Counter-histories of Queer-feminist Live Art: A Transversal Cartography
Lead Research Organisation:
University of Roehampton
Department Name: Drama, Theatre and Performance
Abstract
This research will provide a contemporary analysis of artists and collectives whose lives and practices havebeen informed by queer and feminist politics, aesthetics and ethics. Departing from post-2000s artisticmanifestations, I will lay out the case for what I will argue is 'queer-feminist' live art by employing atransversal approach to the art historical canon.With this research I aim to map and connect, transnationally and cross-generationally, a queer-feminist liveart network which cannot be gathered under one single 'movement' or pre-established historical factors. Iwill argue that notions of queer and feminism shift and transform both aesthetically and politicallyaccording to the context, geography and period to create alliances and hybridisations with specific counter-cultures and publics.
Organisations
| Title | I Am Here |
| Description | I have developed this performance as part of my one-month residency in Ghana in January 2022. It is a collaboration with Niya B and Va-Bene Elikem Fiatsi. The performance has become a Virtual Reality work, filmed with a 360degrees camera, as much as a flat video and installation. It was exhibited at pIAR residency in Kumasi on 29 January for the open event 'LOVE fEAST'. BLURB 'This is a ritual of gratitude. This is not just a performance. It is meditation. An act of presence, generosity, and connection. Think about why you are here. Where is here. And what is here. Think about the obstacles you have overcome for being here. Being here for each other. In this very moment, full of possibilities and togetherness.' In these challenging times for LGBTQI+ people in Ghana, we are paying tribute to one of the most powerful voices in the country. Va-Bene Elikem Fiatsi is a multidisciplinary artist, friend, mentor, mother and extraordinary human being, who calls herself a 'transvatar'. Our mantra reflects our gratitude to her as a generative force of inspiration, love and activism for local and international communities of all walks of life. Her presence makes us reflect on our own role and position in the socio-political system we are part of, connecting us all despite (and because of) our differences and distances. This performance-meditation took place at 8 am on the 25th February 2022, in the botanical garden of KNUST (the Kwame Nkrumah University of Science and Technology) in Kumasi, Ghana. In this place, together with the shrieking sounds of bats and the repetitive prayers of local Christian believers (whose faith condemns the existence of LGBTQI+ lives), we are uniting our bodies and souls in a spiritual and political act of resistance. The performance was developed as part of a month-long residency at pIAR (perfocraZe International Artist Residency), which Va-Bene Elikem Fiatsi has founded in her studio-house. The participants include artists in residence, regular assistants, interns and pIAR's extended family. This performance has been developed in Ghana as a collaboration between Giulia Casalini, Niya B and Va-Bene Elikem Fiatsi [crazinisT artisT]. Performers: Va-Bene Elikem Fiatsi / Eric Acquah / Kwame Brenya / Giulia Casalini / Richmond Donkor / Kwesi Gifted / Charley Mortensen / Valentina Peri / Martin Toloku Costumes: Marcella Nuerkie Akuetteh Filming and editing: Niya B Developed at: PerfocraZe International Artist Residency -pIAR |
| Type Of Art | Performance (Music, Dance, Drama, etc) |
| Year Produced | 2022 |
| Impact | This work has reached the local public in Ghana (approx. 250 people who were present at the LOVE fEAST on 29 January 2022) and we are currently applying to exhibitions and festivals to show the work in the UK and abroad. We received great feedback about the video-installation (the product that we showed at pIAR). |
| URL | https://niyab.com/I-Am-Here |
| Description | Santander Scholarship |
| Amount | £1,000 (GBP) |
| Organisation | Santander Universities |
| Sector | Private |
| Country | United Kingdom |
| Start | 07/2022 |
| End | 06/2023 |
| Description | Co-organiser - Queer Feminist Currents (Techne Conflux series) |
| Form Of Engagement Activity | A talk or presentation |
| Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
| Geographic Reach | International |
| Primary Audience | Postgraduate students |
| Results and Impact | Queer Feminist Currents is a Techne Conflux series of events and a two year collaboration amongst researchers at University of Roehampton and Royal Holloway, University of London. It seeks to provide a framework for the interrogation of key points of convergence and tension in contemporary queer, intersectional feminist and gender studies, decolonial critique, as well as theory and practice as interrelated. It started in February 2021 and it will end in January/February 2023. It comprises of 6 workshops/public events and one final symposium. The events that took place so far are: 1) 'Queer Futurity' - with Jack Halberstam (USA) An aim of this day-long online event was to take stock of the development of theories and practices of queer feminist futurity across disciplines over the last several decades, and consider their manifestations and applications in research. 2) 'Feminismo antipatriarcal and poetic disobedience' - with Latin American writers and performers Lukas Avendaño (Mexico), Paola Marugan (UAM-X, Mexico), Bertha Diaz (Ecuador), and Carolina Rocha/Dandara Suburbana (Brasil). This bilingual 2-day online event was conceived in a collaborative mode over a series of conversations attended by a transnational group of artists and researchers, including the invited speakers. This project moves across different languages and forms of knowledge-sharing, with the aim to challenge monolingualism and experimenting with embodied and situated approaches to translation and writing. 