Zatvoren prvi Queer New York!

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Izvedbom ‘Pâquerette’ Cecilie Bangoleae i Françoisa Chaignauda u petak je u New Yorku biti zatvoren prvi Queer New York International Arts Festival (QNYI): novi festival suvremene i vizualne umjetnosti koji istražuje i širi koncept queera; koji je u organizaciji udruge Domino, uz Perforacije, drugi hrvatski kulturno-izvedbeni proizvod koji se seli u metropolu preko Atlantika a cilj mu je uspostaviti platformu za širenje diskursa umjetničkih praksi i modela prezentacije u jednom novom okruženju.

Radovi koji su predstavljeni u festivalskom programu, a uključuju internacionalna imena suvremene umjetnosti poput Marlene Monteiro Freitas, Tadasua Takamine, Ricci / Forte, i druge – snažno izaziva i širi trenutno pomanje queera: redefinira ga kao sve što egzistira van normi i stvara kontekst u kojem ih izvedbeni umjetnici izazivaju, iako se sami u tradicionalnom smislu nikada ne bi povezali s terminom ‘queer’. Autori predstavljeni na festivalu dolaze iz niza prominentnih institucija i festivala diljem svijeta: poput Festival d’Avignon, Festival d’Automne Paris, Montpellier Danse, Kunstfestivala u Belgiji ili HAU-a u Njemačkoj. Ponuditi ovim izvođačima izvedbe u okviru queer festivala nešto je što niti jedna od spomenutih institucija ili festivala nisu do sada učinili. Stoga QNYI dodaje nove perspektive njihova rada – publici i umjetnicima.

„Uvriježeno je mišljenje i poimanje dobre umjetnosti kao one koja je otvorena za interpretaciju – kako je izjavio Umberto Eco. To govori kako su ove vrijedne umjetničke izvedbe takve zbog svoje mogućnosti da pokrenu individualno i društveno. Stoga je dobro pitanje hoćemo li prefiksom ‘queer’ smanjiti mogućnosti interpretacije ovih djela i time smanjiti njihovu vrijednost? Prema iskustvu jednog od kuratora festivala, Zvonimira Dobrovića, ovi radovi često nemaju prepoznate queer slojeve. Mnogo je razloga zašto prolaze neopaženo, a oni mogu varirati preko čitavog niza lokalnih i specifičnih društveno-povijesnih konteksta. Međutim, glavni je razlog heteronormativnost“, izjavio je André von Ah, jedan od kuratora festivala.

Hrvatski predstavnik na prvom Queer New Yorku bio je Željko Zorica sa svojim projektom međunarodnih jestivih instalacija koji je u produkciji Domina u svibnju izveden u sklopu Noći performansa na slovenskom festivalu Prelet kao ‘KroaTisch Slowenische Freundschaft’. Na Queer New York International Arts festivalu je projekt zaživio  u ‘KroaTisch-Amerikanische Freundschaft’ 2.0. inačici koja je prvi put predstavljena 2010. prikazujući tadašnjeg predsjednika SAD-a Georgea Busha i hrvatskog premijera Ivu Sanadera u slavljeničkom moodu nad večerom koju su blagovale pečene domaće životinje. U međuvremenu, politička situacija se promijenila u obje države: Ameriku novim mandatom želi zavesti Barrack Obama koji se baš prikladno nedavno susreo s premijerom Zoranom Milanovićem.

„O postavi stola mislim kroz metafore ponuđene hrane. Koji put se služim stereotipima kako bi suprotstavio odnose među likovima i politikama kojima se bavim. Recimo likovi u Zagrebu imali su umjesto šaka kuhane hobotnice. Sve je bilo puno šećera. Bijelog šećera. Jasni su odnosi. Hobotnica – kriminal, korupcija. Bijeli šećer – nevino i slatko ali i smrtonosno. Poznato je da je rafinirani šećer iznimno poguban po ljudsko zdravlje“, kaže nam Zorica koji je organizirao događanja na kojima je namjerno napijao publiku i posredno ih nagovarao na prejedanje. Međutim, naglašava kako Kroatisch projekt ne želi banalizirati ozbiljne probleme Svijeta u kojem živimo. „Projekt doživljavam kao osobni povratak camp estetici a teme kojima se bavim vidim kao kič. Kič je raketni štit, cijene nafte, način biranja vladajuće elite, imena stranaka ispražnjena od značenja“, kaže.

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FIRST QUEER NEW YORK IS CLOSED!
With the performance Pâquerette by Cecilia Bangolea and François Chaignaud this friday in New York the first ever Queer New York International Arts Festival (QNYI) has been closed: it’s a new contemporary and visual arts festival that examines and expands the queer concept; which was organized by Domino association, and is alongside The Perforations Festival, second Croatian cultural and performative product that migrates to a metropolis across the Atlantic with the goal to establish a platform for dissemination of artistic discourse practices and models of presentation in a new environment.

The work that has been presented in the festival program, which includes names from international contemporary arts such as Marlene Monteiro Freitas, Tadasu Takamine, Ricci/Forte and others – strongly challenges and expands current understading of the term queer: it redefines it as everything that exists beyond norms and creates a context in which performance artists can challenge them, although they would never associate themselves with the term ‘queer’ in the traditional sense. The authors presented at the festival come from a range of prominent institutions and festivals around the world: Festival d’Avignon, Festival d’Automne Paris, Montpellier Danse, Kunstfestivala in Belgium or HAU in Germany. To offer these artists performances under queer festival is something that none of the mentioned institutions and festivals has done. Therefore QNYI adds a new perspectives to their work – to the audience and the artists themselves.

“Traditional opinion and understanding of good art is as one that is open to interpretation.”, as stated by Umberto Eco. That says that these valuable art performances are such because of their ability to launch the individual and the social. Therefore it is good to question whether we reduce the value and the possibility of interpretation of these works by putting the queer prefix in front of them? In experience of one of the festival curators, Zvonimir Dobrović, these works often lack the recognized queer layers. There are many reasons why they pass unnoticed, and they can vary over a range of local and specific socio-historical contexts. However, the main reason for that is heteronormativity, stated by André von Ah, one of the festival curators.

Croatian representative at the first Queer New York was Željko Zorica with his international edible installations project, which was ,produced by Domina association, in May performed within the Performance Night of the Slovenian Festival Prelet as “KroaTisch Slowenische Freundschaft”. In QNYI the project has been carried out in its “KroaTisch-Amerikanische Freundschaft” 2.0 version which was first presented in 2010 showing former United States president George Bush and the Croatian prime minister Ivo Sanader in celebratory mood over dinner which was eaten by roasted farm animals. Meanwhile, the political situation has changed in both countries: Barrack Obama wants to seduce Amerika with his new mandate, who recently suitably met with our new prime-minister Zoran Milanović.

“I think about the table setup through the metaphor of food which is served. Sometimes I use stereotypes to counter relations between characters and politics I’m interested in. For example, the characters in Zagreb had boiled octopuses instead of fists. Everything was full of sugar. White sugar. The relations are quite clear. Octopus – crime, corruption. White sugar – innocent and sweet but deadly. It is known that refined sugar is extremely bad for human health.”, said Zorica, who used to deliberately get his audience drunk and made the over eat. However, he wants to caution us that the Kroatisch project doesn’t want to trivialize serious problems of the world we live in. “I perceive this project as a personal comeback to camp esthetics, and the subject I deal with are perceived as kitsch. Kitsch is a rocket shield, oil price, the way we choose the ruling elite, names of parties emptied of any meaning.”