18. jun. 2013

Delavnica Svetovi drugih na Mladih rimah

Zadnja delavnica v seriji mnogih, ki so od leta 2007 potekale pod naslovom Svetovi drugih - v angleščini In Other Wor(l)ds - je potekala 27. junija 2013 v okviru Mladih rim - 6. festivala mlade neuveljavljene poezije ter ostalih ustvarjalnosti s podnaslovom Nobenih problemov, samo običajno jebanje. Mlade rime šest in nočem domov.

Vabilo na delavnico je na dnu objave, najprej pa edina za splet prepisana zgodba izpred Menze. Avtoric ne navajam na njihovo željo.

Ljubljana 4000
Ljubljana 4000, poletno popoldne. Poskusi spreminjanja podnebja v tem mestu niso uspeli. Tako kot v 21. stoletju so bili dnevi oblačni, soparni in zadušljivi. Še govoreči kip na medplanetarni transportni postaji se je znojil.

Mašenka Tereškova je prispela s teletransportno kabino št. 5/208. Pot je bila kratka, a vseeno je bila utrujena. Od nenadnega premika iz Moskve v Ljubljano je imela pritisk v ušesih. Pogledala je skozi okno postaje in zagledala sivo bitje, ki je v pozi sključenega misleca negibno klečalo na nizkem podstavku z napisom »Vprašaj me karkoli«.

Mašenka je šla h kipu in rekla: »Lačna sem. Kje v tem mestu imajo najboljše piroške?«

Kip je komaj opazno premaknil svoje kamnite ustnice. Zaslišal se je votel glas: »Ljubljana 4000, tukaj ni pirošk, že zdavnaj so jih umaknili s tržišča. Poskusite hamburger. Konec.«

Mašenka se je namrdnila. »Prekleta globalizacija. Se res ne da nikjer več kupiti nečesa, kar ne bi bilo ameriško?«

»Ljubljana 4000, vse je ameriško, samo Rusija še vztraja pri nacionalni hrani,« je kip odvrnil z istim brezizraznim tonom. »Toda Lord Americco bo uredil tudi ta problem. Konec.«

»Ne bo mu uspelo,« je bojevito rekla Mašenka. »Lord Russo je morda manj mogočen od Americca, toda za svojo državo se bo podal v vojno, če bo treba. Ne bomo se amerikanizirali.«

Kip je to preprosto preslišal. »Ljubljana 4000, bi morda raje obiskali novo plažo? Konec.«

»Plaža sredi Ljubljane?« se je začudila Mašenka.

»O ja, po ukazu Lorda Americca so prejšnji teden postavili novo plažo z umetnim morjem. Cene zelo ugodne. Konec.«

»Se na umetni plaži lahko tudi najém?«

»Počakajte. Procesiram. Konec.«

Mašenka je zamahnila z roko in se razgledala po okolici. Kentucky Fried GMO-Chicken, McDonalds' Galatic … še zanikrni kiosk na njeni levi se je kitil z ameriško zastavico, na kateri je bilo od leta 3528 dalje 250 zvezdic, torej vsa pomembnejša mesta v osončju.

Mašenka se je zasmejala, se potrkala po svojem neprebojnem jopiču in se odpravila h kiosku. Imenoval se je Ajda. Edina jed na meniju je bil pomfri iz orjaškega sladkega krompirja. Krompirčki so v dolžino merili do 40 centimetrov. Ogledni izvod na pultu je spominjal na šop velikanski slamic za koktejle. Paličaste krompirčke je obkrožala solata v mavričnih odtenkih.

»Dan,« je Maša pozdravila prodajalko na rolerjih. »En pomfri, prosim. Brez solate.«

Prodajalka jo je začudeno pogledala. Njene oči so se zavrtele nazaj in Mašenki se je za hip zdelo, da je v njih videla dolarski znak.

»Ne bo šlo, solata je obvezna, izbrati morate vsaj eno.«

»Pa kaj še!«

»Žal, takšni so predpisi.«

Mašenka je tiho zaklela in naročila vijolično solato.

»Odlična izbira,« je zaklicala prodajalka, »vijola vas bo pomladila!«

»Še tega se mi manjka,« je prhnila Mašenka.

Plačala je čisto preveč denarja in na hitro zbasala vase ogabno ameriško hrano. Ni se več spomnila, zakaj je sploh prišla v Ljubljano. Stožilo se ji je po ruski svobodi.

Ulice so bile prazne. Očitno so se res vsi odpravili na novo plažo. Lord Americco je znal pritegniti ljudi. Z vsemi njegovimi pogruntavščinami sploh ni bilo čudno, da je postal tako vpliven. Toda Mašenka je dobro vedela, da se bo njihov vladar temu uprl. In na klic iz vojske je bila pripravljena. Borila se bo za svojo državo, do zmage.

V teletransportni kabini, ki jo je pripeljala nazaj v Moskvo, se je odločila. V peti svetovni vojni bo zmagala Rusija. Izdelki po svetu ne bodo več ameriški. Ruski bodo.

*


Delavnica skupinskega pisanja zgodb
Svetovi drugih 

Če misliš, da »ne znaš pisati«, »nimaš inspiracije« ali »zadostnih izkušenj«, te na delavnici čaka presenečenje: nadrealistična igra za skupinsko pisanje zgodb slastno trupelce bo pokopala vse tvoje zadržke. Kramp in lopato bo priskrbela Tea Hvala.