3) 'Afriquia: Activist Politics and Performance' - with Lynette Goddard (UK), Mojisola Adebayo (UK/Germany), Topher Campbell (UK), and zethu Matebeni (South Africa) This one-day online event explored Afriquia, as developed by the theatre artist and scholar Mojisola Adebayo, as a conceptual lens for considering queerness and African diaspora in contemporary artistic and activist research practices. 4) 'Roma Feminist & Queer Perspectives: Performance, Scholarship, Activism' - with artist Mihaela Dragan (Romania), and scholars and activists Dr Lucie Fremlova (UK) and Dr Angela Kóczé (Hungary) This two-day online interdisciplinary event focused on Roma queer and feminist activism, performance and scholarship in Europe, with a transnational perspective; it reflected on strategies and alliances, including between Roma and non-Roma people, across borders and disciplines in the current climate of heightened heteropatriarchal nationalisms. The conflux series aims to galvanize and extend an established research culture of queer feminist scholarship and practice in the arts and humanities amongst the University of Roehampton's staff, graduate students, and other students at TECHNE institutions. The series is focused on the reading of key contemporary queer feminist texts ('texts' here includes a number of possible forms) and workshops on key topics with an emphasis on performance. The series aims to interrogate the key points of convergence and tension in contemporary queer, intersectional feminist and gender studies. It will centre the vital work of scholars and practitioners of colour from a range of geographic and formal spaces, as well as providing a forum for in-depth engagement with the latest works by both early career and more established leading figures in a feminist mode. |
| Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2021,2022 |
| URL | https://queerfeministcurrents.wordpress.com/ |
| Description | Conference organiser - On Transversality (with keynotes by Astrida Neimanis, D. Soyini Madison and Chandra Talpade Mohanty) (TECHNE, online) |
| Form Of Engagement Activity | Participation in an activity, workshop or similar |
| Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
| Geographic Reach | International |
| Primary Audience | Postgraduate students |
| Results and Impact | "Since starting her doctoral research, Giulia has been very proactive in developing and disseminating her research as was recently demonstrated when she worked with a group of Techne students to organise the student-led conference 'On Transversality in Practice and Research' which took place in December 2020 via Zoom. This was an impressive event with international impact. A total of 600 attendees registered to attend and it successfully captured the attention of international researchers from New Zealand China, India, South Africa, Europe, Canada, the US and Argentina. The registered participants have also shown a strong interest in accessing the recordings after the conference. Giulia and the other presenters also benefitted from this experience by being able to develop international networks with which to share and discuss their research. The theme and the curation of the conference allowed for an inter-disciplinary, international and inter-generational conversation to take place. There was also a good balance between creative and critical discourses that was greatly appreciated by the conference participants and attendees. The digital medium was used in the best way in order to create a space in which world-known scholars were able to share their research and to participate in this event in a way that would not have been possible in 'normal' circumstances. The format of the conference has allowed the organisational team to have a less orthodox academic approach. This allowed to, for example, reach out to indigenous communities in the Philippines and Mexico and to share their artistic work and social struggles, or having a live performance from Ghana. This conference has continued the work of networking among researchers that Giulia started in 2020 and that has also involved other TECHNE students: through a monthly reading group called 'Intersections' and a study-day series on 'Transnational queer-feminist methodologies,' the conference has created a continuity among those who have been participating in these study groups, all funded by TECHNE and attended by both internal and external participants. To end, the enthusiastic feedback that we received serves as a testimony to the hard work, passion, positive attitude and critical sharpness that has brought this conference together in such challenging times. Indeed, it emerges that this conference's concept and its organisational attitude have been very much wished for in such divisive and isolating times." |
| Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2020 |
| URL | https://ontransversality.wordpress.com/ |
| Description | Guest speaker - Staging Decadence (AHRC-funded, Goldsmiths University, London). |
| Form Of Engagement Activity | A talk or presentation |
| Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
| Geographic Reach | International |
| Primary Audience | Study participants or study members |
| Results and Impact | Guest speaker - 'Trans/gender 'terrorism' and occultism in Linn da Quebrada's Afro-Brazilian post-punk music and performance', for the AHRC-funded project Staging Decadence (Goldsmiths University, London, 31 March 2021). The talk is based on the 3rd chapter of my PhD thesis. The talk was also shared online via Youtube, therefore attracting further audience [link here https://www.youtube.com/watch?t=3011&v=X2KZRs4p9zo&feature=youtu.be ] I have also been invited for further filming by the Staging Decadence team, which has been completed and is now being edited into a documentary. |
| Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2021 |
| URL | https://www.stagingdecadence.com/films |
| Description | Lokomotiva, Skopje: Feminist Alliances for the Future (presentation and discussion) |
| Form Of Engagement Activity | A formal working group, expert panel or dialogue |
| Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
| Geographic Reach | International |
| Primary Audience | Study participants or study members |
| Results and Impact | I was invited to be part of the conference 'At the edge of climate catastrophe: Art, culture, ecology and policy making in the 21st century' which took place on May 20-21, 2022 at the Museum of Contemporary Art of Skopje, North Macedonia. The event took place in person and was later released on YouTube. Questions for the panelists were: What are the new modes and principles of collective action that work for the living world? Why do they seem to work in different corners of the world? Can we systematize knowledge/make policy/create institutions based on these principles? |
| Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2022 |
| URL | https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qkwidZ-wHWQ |
| Description | Organiser - Intersections Reading Group |
| Form Of Engagement Activity | A formal working group, expert panel or dialogue |
| Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
| Geographic Reach | National |
| Primary Audience | Postgraduate students |
| Results and Impact | Intersections is a monthly reading group led by PhD students which allows for the space to discuss texts surrounding environmental, feminist, queer, critical race theories and their intersections. The reading group aims to connect postgraduate students and other independent researchers to regularly engage and discuss texts, as outlined above. The reading group also connects and engages with the other activities that I have been leading during this scholarship (e.g. Queer Feminist Conflux, Transnational Methodologies, On Transversality). |
| Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2020,2021,2022 |
| URL | https://intersectionsreadinggroup.wordpress.com/ |
| Description | Organiser - Transnational queer-feminist methodologies in live art (TECHNE, online) |
| Form Of Engagement Activity | A formal working group, expert panel or dialogue |
| Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
| Geographic Reach | International |
| Primary Audience | Postgraduate students |
| Results and Impact | EVENTS Transnational queer-feminist methodologies in live art is an online study day series consisting of two events, each across two days, with two internationally renowned scholars and activists in the field of transnational queer and feminist studies. The events are aimed at engaging a small group of PhD students, in order to develop, share, and discuss ideas and concepts together with the invited scholars. Study day #1: 'Undercurrents in performance-activism' with Macarena Gómez-Barris (Wednesday, 30 September - Thursday 1 October, 2020) The first event of the series is 'Undercurrents in performance-activism' and it is dedicated to the work of Macarena Gomez-Barris (Pratt Institute, New York), the title being inspired by her latest monograph Beyond the Pink Tide: Art and Political Undercurrents in the Americas (2018). This study day will investigate the ways queer-feminist artists-activists create spaces of radical and decolonial potential through their visual, sonic, and performative work. We will explore how art informs theories and political practices that challenge capitalism, patriarchy, and colonialism by moving beyond the power of the nation-state - through cross-border alliances formed by affective, coalitional, and non-extractive praxes. Study day #2: 'Visual diasporic archives' with Gayatri Gopinath (Wednesday, 3 - Thursday 4 February 2021) The second event of the series is 'Visual diasporic archives' and it is dedicated to the work of Gayatri Gopinath (NYU, New York), the title being inspired by her last monograph Unruly Visions: The Aesthetic Practices of Queer Diaspora (2018). This study day will investigate the affective and political resonances produced within a queer diasporic perspective. We will explore and imagine alternative cartographies through visual queer archives that foreground dimensions of regions whilst creating transnational affiliations and affinities. IMPACT The events have played a major role in galvanising a cohort of students and independent researchers committed to queer and feminist methodologies, and transnational perspectives. These events have been weaved with an independent TECHNE-led study group called Intersections, which has been going on (online) since June 2020, and the formation of a TECHNE conflux called 'Queer Feminist Currents', of which some of the organisers of this study-day are part. These same methodological reflections have been explored in the 2020 student-led conference On Transversality, that I have led. The organising group of this study-day is continuing their collaboration with an upcoming TECHNE-funded study-day event, led by Clare Daly. Besides the invaluable aspect of consolidating collaboration and networking among TECHNE students and PhD/independent researchers more generally, this online event series has also allowed us to connect with well-known academics from overseas who might have not been able to travel to the UK for a physical event, and share with them our research/practice. The events indeed had a dedicated section in which we asked participants to respond to a proposed exercise, tailored for each study-day. Last but not least, the conceptual frameworks that we explored during these events have been of great help to the participants, who found the event very engaging and exciting for their own research. Personally, I have been using these stimulant conversations and teachings for my own PhD methodology, and I have just submitted a paper for a peer-reviewed journal that explores exactly the 'transnational queer-feminist methodologies' we discussed during these events. It is therefore my intention to keep on conducting my research on Transnational queer-feminist methodologies in live art, and possibly apply for more event funding in the future. |
| Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2020,2021 |
| URL | https://transnationalqueerfeministmethodologies.wordpress.com/ |
| Description | Paper presentation - Queer Disrupt conference (University of Warwick, online). |
| Form Of Engagement Activity | A talk or presentation |
| Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
| Geographic Reach | International |
| Primary Audience | Postgraduate students |
| Results and Impact | Paper presentation - 'Transnational Queer-feminist Methodologies in Live Art' as part of Queer Disrupt conference (University of Warwick, online). The talk has been recorded and added to the organiser's Youtube channel, therefore reaching even more audiences [link here https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=n8keKsYC21I&t=4s ] I received great feedback, which has then gone into a new publication (now under peer review) [forthcoming] Casalini, G., 'Transnational Queer-feminist Methodologies in Live Art: Issues of Translation and Representation in Va-Bene Elikem Fiatsi's work,' Contemporary Theatre Review (Taylor & Francis, special issue 'What's Queer About Queer Performance Now'), 2022. |
| Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2021 |
| URL | https://www.queerdisrupt.com/index.php/conference/ |
| Description | Paper presentation - Taboo-Transgression-Transcendence in Art & Science conference (University of Applied Arts Vienna, online) |
| Form Of Engagement Activity | A talk or presentation |
| Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
| Geographic Reach | International |
| Primary Audience | Study participants or study members |
| Results and Impact | Paper presentation 'Speculating Transfeminist Ecosystems' as part of Taboo-Transgression-Transcendence in Art & Science conference (University of Applied Arts Vienna, online, November 2020). This was part of my 1st PhD chapter. Following the conference, I have now submitted and got approved a paper for publication: [forthcoming] Casalini, G, 'Creating Sex/Gender Ecologies: Quimera Rosa's Trans*Plant,' Technoetic Arts Journal (Intellect, special Issue 'TTT2020'), 2022. |
| Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2020 |
| URL | https://avarts.ionio.gr/ttt/ |
| Description | Performing Borders: On Work (interview) |
| Form Of Engagement Activity | A press release, press conference or response to a media enquiry/interview |
| Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
| Geographic Reach | International |
| Primary Audience | Professional Practitioners |
| Results and Impact | I conducted this interview for the transnational live art project Performing Borders, which focussed on my collaborative practice and my experience in Ghana with artist Va-Bene Elikem Fiatsi (research trip funded by TECHNE). |
| Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2022 |
| URL | https://performingborders.live/interviews/on-work-interview-with-giulia-casalini-niya-b/ |
| Description | Quaderni: Queer Art - Live Art The Role of Art in Shaping Queer Identity, through Five Italian Artists (online and printed) |
| Form Of Engagement Activity | Engagement focused website, blog or social media channel |
| Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
| Geographic Reach | International |
| Primary Audience | Professional Practitioners |
| Results and Impact | I was invited to write an article regarding the post-2000s queer art in the Italian context. The article was translated into Italian and English and published both in print and online by Treccani Arte - one of the most famous and established publishing houses in Italy. This publication is curated by Rome's Quadriennale, an important centre for contemporary art. |
| Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2023 |
| URL | https://quadriennalediroma.org/en/queer-art-live-artthe-role-of-art-in-shaping-queer-identity-throug... |
| Description | TQW Magazin: Giulia Casalini on The School of Mountains and Water by Amanda Piña (online and printed) |
| Form Of Engagement Activity | A magazine, newsletter or online publication |
| Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
| Geographic Reach | International |
| Primary Audience | Professional Practitioners |
| Results and Impact | Tanz Quartier Wien has asked me to document the performance of artist Amanda Piña with a creative text. The text circulated online and in-print in Austria and abroad. This engagement is part of my TECHNE placement. |
| Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2022 |
| URL | https://tqw.at/en/pedir-permiso-asking-for-permission/ |
| Description | YOW: Va-Bene Elikem Fiatsi [crazinisT artisT] interviewed by Giulia Casalini: Performance as Life (online) |
| Form Of Engagement Activity | A magazine, newsletter or online publication |
| Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
| Geographic Reach | International |
| Primary Audience | Professional Practitioners |
| Results and Impact | I transcribed and edited my 4-hour-long conversation with Ghanaian artist Va-Bene Elikem Fiatsi. The text has been published in the online magazine Year of the Woman (Schwules Museum, Berlin), reaching both German and international audiences. The interview was conducted during my TECHNE-financed research trip. |
| Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2022 |
| URL | https://yearofthewomen.net/de/magazin/performance-as-life |