Julia Forgacs
In the tradition of normative archives, evidence of queer life often tells a story of pathologisation. At the same time, we encounter a great absence where non-normative forms of desire do not meet the requirements of validated historiography and where historical methods fail to map the desire, community, and thus the complexity, of queer pasts. Queer archival work, therefore, demands not only an inclusion of queer subjects on the shelves of knowledge institutions, but a queering of what we understand as history, as knowledge, and as evidence. Queer history has always taken place in private, darkness, and transience. We find its documents in bars, boxes, rumours, fictions, our bodies, and our collective memory. A Pocket of Dyke Feelings is a playful reflection on (queer) archives and the question of how queer knowledge is organised in a cis-heteronormative society. It wants to counter the violent "objectivity" of normative archives with an intimate, interactive, and absolutely incomplete experiment. It invites a reciprocal historiography. Via mobile phone, participants are invited to send in their own fictional and real stories, longings, TikToks, "facts", favourite dykes, voice messages, or any other ephemera that comes to mind. The contributions become part of the archive and in return, the archive offers back a piece of itself for the participants. This loop continues throughout the festival - once part of the archive, participants can dive deeper into communication, interact with the archive, contribute and examine more fragments, and challenge or critique the endeavor. The focus on Dykes decentralises dominant cis-male perspectives. As an insult, the term “Dyke” has attacked not only lesbian cis-women but a wide range of queer identities. The term’s usage in this work connects to a queer appropriation that opposes any essentialisation of desire or gender. All who feel connected to this history are invited to co-create this archive.
Via mobile phone, participants are invited to send in their own stories, real or fictional, as well as TikToks, "facts", favourite dykes, voice messages, or any other ephemera that comes to mind. The contributions become part of the archive and in return, the archive offers back a piece of itself for the participants. This loop continues throughout the festival: once part of the archive, participants can dive deeper into communication and interaction with the archive, contribute or examine more fragments, and challenge or critique the endeavor.
TEXT ME YOUR DYKE FEELINGS To participate download the app Wire https://app.wire.com/auth/, which is an encrypted communication app. You can use your phone number or mail address to sign up with a name of your choice. Create a fictions name, add @apocket to your contacts and say hi. The rest will be explained to you as soon as you arrived in the pocket.
Give it a try and negotiate your commitment within. You can always break up or go deeper.
At the end there will be a cozy digital gathering for an archive viewing on Monday 24 May.
—> More informations about the event and the entire festival programme via Nocturnal Unrest
Infos
"A Pocket of Dyke Feelings" will grow throughout the whole festival.
The app WIRE is required.
Langiage: German/English
Sponsors and Supporters
Nocturnal Unrest ist eine Kooperation des nOu-Kollektivs und Ladiez e.V. Kulturelle und Politische Bildung für Frauen, des Künstlerhaus Mousonturm, der feministische philosoph_innen Frankfurt und dem Hafen 2 Offenbach.
Gefördert durch Fonds Soziokultur im Rahmen des Programms Neustart Kultur der Beauftragten der Bundesregierung für Kultur und Medien, das Goethe Institut, das Hessische Ministerium für Wissenschaft und Kunst, die Hessische Theaterakademie, Frauenreferat und Stabsstelle Inklusion der Stadt Frankfurt am Main, dem QSL Fonds und dem AStA der Goethe-Universität Frankfurt am Main sowie durch die Crespo Foundation.
More Information
Biografie
Julia Forgacs is an artist and activist living and working in Berlin. Her projects revolve around queer artistic archival practices and feminist epistemologies in performance, film, and visual arts. She is interested in creating and participating in community spaces that focus on building new relationships, knowledge exchange, support and solidarity. Recent projects include kicking off a Sextalk group, being involved in a neighbourhood organisation, co-creating the Dyke film series Lost and Delirious 069 and the queer Central/Eastern European film festival as well as participating in the workshop OtherWays. She is also part of the Ways Queer Feminist Art Residency and Rest Space Committee.