Vsakdo bo začel pisati svojo zgodbo in jo čez čas podal drugemu udeležencu. Ta jo bo prebral in nadaljeval po lastnem okusu. Zgodbe bodo krožile, dokler ne bomo vsi prispevali svoje pisave k vsem zgodbam. Če nas bo (na primer) šest, bo tako sočasno nastalo šest zgodb.

Delavnica se imenuje Svetovi drugih, ker je za skupinsko pisanje bolj kot tvoja nadarjenost ali izvirnost pomembno sodelovanje z ljudi, ki čutijo, razmišljajo in živijo drugače od tebe.

Udeležba brezplačna. Predhodne prijave sprejemamo na: mlada.menza@gmail.com [predmet: Svetovi drugih]
.
Četrtek, 27. junij, od 16:00 do 19:00, Menza pri koritu, Ljubljana

Tea Hvala piše kratke zgodbe in eseje, bere feministično znanstveno fantastiko in v Ljubljani soorganizira festival Rdeče zore. Delavnice Svetovi drugih organizira od leta 2008.
 .
Organizacija: Kud Mreža in Menza pri koritu.

7. jun. 2013

Cassandra's Riddle at Art Porn Week in Berlin

Photo: Nada Žgank / memento


Performance
Clytemnestra: Cassandra's Riddle
at Art Porn Week in Berlin on Thursday, June 13 at 21:45
Mindpirates Vereinsheim in the Red Room (Schlesiche Strasse 38, Haus F, 3rd courtyard)

In Ancient Greek epics, Clytemnestra, the queen of Mycenae, was routinely portrayed as the jealous and destructive femme fatale who felt little remorse for killing her husband, Agamemnon, and the Trojan princess Cassandra, his war prize and mistress.

In Cassandra's Riddle, Clytemnestra retells the tale in her own words, focusing on her relationship with Cassandra. In their last encounter, the Trojan prophetess, activist and erotic explorer spoke to her about the aural potentials of female sexuality in mind-teasing riddles – riddles Clytemnestra needs your help solving.


Clytemnestra (Mycenae, Ancient Greece) is Tea Hvala's stage persona, inspired by Christa Wolf's Cassandra (1983) and Marijs Boulogne's question, posed at the Tiny Buttons workshop, ran by Antonia Baehr and Keren Ida Nathan in Ljubljana in 2011. Since then, Tea has developed a few tiny amateur performances that focus on female masculinity and bikesexuality. She occasionally performs with the Rdeče zore (Red Dawns) impro theater group from Ljubljana.

Oddaja Sektor Ž: Queeristan, Seksizem med nami in Lean-In

Ekipa Sektorja Ž se je v preteklem mesecu udeležila dveh odličnih festivalov. Najprej bomo s Teo Hvala obiskale festival Queeristan in queerovski protest proti kriminalizaciji ljudi brez dokumentov v Amsterdamu. Teja Oblak se je udeležila debate in delavnice samo za ženske Seksizem med nami na Balkanskem anarhističnem sejmu knjig. Ida Hiršenfelder pa bo predelala pdf strani v knjigi Lean In: Women, Work, and the Will to Lead avtorice Sheryl Sandberg.

Report from Amsterdam's Queeristan festival and the Breaking Borders! protest on June 2nd with interviews and sounds by Rhythms of Resistance and Malmö's Fucked Up Kueers; followed by Teja Oblak's report from the discussion and workshop Sexism Among Us at Ljubljana's Anarchist Book Fair 2013 and Ida Hiršenfelder's review of Sheryl Sandberg's book Lean In: Women, Work, and the Will to Lead. The show is in Slovene with interviews in English.

Sobota, 8. junij ob 12.00 na Radiu Študent. Posnetek oddaje bo naknadno objavljen tukaj.
Saturday, June 8th at 12.00 at Radio Študent. You can listen to the show here.

6. jun. 2013

Collectively written erotic stories from Queeristan

All photos by YY

On June 1st, the 4th Queeristan festival in Amsterdam hosted my workshop in collective writing of porn, co-organized and co-facilitated by Bibliotheque Erotique's very own Lilly Miao. At the workshop, attended by twenty wonderfully relaxed people, we started by introducing ourselves with our porn name (invented at the spot), accompanied by a gesture and a sound that goes along with it. 

Olive, do you want to grease me? 
Yes, please. Blind-folded, on a trampoline with tarantulas crawling on my back and you biting my neck.

We continued by playing Definitions (or Question and Answer), a Surrealist game played in pairs, in which a question is written down and the paper is folded to conceal it from the next player who writes an answer. 

Do you think politics are sexy? 
Yes, nearly every day.

When will you be ready for the sexual riot against the government?
With full moon on a hot summer night, feeling turned upside down.

That is how we prepared for the climax: the collective writing of gender- and genre-fucking stories of our own. Again, we relied on Surrealist writing exercises; this time on Exquisite Corpse, a game for groups of four or five people in which each participant begins by writing her own story. Ten minutes later, he passes the piece to the next person. After reading it (or not), ze continues where the other person has stopped. The workshop is finished when everyone has written a part of every story.

Which place would you use for an erotic story to get an atmosphere that arouses you?
The experience was more intellectual-political than sexual, but it made me question sexuality in a different way.

