16 - 21 June 2025: LAB II_A haven of joy and resistance (Research Phase)
21 June 2025, 11am - 1pm: OPEN LAB II_Workshop @ Studio2 / ITI Germany
When Alex D. Loo and her drum ensembles Bomba Cuir and Yemayá organise artistic interventions for women’s and LGBTQI+ rights in public spaces in Arequipa and Lima (Peru), they face violence and the threat of arrest. Collective, joyful, and defiant music and dance allow them to stand up to state and social violence. 12.140 kilometers away, in Kampala (Uganda), queer people risk their lives if they dare to freely exist in society. Gerald Odil Ronnie and their queer artist collective, Anti-Mass, have created underground refuges of joy, love, and ecstasy in response to oppression and hatred.
In this LAB, Alex and Gerald place the dissident, non-normative body at the centre of their artistic research, as a powerful and sensitive tool for political activism and resistance. At the end of LAB II, Alex and Gerald invite you to the Open LAB: texts, sounds, rhythms and materials that were created during the research week will be presented. In dialogue with the audience, the two residents will discuss on their artistic and activist work.
