A revolution is not a one time event
QueeЯevolutions
“Normally you think of revolutions as ending something terrible and beginning something good that will be forever – rather it’s part of a cycle”
At the end of the QueeЯevolutions project, participants and supporters came together for a discussion on Zoom – which we are happy to share with you now. This video shows some of the performances and other outcomes of the project’s workshops on topics like identity, shame, healing, masculinity, voguing and ballroom culture, tracing ancestry, and finding home. The participants link their experiences during the QueeЯevolutions project with larger discussions, for example, what queerness means to them, revolution, migration, and the idea of safe(r) spaces.
Oyoun is happy to support this project and provide a platform for sharing this discussion.
About the Project
QueeЯevolutions was an investigation into the often- misinterpreted queer identities of LGBTQIA+ individuals from the SWANA region (South-West Asia and North Africa). The project proposed Queerness as a colonizing concept, shaped by its mainstream, so-called “universal” vision and forced onto individuals from non-Western or mixed backgrounds. When do we get a chance to investigate and express our queerness in our own way? How can we develop a language to speak about our complex identities? Why do we identify with a supposed “Pride” that we haven’t achieved ourselves?
These and other questions were raised by the participating artists, who each seek in different ways within their practices to revolt against the normalizing process of a one-dimensional “queerness”, looking for ways to express, explore, and share unheard voices and unknown histories, and who come together in struggle.
The project took place as a series of collective workshops “for us by us,” with a wide range of critical and creative practices around the artists’ identities presented on their own terms. Able to represent themselves outside the white gaze, the artists approached the experimental space of the project as a laboratory for sharing and reflecting on their experiences and ideas and as an occasion to develop collaborations with other QBIPOC individuals.
A few insights from the project:
CREDITS
QueeЯevolutions is a project from Ahmad BaBa and Michalina Mrozek
Starring: Ashkan Sepahvand (IG: @henrycrocklesmoore) • Hassan Dib ( Cupcake, IG: @queenofvirginity) • Elnaz Mostan (IG: @elnazmostaan) • Mansur Ajang • Michael Daoud (IG: @michaele_daoud) • Nael Eskandarani • Ahmad Hijazi (IG: @cyclomorphosis) • Ceren Saner (IG: @csaner) •
Film Director: Michalina Mrozek
Art Director: Ahmad BaBa
DOP: Joey Bania (IG: @joeybania)
Music: Walid Belhaj Salah
Connect with QueeЯevolutions
Instagram: @quee_r_evolutions
Facebook: QueeЯevolutions
Email: queerrevolutions.berlin (at) gmail.com
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The project was funded by:
– Berliner Projektfonds Kulturelle Bildung
– Gemeinsam Schaffen
– TGD Türkische Gemeinde Deutschland
– Bundesministerium für Familie, Senioren, Frauen und Jugend
– Menschen stärken Menschen
Project organised through: Polnischer Sozialrat e.V.
