A graphic with colourful eyes and a pink tongue.
© Stef Mosebach
A graphic with colourful eyes and a pink tongue.
Festival

Queer B-Cademy: World of Wisdom

The pandemic continues to polarise planet Earth. The weekly Corona Denialist Pride parades through the streets, accusing science and politics and proclaiming the end of freedom. From a queer point of view, this sounds strangely familiar – but those who still hope that the long-awaited queer turn will result from the lateral thinking movement will probably be disappointed... This is where the Queer B-Cademy will have to help in the future – that non-state-recognised educational institution whose highest task is to keep alive the perspectives, knowledge, struggles for survival and experiences of those who have been marginalised in the longest pandemic of this world: patriarchy.

With the third part of the Trilogy of Tomorrow: World of Wisdom, B-Cademy returns for a weekend to its original source of inspiration: José Esteban Muñoz's work Cruising Utopia – and follows the idea that "queerness is an ideal distilled from the past to design a future." In Kampnagel's Westfoyer, a 3-day program brings together artists who translate memory, present and vision into a kaleidoscope of queer knowledge.

First of all, there is the unique performer and singer Sanni Est with the world premiere of her work "Photophobia", a guided video and VR exhibition based on her second studio music album of the same name, which will be released soon. In it, Sanni creates a vision of a world without the colonial and patriarchal violence of the Enlightenment as a universal model of knowledge. This multi-layered and very personal composition is a process of mourning, a liberation from social constraints, a declaration of love to her community and a lot of inner growth at the same time. In her solo performance piece "Being a Black Woman", the actress and author Naomi Bah reflects on the pandemic period and tells how it influenced her process of finding herself as a black, Afro-German woman.

The dancers Room Shakers from Dortmund impart their knowledge with moves that are as unique to them as the air they breathe. Their show "Free Movement, No Chill" combines the languages of vouging, Afro and dancehall, and the message becomes clear: high heels are definitely life-threatening, but so is everything else! No less visionary will be Noah Slee's concert. His sound of R&B, soul and indie electronica with multi-layered lyrics tells of finding one's own voice in a thoroughly commercialised world, which is nevertheless characterised by connection and a change of perspective and interpersonal inspiration.

And for the traditional Sunday B-Runch, the BIPoC Film Society brings an exciting selection of their short films and talks about the hopeful worlds and knowledge horizons of the new generation of filmmakers. And if times are merciful, there will be dancing again in the dark club to the hottest music. Who knows what the future will bring!

Program


Funded as part of the Alliance of International Production Houses by the German Federal Government Commissioner for Culture, supported by the Media.

A project within the framework of ACT (Art, Climate, Transition) funded by the Creative Europe program of the European Union and the Alliance of the Internationale Produktionshäuser by the Federal Government Commissioner for Culture and the Media.