The workshop ended with a reading and lots of hugs! Below, you can read some of our mistress-pieces. Check Bibliotheque Erotique's FB album for more photos, taken by YY. More stories are going to be published here and on Bibliotheque Erotique's webpage once we transcribe them. So, this is how we did it together ...


Question and Answer

How was it yesterday night?
Yes! I was drunk!

Tell me a fantasy that makes you feel guilty.
Spank me. Harder now.

If we were lovers, would you join me and my friends in a sexual private exploration?
Yes, definitely yes, would love to.

Do you remember how the first porn you watched made you feel?
For me, it’s arousing to sense the smell and sounds and touch of a person (in a situation with an erotic tension).

Describe the appearance of a person or object you fantasize about.
A woman making eyes at me across the room, we arrange to meet at midnight on a canal. I fuck her with my hand, we finish, we both walk away without speaking.

Did you ever have an erotic fantasy with your mother?
If I ever have a penis, I will explore all kinds of territories that I can’t explore now.

How would you like to have a sexy dinner with me?
With my tongue.

If I were an orange, how would you like to eat me?
Standing in front of a church, clearly using protection to make it safe.

What kind of food would you be for your lover or someone who you would like to eat?
Yes, of course. Several times, especially on public holidays and my birthday.

What has been your most surprising sexual experience?
I’d like to play with them while they play cello in an empty auditorium.

Which colour do your latest lovers tend to wear most?
I would like to try them all.

What was the best sex you ever had?
I would go for mellow mostly, aggressive occasionally.

What is your secret fantasy, if you know it?
Yes, please, take me to your secret garden and show me your flowers of passion.

Would you get naked on the street in front of everyone? What would you tell the people around you?
It was on the train, we both got naked and just stared at each other for an hour without touching while all other passengers were masturbating.

Do you belong to any religion? Do your sexual and spiritual practices intersect?
Because I like to sell myself.

Why did you become interested in spirituality and sex?
Because I want to push it further.

Where would you like to be touched?
In a mountain shelter, during a cold night.

Would you like to come with me to a waterfall to become wet in two seconds?
Yes, slowly, slowly, like a lazy snake on a hot summer day.

Where do you want me to start touching you?
In an old theatre, we are naked, reading for each other.

What kind of role playing games would you like to play?
Long black smooth hair, elf ears, and lips thirsty for kisses.



Exquisite Corpse

At the market - I

You were strolling around in your boots – it was midday and the sun was bright – and you stepped in front of me. I was standing behind my market stand with fruits and I was getting nervous. You looked right into my eyes and asked for a pound of strawberries.

“Why always strawberries,” I asked, “don't you wanna try mango?”

“Oh, mango, yeah, I like mango! My boyfriend actually named me Mango.”

Yellow skinned, sweet sometimes, stingy on the tongue, the taste hard core deep … Mango!

At this point, I thought: How should I eat the mango? By peeling off the skin of the fruit or by cutting through the flesh, to the cone, bit by bit?

“Hmmm, mango – yes please, a mango," I cried out loud and joined him behind the stand. I was holding that juicy fruit firmly in my hand.

“Can you cut it for me? I need to taste it badly.”

He took a knife, made a slit all around the mango, handling the fruit with the utmost care. Then his fingers pressed the two halves in their tight grip, stretching the slit open to uncover the hard pit. He discarded it. As he was handing me the cut fruit, his fingers were drenched in fresh sticky mango juice.

For a brief moment, our hands touched. We looked at each others eyes deeply – and kissed.

Fuck the mango!

That kiss was like dope. I couldn't think anymore. We were both hard and turned on. We were both lost in our intimacy, there was nothing else anymore around. He pulled my pants off and started touching me. With my boot, I pushed him to the market stand, took his pants off and fucked him.

It was intense, people were shocked and stunned, and they stopped moving. The atmosphere was super-sexual; it was like we had spread a sexual magic powder in the air. After a few minutes, the whole market turned into an orgy market!

























At the market - II
It is a rainy day in 2030, and I mean a rainy day. There is an open street market in the center of Amsterdam. The fish seller will usually stand at one of the river banks, with his collection of fish – especially on a rainy day. He will walk with his smelly fishy boots to welcome his customers.

All the fish are naked. I mean skin open naked, stretched on a 2030’s display table. They are in plates that look like Italian fish beds.

I ask for a pinkrosebudfish.

“Look how fresh it is, it just came out of the gen-tech facilities,” he says.

He takes his sharp knife and makes a quick incision along the fish belly which blossoms, revealing its fuchsia interiors.

I am wet.

He offers me a piece of that raw flesh and I immediately grab it and put it in my mouth. I close my eyes while chewing, and visualise the perfect dinner that fish could make; the herbs, the temperature, the wine. I open my eyes and glaze him so hard that even the dead fish feel the tension.

Was it a dream? I saw the fish jumping onto each other. Or were they dancing?

Suddenly, I saw myself lying under the fish, wearing nothing but my body skin, and the market person moving the fish up and down, from head to toe, over my body again and again.

This time, it felt so intense that I shouted out loud: “WAAAAW!”

Or was it just a dream?




At the market - III
It was the afternoon of May 2nd, a warm day at the street market. I wanted to make Gemsta: stuffed tomatoes and peppers with rice, baked in the oven. I was looking for big green peppers and juicy red tomatoes. The smell of the spices and the fruits in combination with the sweat of the people made the atmosphere at the market very attractive.

