“I know what you want
You want me to step up to the mic
And say ‘love is love’
But that’s not what I want
Or what I believe
Cause love doesn’t keep my sisters safe
So love alone won’t set us free”
(Too Attached 2018)
Love is not love. Legally recognized forms of love, romantic relationships, neoliberal marketed self-love, and fantasies of harmony in political movements do not protect against (deadly) discrimination. Nor are they liberating per se. Rather, they perpetuate racism, Eurocentrism, capitalism, classism, as well as ableism, and are thus deeply interwoven with the perpetuation of white supremacy. How can love be transformed and can we love trans*formations? These are urgent and complex issues, considering the ambiguous history of Switzerland as a nation state involved in the consolidation of (global) (post)colonial structures of inequality. ‘We’ need social trans*formations! But how to work on them, whilst challenging these structures of dominance? How can an ethic of love (bell hooks 2000) be practiced to subvert these structures? How to become an army of lovers (Anonymous 1990) without succumbing to deadly fantasies of love (Eleanor Wilkinson 2017)? How to practice love every day to nourish political movements (Syrus Marcus Ware 2017), in which complexity and difference are deeply valued, in order to fall out of love with relations of power and violence (lann hornscheidt 2018)?
Together with inter/national activists, artists, and academics we want to create a space to work on these questions in different formats.
PROGRAMM
Friday, 28. Juni
5 p.m. Doors open
6 p.m. Welcome & “Non-linear History of open wounds”, installation and lecture-performance by Kamran Behrouz (CH/IR)
7 p.m. “Sit with the discomfort”, lecture by Syrus Marcus Ware (CAN)
“On Re-Considering Trans* Politics and Trans Studies”, lecture by Yv E. Nay (CH)
Following the lectures > “What’s love got to do with it?”, discussion with Kamran, Syrus and Yv and audience
9 p.m. Dinner
10 p.m. “Trans*forming Love: Loving Trans*formations”, film screening by trans*screenings (AUT), original soundtrack: English and Spanish, English subtitles
Saturday, June 29th
2-4 p.m. "Sie nennen es Liebe - Wir nennen es Arbeit?" Kitchen Table Talk zu Klasse, Care und Prekarität mit Francis Seeck (GER)*
5-7 p.m. “Activist Love Letters”, workshop with Syrus Marcus Ware (CAN)*
8 p.m. Dinner
“Love songs recollected”, sound-installation by Fender Schrade (GER)
* due to limited space, we kindly ask participants to register for the workshop and the kitchen table talk on Saturday afternoon via lovetransformations@gmx.ch before June 25th
Accessibility:
Location:Les Complices*, Anwandstrasse 9, CH-8004 Zürich, see also: lescomplices.ch/
Public Service:tram 2 or 3 to “Bezirksgebäude”; tram 8 or bus 31 to “Helvetiaplatz”
Partly wheelchair-accessible:There are rails at the side entrance for wheelchairs weighing up to 230 kg. We are happy to assist in case it is too steep. Unfortunately, the toilet is not accessible, but there is an accessible toilet at BEBEK, Badenerstrasse 171 (approx. 500m distance) which can be used.
Language:English and German, self-organized translations
Food: gluten-free, vegan
Air Quality: The room is smoke-free. Further, we are committed to keeping the air scent-free. Exposure to scents can cause serious health problems for persons with chemical sensitivities. Therefore, we kindly ask our guests to avoid perfume, hairsprays, and other cosmetics with added fragrances.
Entrance is free, donations for food and drinks are welcome but not mandatory.
“Love Trans*formations” is organized by Jonah I. Garde (AUT/CH) and Simon Harder (DE/CH) in cooperation with Gökçe Ergör/Les Complices*. The event marks the end of the research project “Art Education as a Site for Negotiating In*Visibilities” at the Institute for Cultural Studies in the Arts at the Zurich University of the Arts.
Funding:
ZHdK, ICS
Fonds Respect (LOS, TGNS, PINK CROSS)
Gleichstellung der Universität Zürich
