Uncertain States Uncertain Bodies

Discussion

The panel "Uncertain Bodies" focuses on identity politics, LGBTI rights ("Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, Transgender and Intersexual Persons"), queer theory, and the discrimination against black bodies. What are the experiences of people whose voices are excluded in the discourse of the political mainstream? Their questions, issues and opinions bear the potential to recognize "Uncertainty" as a state away from a heteronormative belief system, adding new opportunities towards a pluralist society.

Khader Abu-Seif was born in Jaffa to one of the most prominent Arab families in the city. At age 15, he came out and began to write for the website "Mako" - the web division of one of Israel's biggest television networks - and moved to Tel Aviv at age 17. Khader is an activist for the rights of the Palestinian community and currently lives in Jaffa. Today, he writes for Time Out Tel Aviv and works in production. He was most recently featured in the documentary "Oriented" about the lives of gay Palestinians living in Israel.

Nana Adusei-Poku is Research Professor in Visual Culture at Rotterdam University and Guest Lecturer in Media Arts and Master Fine Arts at the University of the Arts, Zurich. She received her PhD from Humboldt University Berlin for her thesis on post-black art, following degrees in African Studies and Gender Studies at Humboldt University, and in Media and Communications at Goldsmiths College, University of London. She has been a visiting scholar at the University of Ghana, Legon; the London School of Economics; and Columbia University, New York. She most recently published "Catch me if you can!", which is a critical reflection on the state of diversity and decolonisation in the arts and art education in "Decolonising Museums" and the visual essay called "So it is better to speak remembering we were never ment to survive", which discusses and explores Black Queer Ontologies in the Dutch Journal for Gender Studies. Forthcoming articles include: "Post-Post-Black?" in Nka-Journal for Contemporary African Art.

Enana Al Assar is an artist and musician from Syria living now in Berlin. She is represented in Rosa von Praunheim's upcoming movie and openly speaks about the challenges she had to face due to her sexual orientation while working in Syria. Which "uncertainties" and "certainties" are troubling or helping her now here in Germany?

Rosa von Praunheim is a German film director, author, painter and the most famous gay rights activist in Germany, Austria and Switzerland. A prolific director, he has made over 70 feature films. He began his career associated to the New German Cinema as a senior member of the Berlin school of underground filmmaking. He took the artistic female name Rosa von Praunheim to remind people of the pink triangle that homosexuals had to wear in Nazi concentration camps. A pioneer of Queer Cinema, von Praunheim has been an activist in the gay rights movement. He was an early advocate of AIDS awareness and safer sex, but has been a controversial figure even within the gay community. His films center on gay-related themes and strong female characters. His works are characterized by excess and employ a campy style. His films have featured such personalities as Jayne County, Vaginal Davis, Divine, and Jeff Stryker. Since 2009, he is a member of the Akademie der Künste, Berlin, in film and media art and the director of the Section since 2015.

Tuesday, 3 Jan 2017

5 pm

Hanseatenweg

Hall 2

Panel with Nana Adusei-Poku, Khader Abu-Seif, Rosa von Praunheim and Enana Al Asser. Presented by Johannes Odenthal.

In English language

Free admission

Further information

www.adk.de/uncertain-states