I felt myself almost fainting, and my knees got weak. I almost fell.

Two hands held me tight but very gently from behind to break my fall and I heard your voice saying: “Hoppla, are you okay?”

I turned around and saw you looking at me; and actually, then I really wanted to faint. Your lips were smiling and I wanted to get kissed all over; I wanted to get sucked into your mouth. I forgot all about my cooking plans.

Your mouth today, with hot-red lipstick, not my favorite color, but it is watery as usual. I want to suck those full-fat meat lips like I sucked your other two lips a while ago. What did they taste like? I forgot. But it doesn’t matter anymore. I will explore them again.

A fresh taste, today, here, at the market, in front of strangers passing by. Let me get wild with these lips; forget about the peppers, these hot-red peppers are never going to be on my plate again. I will put you on my main course tonight.

My daydreaming was making me lose control. I felt my body was shape-shifting right there in the middle of the market. My limbs now exposed were curling into new textures, and acquiring a taste of their own. They now were standing there as plump juicy tomatoes and heaps of fragrant red peppers.

Passers-by got all curious and excited by my transformation. Hands were touching my vegetable skin. Noses smelt my tangy perfume. Fingers were pressing my juices.

Good money was spent to buy me, piece by piece.

Once dropped off, I will end up carefully heated, smothered and greased, and tasted by the lusty velvet of your lips.


At the bike shop - I
Masha, the former bike race champion from Ostblok, entered the bike repair shop on Queeristan Street. It was to be her first day at work there, and it didn’t look good: the shop seemed abandoned and dusty. Moreover, there were pictures of current bike champions on the walls.

She heard noises in the back of the shop. She followed them and found what she was always looking for: Boris’s dog! Since she always wanted to be in one of Boris’s sexual fantasies, she decided to return at midnight wearing nothing but what she was born in! And she did.

When she came back at night, she noticed that she was not alone. Boris was at the shop as well. He did not notice Masha because he was too busy. Not for nothing he has a dog with such a big cock. He was obviously using it intensely in his everyday practice. They were intensely busy with a blow job in a 69 pose.

Masha was upset. There was no place for her in this setting.

“What are you doing here? Who are you?” a harsh voice interrupted her observations.

“I, i, i ... I’m sorry, I returned to fuck Boris’s dog but I see they are busy.”

“Oh, I see, maybe I can help you,” the person grabbed Masha’s hand. “Will you follow me?”

“Ok.”

They entered a room that was totally dark and smelled of animals.

“Let me introduce you to ... FickFackFuck – my horse. Do you like him?”

Masha did not answer. She immediately went to the wooden construction and bent over.


At the bike shop - II
I open the doors of FickFackFucks Bike Repair Shop and I am already trembling with excitement. The thought of FFF biting my neck makes me wet in three seconds. I let my finger slip in my slit to feel my wetness.

“Hello Masha, what are you doing? How are you? Great to see you,” FFF says, unzipping her greasy jacket.

“Huh!”

“So it is!” says FFF and slides her dirty black fingers into Masha’s pants.

Masha leans back on the front tire of a bike in repair, standing upside down. That is, the bike is upside down. She grabs the handles and starts to grind against the bike wheel that sinks in her butt crack while FFF’s fingers’ reach her from the front, creating an alchemic mix of grease and juice.

In the meantime, Boris was jaggin’ wildly around the corner. Not just jaggin’, but what is called French Jagging. The wet nose of his dog with a big cock was just next to his dick, which was about to explode. Moreover, the dog obviously came there by bike, which was broken and still had to be fixed.

But more about that in Part II.

Please, get back to us soon. We love U.


At the bike shop - III
It was a cold winter night in Slovakia. Masha was reaching her highest point of dissatisfaction and desperation in her sexuality while Fick Fack Fook was fickfackfooking Chache wildly, untimely.

As Boris was filming the beautiful mass, he found a way to help Masha.

“Do you want a glass of water?” Boris asked Masha.

“So sweet. What do you want back for it?”

“Help me to get satisfaction,” Boris said.

“Can I help you?”Masha asked and turned red.

“No, I totally don’t want you,” answered Boris.

“You know,” said Masha, “I have a solution. In our writing group, there is someone called Arabic Boy. He would definitely be happy to help you. I will go and get him.”

In a minute, Arabic Boy appeared and did his classic hip movement. This time, Boris turned red but there was no way back.

“Are you looking for satisfaction, Boris?” said Arabic Boy.

He came closer without touching Boris. Then, he sat down behind him and whispered in his ear:

“What does satisfaction mean to you?”

As Arabic Boy breathed in his neck, Boris felt goose bumps spread all over his body.

Masha was filming them. She didn’t have a microphone, so FFF provided the soundtrack with his “Ooohs” and “Aaaahs”.

Arabic Boy and Boris got tangled and tangled more, and when they screamed in satisfaction, Masha knew that – at least for them – the cold winter was over.

The film screening at Queeristan Film Festival 2050 was a success. The audience was hot, wet and loud.


At the bike shop - IV
It is the first wonderful summer day, and there are lots of visitors at the bike shop. It is Saturday and everyone wants to go cycling. A long line forms in front of the shop while Mozart’s music is heard from the inside.

