Book launch by and with Rena Onat
Friday, October 13th 2023, 6 pm
at xart splitta e.V., Hasenheide 73, 10967 Berlin
The event will be held in German and English spoken language.
Queers of Color do either not appear at all in art history and contemporary visual culture or they are represented as hyper-visible others. But what happens when their perspectives become the starting point for critical engagements with racism and heteronormativity in art and visual culture? In her book, Rena Onat discusses the significance of Queer of Color Critique for art and media studies – a field in which mostly white scholars are represented. She analyses contemporary works by among other, Hasan Aksaygın, Aykan Safoğlu, Sunanda Mesquita and Raju Rage, in a translocal German-speaking context. These Queer artists of Color negotiate hereby with specific aesthetic practices, visions of disidentification, strategies of survival and procedures of non-/-archiving in their own histories. Also important is the recognition of artistic knowledge, of positioned experiential knowledge and collective knowledge, which often emerges less in universities than rather in community spaces and at kitchen tables. The book presentation and the joint discussion will be accompanied with a dinner concept by Krishan Rajapakshe and Rena Onat.
Information on registration
Register at contact@xartsplitta.net by October 8th 2023 via text, video or audio. Due to the theme, queer people who identify as Black, Indigenous or People of Color will be given priority in registration.
Please answer the following questions when you register:
- How do you position yourself?
- How have you dealt with the topic so far?
- Do you have needs or require support to participate (e.g. childcare or language assistance etc.)?
Please come to the event tested and stay home if you are showing symptoms.
Moderation
Rena Onat
Rena Onat is an art and media studies scholar with a focus on Queer of Color Critique in visual culture. She positions herself as a German-Turkish femme and she recently finished her PhD thesis on “Queer Artists of Color. Negotiations of Disidentification, Survival and Un-Archiving in the German Context.” She has worked as a research assistant at the Institute for Media Studies at HBK Braunschweig and at the Helene Lange-Kolleg Queer Studies and Intermediality: Art – Music – Media Culture at the University of Oldenburg. Since 2023 she is the central women’s representative at the Weißensee Kunsthochschule Berlin. She also teaches seminars and is giving lectures and workshops on art, empowerment and antidiscrimination and she likes horses.
The event takes place within the framework of the LADS-funded project #CommunitiesSolidarischDenken.