sexual encounters.

Trikster #3 also includes an interview with the British art historian Gavin Butt. In “Dismantling the Serious Machine” Butt talks about his new project on cultural seriousness, where he reflects upon the amusing but difficult task of making theorizing more fun.

The texts in “Queerlitt” take their outset in the Queer Literature Day in Gothenburg in 2008, arranged by Athena Farrokhzad and Linn Hansén, who have co-edited Trikster #3 with Mathias Danbolt. The issue also includes contributions from Athena Farrokhzad, Linn Hansén, Christian Yde Frostholm, Kajsa Sundin, Tova Gerge, Jonas Brun, Kristofer Folkhammar, Hanna Hallgren, Johan Jönson, Britta Tegby Frisk, Carlos Díaz, Jon Helt Haarder, Peter Edelberg, Susanne Christensen, and Tommy Olsson.

Trikster is a multilingual web magazine, releasing two issues a year. Trikster #3 is edited by Mathias Danbolt (executive editor), Athena Farrokhzad, and Linn Hansén. Trikster is supported by The Freedom of Expression Foundation, Oslo, Nordic Culture Fund, and Center for Women’s and Gender Studies, University of Bergen. For more information visit www.trikster.net, or contact Mathias Danbolt at mathias@trikster.net / +45 41 15 16 13.

From May 7-10, our friends from Openhagen.net organize the festival Undoing the City in Copenhagen. It will be three days with “workshops, debates, film-screenings, city walks, canal tours, parades, actions and alike will question our use of the city”. They invite all of us who “use the city space and who have a wish to make the city a common space to participate in Undoing the City”. It will be great!

Here is some more background:
“Cities today are scene for a long series of conflicts between different society groups. It’s a battle going on between those who are forced out into ghettolike districts, those who retreat to gated communities in the suburbs, the creative class in the redeveloped city centres, and the police who increasingly are forced to ensure these separations. The city and its space are more and more becoming battle zones – battle zones which call for a re-conquest of the city space against fences, profit and discrimination. It is a battle to be fought with theoretical inputs, political statements and with the entire spectrum of social, cultural and artistic forms of anti-power. We want to challenge both the capitals, the states, the city governments and the creative class’s ideas of the city. And we want to challenge our own idea of the city. Let’s undo the city.”

Read more about the thoughts, discussions (and soon also the program) for Undoing the City on Openhagen.net or on Undoing the city’s Wikispace.

On the 18th and 19th of May, The Society of Queer Studies in Finland hosts the conference “Queer Futurities, Today: Utopias and Beyond in Queer Theory” at ICI in Berlin.

The conference takes its outset in Lee Edelman’s critique of the “reproductive futurism” in his notorious 2005 book No Future: Queer Theory and the Death Drive. The seminar interrogates the term “futurities,” questioning ideas of progressive time and homonormativity. (Read more about the background here).

At the conference, Lee Edelman will hold a keynote entitled “Against Survival: Queerness in a Time that’s Out of Joint”.

Other speakers are: Tomasz Jarymowicz, Volker Woltersdorff, Annamari Vänskä, Jan Wickman, Tuula Juvonen, Tatjana Greif, Katerina Kolarova, Kevin S. Amiddon, Antu Sorainen, Heike Bauer, Christien Garcia, Jin Haritaworn, Željko Blaće & Milo DePrieto, Thomas O. Haakonson, Katherine Wiedlack, Harri Kalha, Alexis Lothian, Tomasz Basiuk, Eveline Kilian, Philip Pass, Anu Koivunen.

See the program in detail here, and read the abstracts - they look great.

This year the Centre for Women’s and Gender Research (SKOK) at the University of Bergen is celebrating its 10th anniversary.
On that occasion, they organize Theory Now! - “a symposium that gathers some of the most vocal scholars working on the cutting edge of gender theory.” On May 14th and 15th, they give an opportunity to meet with some really great scholars, and hear their lectures free of charge.

These are the invited speakers:

Professor Vikki Bell, Goldsmiths, University of London, UK
Professor Pheng Cheah, University of California, Berkeley, USA
Assistant Professor Ulrika Dahl, Södertörn University College, Sweden
Professor Elizabeth Grosz, Women’s and Gender Studies, Rutgers University, USA
Professor Judith Halberstam, University of Southern California, USA
Professor Marcia Inhorn, Yale University, USA
Postdoctoral fellow Kari Jegerstedt, SKOK, University of Bergen, Norway
Professor Ellen Mortensen, SKOK, University of Bergen, Norway
Professor Robyn Wiegman, Duke University, USA

See the preliminary program and register at SKOK’s website.

Trikster mourns over the death of the brilliant theorist Eve Kosofsky Sedgwick April 12 2009.

Sedgwick was one of the most influential and important theorists for the development of queer theory, with seminal books such as Between Men (1985), Epistemology of the Closet (1990), Tendencies (1992), and Touching Feeling (2003). Her death at only 59 years leaves a big gap in contemporary queer theory, literary analysis, affect theory, and poetry.

According to the obituary in The New Yorker, it was the breast cancer she had been battling with for over a decade that caused her early death. In A Dialogue of Love (1999), her book on her diagnosis of breast cancer, she writes about one of her conversations with her therapists, where she says “What I am proudest of is having a life where work and love are impossible to tell apart.” That’s an ideal to strive for.

The Brooklyn-based band and peformance collective MEN is visiting Scandinavia in May! The group started in 2007 when the Le Tigre members JD Samson and Johanna Fateman started to write new songs, collaborating with HIRSUITE members Michael O’Niell (Princess, Ladybug Transistor) and Ginger Brooks Takahashi (LTTR, The Ballet).

Their tour plans for Scandinavia looks like this:

Copenhagen on May 7 at Basement, Vesterbro (but who sells the tickets?)

Oslo on May 8 at Revolver

Bergen on May 9 at Garage

Stockholm on May 13 at Debaser

Malmö on May 14, but place is not yet announced.

For those who can read Norwegian, Reidar Engesbak in Blikk has interviewed JD Samson here.

Journalisten Anders Haahr Rasmussen har skrevet en meget fin og interessant tekst i Information med tittelen “Den hvide mands byrde”. Teksten tar for seg hva den hvite, heteroseksuelle, velutdannede mannen stiller opp med i møte med kritikken om priviligerthet, som rettes fra feministisk og postkolonialistisk hold. Men hvordan forholder man seg til sin privilegier utover reaksjonær maskulinisme, eller politisk korrekt dårlig samvittighet og skyldfølelse?

Informations “repræsentant fra verdens vel nok mest privilegerede mindretal” leter etter en mer refleksiv og positiv definert posisjon, og intervjuer på veien Maja Bissenbakker Frederiksen, Caroline Bergvall, den fine feministiske mannegruppen Lakaj (Asger Kjærsgaard Larsen, Kristoffer Bunch, Asger Martiny-Bruun) og Sonja Schwarzenberger. Det har det kommet en god tekst ut av.