It is very hot and people are getting irritated.

The guy who works at the shop goes to the toilet and doesn’t come back.

Someone claims s*he has to skip the line. S*he has to bring some new tubes and chains to the shop owner.

“All right, all right, go on.”

“Thank you,” says s*he and enters a room at the back of the store.

“Hey Boris, I got you some new tubes and chains.”

“Hey Chachi, that’s great, just leave them there, I’m busy now.”

But s*he does not leave the room.

“Uhm, what are you waiting for?” says Boris.

“I wanted to get your attention for a minute. Look at me.”

Boris puts down his tools and his eyes meet Chachi’s. Only then, he notices the metallic sparkles in her_his eyes, flying in his direction with the speed of a 3-gear bike. He is pulled towards the visitor and finds himself on his knees, licking the wet tubes in Chachi’s strong hands.

He is entranced. When he opens his eyes, he notices the customers. They have entered the shop and formed a circle around them. They touch themselves and moan loudly while Mozart’s music disappears in the background.

You might think this is the end of the story – but not yet!

Everyone was very patient. It was going in the direction nobody would expect. Fireworks everywhere, everyone was taking part in this Shortbus! A drop of Eternity!

The end (that would always continue)!

27. maj 2013

Workshop in Collective Writing of Independent Porn at Queeristan in Amsterdam


A Workshop in Collective Writing of Independent Porn
by Tea Hvala and Bibliotheque Erotique
at Queeristan Festival in Amsterdam
http://queeristan.org/2013/05/21/workshop-erotic-writing/

Time: Saturday, June 1st from 12:00 to 16:00
Location: Op De Valreep


At the workshop, we are going to play with the rigid conventions of genre and gender and experiment with producing (semi)pornographic writing that turn us on. We are going to rely on our imagination, our individual erotic fantasies and collective writing techniques in which strange, sometimes humorous, sometimes poetic, and sometimes scary conjunctions arise from, so it seems, pure chance.

We won’t wait for inspiration. We won’t worry about controlling the narrative either. We are going to put aside individual artistic value and try out several collective approaches that can teach us to let go, trust our co-writers as well as our imagination – and our ability as writers.

The workshop is going to start with a short discussion on how we can reclaim the right to sexual pleasure as we like it, and the beauty of bodies like yours and mine. We will talk about mutual consent and ethics, and the reasons why our fantasies can never be politically correct, even if our porn is – from a feminist point of view – politically correct simply because queer people with queer bodies are in it having queer sex.

We will continue by playing several short Surrealist games in order to relax and prepare for the climax: the collective writing of gender- and genre-fucking stories of our own.

Language: English
Open to all genders, no previous knowledge necessary
You can register for the workshop at the info booth during the festival. Max. 15 people


Tea Hvala is a sociologist, writer, translator, editor, organiser and feminist science fiction fan with a MA in Gender Studies. She lives and works in Ljubljana where she co-hosts a monthly radio show Sektor Z, co-organises the International Feminist and Queer Festival Red Dawns and participates in Red Dawn’s theatre performance group. Since 2008, she has been facilitating workshops in collaborative writing of feminist-queer science fiction In Other Wor(l)ds in Bosnia and Herzegovina, Austria, Germany, United Kingdom, and The Netherlands. Her recently edited books include Svetovi drugih (KUD Anarhiv, 2010) and Rdecke razsajajo! (KUD Mreza, 2011).

Bibliothèque érotique is a literary performance group that entices its listeners to think, fantasize and talk about sex and sexuality. We do this by mixing fashion, performance art and erotic literature.


2. maj 2013

Anthology presentation 'Import-Export-Transport' - May 23rd, Vienna


Cordially invited to the presentation of anthology


IMPORT – EXPORT – TRANSPORT: 
Queer Theory, Queer Critique and Activism in Motion


edited by Sushila Mesquita, Maria Katharina Wiedlack and Katrin Lasthofer.

Together with Vendula Esteban Wiesnerová (Bratislava), Tea Hvala (Ljubljana) and Marty Huber (Vienna), we want to pick up some core topics of the anthology. The themes, among others, are the entanglements of queer activism, theory and research, the challenges of translation, as well as strategies within current LGBTiQ politics.


Thursday, May 23 2013 at 6.30 p.m, Pfeilgasse 33, 1080 Vienna ("Schenke" /Basement)
[Please note: The "Schenke" is not fully wheelchair accessible. Please contact us for further information.]   

http://gender.univie.ac.at/publikationen
http://www.zaglossus.eu/ImportExportTransport.htm

About the Volume
Twenty years after the emergence of “queer” as a political concept, the contributions to this anthology discuss the radical potential of queer theory and activism within different spatial, cultural, and socio-political contexts. Both the term “queer” as well as initial concepts of queer critique are not only closely connected to the English language but also to the Anglo-American socio-political context. Nevertheless, queer has traveled a lot since its emergence in the 1990s. Therefore, this collection explores how and for what purposes the term “queer” is and has been appropriated within different settings and locations, such as academia, activism, and popular culture. The volume opens up a space for trans-regional, intersectional, trans-disciplinary, and genre-transgressing exchanges about queer theory, queer critique, and queer activism.

