The project “Body Hegemonies” set its focus on aspects of bodies that have been/are being excluded or made invisible within contemporary and historical discourses. “Body Hegemonies” works on the transdisciplinary interface (entanglement) of theorists, performers and everyday practitioners (experts), in an attempt to make possible other forms of knowing and knowledge production.

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The Conversations (Days 1-3)

6 artists and theorists met over three consecutive days to hold Skype dialogues with 6 experts (of daily life). Each of the 6 participants suggested their own choice of virtual dialogue partner. The invited experts came from different national/international contexts. Each dialogue lasted between one to two hours and revolved around the mutual exploration of bodily experiences of (dis)empowerment and empowerment. Careful attention was paid to ensure that he exchange was mutual and on equal footing. It was an experimental-transfer in as much as the "Cologne" side continued to experiment performatively with the insights gained from the exchange.

 

Both dialogue partners focused on the personal-biographical dimensions as well as the context-specific dimension of the topic of investigation. The conversations were recorded and available as possible audio-visual documentation for the performance. Here it is important to emphasize that the aim was not to reproduce performatively the trauma or experiences of violence of the “other”, but rather to be prepared to engage in an open and resonant conversation whereby one’s own bodily perceptions and responses to one’s dialogue partner could be historically and structurally translated and located in performance. It was not meant as an exercise of speaking for an ‘other’, but rather to engage in a ‘dance’ of dialogically resonant and mutually dynamic negotiation. These Skype conversations took place on the first three days of the performance laboratory.

 

After every Skype conversation the participants from "Cologne" came together to share with the whole group (6 artists) their topic and their Skype partner as well as any insights they gained from the conversations. By the end of the first three days all physical participants has a good understanding of everyone's conversations.

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The Themes

The Body as a Target - Arahmaiani meets Gunnar Stange

The Radicalized Body and the Museum - Ciraj Rassool meets Dierk Schmidt

The Body and Institutional Violence - Fabian Chyle meets Kris Larsen

Bodies in Transformation: Gender, Race and Civic Belonging - Kelvin Kilonzo meets Lea Gulditte Hestelund:

Bodies in Time and Space - Michael Lazar meets Sari Khoury

Diasporic-Transnational-Migrant-Bodies - Monica van der Haagen-Wulff meets Paschal Daantos Berry

 

The Transdisciplinary Compilation - or - Bringing it All Together (Days 4-5)

On day 4 the participating Cologne artists met to examine the body of developed material. Using performative techniques (for e.g. sampling, deconstruction, transforming) the material was explored, new connections or causal relationships made transparent, accentuated and slowly brought together into a joint movement.  

 

The Performance – The Laboratory Goes Public (Day 6)

On day 6 the results of the material developed in the laboratory were presented to the public at the University of cologne. This public-showings was flanked by a mini-symposium around the topic of body hegemonies. The aim of the symposium was to couch the results of the artistic research within a larger discursive context. Two papers were presented in the framework of the symposium:

Paper 1. “Regular Visits to Purdah Baag: Creating the Modern Body in Early Twentieth Century India”.​

Prof. Dr. Devleena Ghosh, teaches at the Faculty of Arts and Social Sciences at the University of Technology Sydney. She has published widely in the fields of postcolonial, environmental and gender studies

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Paper 2. “The Paradox of Hegemonic Vulnerability in Reproductive Narratives”

Dr. Jules Sturm is an independent researcher based in Amsterdam and teaches at the Art Academy the “Sandberg Instituut” on critical theories of the body. Her background is in philosophy and gender studies, literary and cultural analysis.
 

Of crucial importance to "Body-Hegemonies -an Experimental Transfer 2017" was the meeting/interaction of various disciplines and international contexts and the resulting development of (new) narratives. Furthermore, the development of Body-Hegemonies 2017 provides a platform for the already commenced dialogue between the artists and (social)scientists from the Workshop ‘Shifting Memories - Moving Histories: Remembering Postcolonial Cologne’ (May 2016) to be broadened and consolidated with the aim of developing an artistic and theoretical practice together. This theoretical/practice foundation will provide the basis for a large performative conference in 2018. The material that emerged from Body-Hegemonies - an Experimental Transfer 2017 will act as the base for further development and presented as part of the Performative conference.