The anthology is a collection of interdisciplinary articles, essays, and artwork by: Bini Adamczak and Mike Laufenberg; Sanja Milutinović Bojanić; Petra Sußner; Erzsébet Barát; Ivana Pražić; Robert Kulpa, Joanna Mizielińska, and Agata Stasińska; Cornelia Möser; Vendula (Esteban) Wiesnerová; Tea Hvala; Sanja Kajinić; Hongwei Bao; Nicole Alecu de Flers; Leopold Lippert; Kateřina Kolářová; Jack Halberstam; Hanna Hacker; Johanna Schaffer (with/out Vlatka Frketić); Marty Huber; Persson Perry Baumgartinger; Anthony Clair Wagner.

“IMPORT – EXPORT – TRANSPORT: Queer Theory, Queer Critique and Activism in Motion” is the first volume of the series “challenge GENDER: Contemporary challenges of_within Gender Theory” edited by the Gender Research Office at the University of Vienna. This new series presents contemporary theories, discourses, and research within the field of transdisciplinary Gender Studies, including Feminist Epistemology, Queer Theory, Postcolonial Studies, Feminist Science Studies, Gender & Science Technology Studies. Central to the series are critical approaches to gender relations and other power structures in the context of globalization. Moreover, “challenge GENDER” presents analytical works that reflect changes over time, and attempt to think sex, gender, and sexuality in new ways.

Literarni večer Ko beseda postane ime - 23. maj, Ljubljana

Okna kratke zgodbe 2 z Miho Mazzinijem


Vabljeni na

literarni večer
Ko beseda postane ime

Zaključno branje udeležencev literarnih ustvarjalnic Inštituta IRIU (Okna poezije 2 in Okna kratke zgodbe 1), izbranih na natečaju. Okna v pesniško in prozno ustvarjanje bodo za vas odprli: Urška Aplinc, Andreja Borščak, Anja Cimerman, Mitja Drab, Klemen Godec, Katarina Gomboc, Tea Hvala, Aljaž Koprivnikar, Rok Korošec, Jana Kolarič, Iztok Majhenič, Anja Naglič, Klara Otorepec, Ana Svetel, Kaja Teržan in Aja Zamolo.

Posebna gosta večera bosta mentorja literarnih ustvarjalnic Miha Mazzini in Peter Semolič ter Ana Geršak, vodja spremljevalnega programa ustvarjalnic.

Četrtek, 23. maj 2013 ob 19. uri v kavarni Union v Ljubljani
Vstop prost

Inštitut IRIU (Facebook)
Fotografije z delavnic (FB)

12. apr. 2013

Oddaja Sektor Ž: Ponovna prisvojitev jezikov!

I O I O I (Italija)

V aprilski ediciji Sektorja Ž se Mirna B. pogovarja z ex-YU feminističnimi skupinami, ki so na pobudo Rdečih zor marca letos srečale v Ljubljani. Sledi intervju Ide H. z Aljo Isaković, eno od pobudnic brezplačnih delavnic odprtokodnih programov za ženske programerke in tiste, ki želijo to postati. Rails Girls 31. maja organizirajo delavnico na računalniškem faksu v Mariboru. Odpravile smo se tudi na petkov Noise festival v Menzo pri koritu, kjer smo prisluhnile milozvočjem italijanske performerke I O I O I , Teja O. pa je pripravila poziv proti seksizmu na vstajah in intervjuvala Renato Šribar o neseksistični rabi jezika. Nazadnje sledil še nabor relevantnih novic.

Na sporedu v soboto, 13. aprila 2013, ob 12.00 na Radiu Študent. Posnetek za zamudnike.

3. apr. 2013

Nova številka revije Borec: Kaj je ostalo od feministične levice?





















V novi, 690.-693. številki revije za zgodovino, antropologijo in književnost Borec je izšel slovenski prevod prispevkov z okrogle mize Kaj je ostalo od feministične levice?, ki je potekala na konferenci REDaktura: transjugoslavenski feminizmi i žensko naslijeđe v Zagrebu oktobra 2011.

Okroglo mizo je pripravila in vodila Jelena Petrović
Sodelovale so Nadežda Čačinovič, Vjollca KrasniqiLilijana Burcar, Adriana Zaharijević, Vesna Leskošek, Jasmina Husanović in Mireja Forel

Iz uvoda Jelene Petrović: Sodobni levičarski feminizem je politični odgovor na razmere, v katerih živimo, zato je naslov okrogle mize – Kaj je ostalo od feministične levice? – provokativen. Ob njem se zastavljajo tri pomembna vprašanja. Prvo je, kako zgodovinsko in politično sploh misliti pojugoslovanski prostor. V tem okviru je izkušnjo jugoslovanskega feminizma pomembno umestiti v čas, obenem pa jo moramo, če nočemo, da ostane zgolj zgodovinska kategorija, posodobiti. Znanje, ki izhaja iz te izkušnje, ta splet idej, se ne prenaša le od starejših generacij na mlajše, temveč tudi v obratni smeri. Lahko nam pomaga odgovoriti na vprašanje, kako preoblikovati (po)jugoslovanski feminizem v gibanje, ločeno od politik, ki nam jih podtikajo s projektizacijo feminizma, njegovim menedžmentom in drugimi praksami, ki so feminizem v tem prostoru že razdelile na aktivizem, teorijo, umetnost in druge feminizme oziroma feministične načine vstopanja v javni prostor. Drugo vprašanje je, ali govorimo o feminizmu ali o feminizmih. Kateri feminizmi so aktualni v pojugoslovanskem prostoru, kateri so pomembni za nas? Zadnje vprašanje pa je, kaj feminizmu ponujajo sodobne levičarske politike in kako se feminizem sklicuje nanje.

Zvočni posnetek (v BSH jezikih in angleščini) okrogle mize lahko poslušate na spletni strani interaktivne razstave sodobne umetnosti Bring In Take Out - Living Archive, ki je potekala sočasno s konferenco.

21. mar. 2013

Predavanje "Težave z uvažanjem, prevajanjem in uvajanjem 'queera' v postsocialistični prostor"

Vabljene, vabljeni

na predavanje Tee Hvala
Težave z uvažanjem, prevajanjem in uvajanjem 'queera' v postsocialistični prostor
pri izbirnem predmetu dr. Romana Kuharja "Queer perspektive spola in spolnosti"

v ponedeljek, 25. marca ob 16:20, v učilnici št. 30 v kleti Filozofske fakultete v Ljubljani

15. mar. 2013

Svetovi drugih v mestni knjižnici - zgodbe

Kako se bomo zmenili za temo pisanja?
Skuhali bomo ričet.
Čimbolj počasi, vsak dan po malem. 


Zgodbe v tej spletni knjižici so nastale na delavnici skupinskega pisanja proze Svetovi drugih, ki je potekala 12. in 13. marca 2013 v Knjižnici Otona Župančiča v Ljubljani v organizaciji Borze znanja. 


 


Zakaj Svetovi drugih? Ker je za skupinsko pisanje bolj kot tvoja nadarjenost ali izvirnost pomembno to, da se trudiš razumeti pisanje ljudi, ki čutijo, razmišljajo in živijo drugače od tebe.

Če bi na Zemlji pristali vesoljci in bi skupaj malo več razmišljali, bi bile vse tri zelo zadovoljne.

Nada Čučnik Majcen, Tajda Liplin Šerbetar, Kristina Rajgelj in Tea Hvala smo pisale po metodi izvrstno trupelce, ki so jo razvili nadrealisti. Vsaka je začela pisati svojo zgodbo in jo čez čas podala drugi udeleženki. Ta jo je prebrala in nadaljevala po lastnem okusu. Zgodbe so krožile, dokler nismo vse prispevale k vsem zgodbam. Gospa Nada se je udeležila samo prvega srečanja, Kristina pa se nam je pridružila tik pred koncem, zato so nastale le tri zgodbe namesto štirih.

Preden smo se lotile pisanja zgodb, smo se ogrevale s krajšimi vajami. V prvi je ena od udeleženk zapustila sobo, medtem ko je druga povedala tretji udeleženki nekaj o sebi - svojo pravo ali izmišljeno biografijo. Ko se je prva udeleženka vrnila v sobo, ji je tretja povedala biografijo druge v prvi osebi. Potem so se vloge zamenjale.

O čem govorijo tvoje najljubše knjige?
O prijateljih, ki gredo kampirat.


Po tej vaji v vživljanju v drugega smo se lotile vprašanj in odgovorov. V tej igri (za dve ali tri osebe) ena na list papirja napiše vprašanje, druga in tretja pa - ne da bi vprašanje sploh videli - napišeta odgovor. Na podoben način poteka tudi igra pogojna poved (ali silogizem, če jo igrajo trije).

Če bo v nedeljo sonce in si bomo izmislile novo zgodbo, bo naša knjiga zelo dobra in uspešna.

Pisale smo v brezplačnem odprtokodnem spletnem orodju Booktype, ki je pred vami. Namenjeno je skupinskemu pisanju, urejanju in izdajanju knjig v formatih za tisk na zahtevo in e-formatih za večino bralnikov.

Kaj se bo zgodilo v četrtek?
Sneg se bo talil, kosi bodo peli ob petih zjutraj, mularja se bo igrala na ulici.
Sonce ne bo svetilo, zato bomo žalostni.


Uživajte v branju!

11. mar. 2013

Delavnica Svetovi drugih v KOŽ, 12.-13. marec 2013


Literarna delavnica Borze znanja

Svetovi drugih


12.-13. marec, ob 17.00, Knjižnica Otona Župančiča, računalniška učilnica (1. nadstropje)

Meniš, da »ne znaš pisati«, »nimaš inspiracije« ali »zadostnih izkušenj«? Potem te na delavnici čaka veliko presenečenje, saj bodo vsi ti zadržki odpadli. Za to bo poskrbelo izvrstno trupelce: literarna igra za skupinsko pisanje zgodb, ki so jo razvili nadrealisti.

Vsakdo bo začel pisati svojo zgodbo in jo čez čas podal drugemu udeležencu. Ta jo bo prebral in nadaljeval po lastnem okusu. Zgodbe bodo krožile, dokler ne bomo vsi prispevali svoje pisave k vsem zgodbam. Če nas bo (na primer) šest, bo tako sočasno nastalo šest zgodb.


Delavnica Svetovi drugih, Utrecht, 2012, foto: TH

Na prvem srečanju bomo spoznali literarno igro izvrstno trupelce in brezplačno odprtokodno spletno orodje Booktype, ki je namenjeno skupinskemu pisanju, urejanju in izdajanju knjig v formatih za tisk na zahtevo in e-formatih za večino bralnikov. Večino časa bomo posvetili pisanju zgodb.

Na drugem srečanju bomo prebrali napisano, zgodbe po potrebi uredili in lektorirali, jih izvozili v poljuben format ter objavili na spletu.

Delavnica se imenuje Svetovi drugih, ker je za skupinsko pisanje bolj kot tvoja nadarjenost ali izvirnost pomembno to, da se trudiš razumeti pisanje ljudi, ki čutijo, razmišljajo in živijo drugače od tebe.

Delavnico bo vodila Tea Hvala.

Prijave na tel. št. 01 600 13 20 ali e-naslov: ljubljana@borzaznanja.si

8. mar. 2013

Oddaja Sektor Ž: Veselo praznovanje dneva žensk


Drage feministke, ženske, žene in punce, ki se dnevno soočate s subtilnimi ali vulgarnimi oblikami šovinizma, mizoginih izpadov in diskriminacije na podlagi spola: ekipa Sektorja Ž vam želi veselo, zabavno in ekscesno praznovanje mednarodnega dneva žensk!

Tekste si bomo podložile z glasbo Nataše Muševič oziroma Dot, ki bo danes zvečer v Menzi z globokimi basi pretresla naša telesa. Pregledale bomo dogajanje v okviru Mesta žensk, ki je v minulem tednu priredil gledališko delavnico Herstory of Bra and Knife z mentoricama Neno Močnik in Ano Rokvić-Pinterič. Prebrale bomo javno pismo Barbare Korun z naslovom Ni vse zlato, kar se sveti, v katerem razkriva šovinistično strukturo Društva slovenskih pisateljev.

Sledijo utrinki iz 14. mednarodnega feminističnega in queerovskega festivala Rdeče zore: izsek s predavanja Belme Bećirbašić v klubu Tiffany in izjavo Karmen Špiljak iz kolektiva VE-ZA o interaktivni razstavi Bod’ Moja v Galeriji Alkatraz, iz katere je tudi naslovna ilustracija. Glasbene predahe bomo črpale iz starejšega materiala Wande & Nova deViatorja, ki bosta 4. aprila izdala svoj glasbeni prvenec. Nazadnje pa si bomo jezike obrusile na podelitvi Bodeče Neže, nagrade za najbolj seksistično in mizogino izjavo desetletja.

Oddajo sta pripravili Ida Hiršenfelder in Teja Oblak, posnetek pa bo z zamudo objavljen na spletni strani Radia Študent

28. feb. 2013

Izjava Rdečih zor ob 4. vseslovenski ljudski vstaji

Foto: Maja Kraljič

Festivalska infotočka Rdečih zor v Galeriji Mizzart se bo v soboto, 9. marca, ob 14.00 spremenila v zbirno mesto za feministične, lezbične in ženske iniciative, ki se želijo skupaj udeležiti Četrte vseslovenske ljudske vstaje. Ob 14:30 se bomo preselile na dvorišče AKC Metelkova mesto, od koder se bomo odpravile na Kongresni trg. Tam se bomo ob 15:00 pridružile antikapitalističnemu bloku.

.

Izjava Rdečih zor ob 4. vseslovenski ljudski vstaji

Rdeče zore se 9. marca pridružujemo 4. vstaji, pri čemer zavračamo seksistična gesla, ki smo jih opazile na vseh dosedanjih protestih. Zavračamo tudi trditve, da so zahteve po spolni enakosti v trenutnih razmerah »preveč partikularne«, saj smo prepričane, da bi morala biti odprava vseh oblik razlikovanja sestavni del mednarodnega boja proti kapitalističnemu izkoriščanju, ki je obenem boj za boljši svet.

Zagovarjamo feministično politiko: emancipacijo vseh, enakost za vse in solidarnosti med vsemi ljudi. Zagovarjamo feminizem, ki bo svoje univerzalne zahteve postavljal v imenu žensk, vse dokler ne bo odpravljena ekonomska neenakost, ki temelji prav na spolnem razlikovanju, še posebej na nevidnem in neplačanem delu žensk, kamor spada tudi skrb za druge: za otroke, bolne, starejše – in podplačane moške delavce.

Na preteklih vstajah smo se pridružile antikapitalističnemu bloku, ker je z željo in zahtevo po temeljnih ekonomskih spremembah še najbližji feministični politiki, pri čemer poudarjamo, da je ekonomski sistem in kulturo potrebno spreminjati sočasno. Dokler bomo sprejemali in zvesto obnavljali patriarhalno kulturo, si ne bomo mogli zamisliti boljšega sveta.

Zavračamo tudi nacionalistične težnje po omejevanju vstajniških zahtev na državljane in državljanke Republike Slovenije. Prvič zato, ker v tej državi živi in dela veliko ljudi, ki državljanstva zaradi institucionaliziranega rasizma ne morejo dobiti, ali pa jim je bilo, tako kot izbrisanim, prav zato odvzeto. Drugič zato, ker ekonomskih težav, s katerimi se soočamo, ne moremo rešiti na nacionalni ravni, saj izvirajo iz globalnega neoliberalnega gospostva, ki dopušča zgolj in samo prost pretok blaga. Ljudje po vsem svetu se upiramo varčevanju na ramenih najšibkejših, ker smo prepričani, da ima vsakdo pravico do prostega gibanja in zato, ker se ima vsakdo pravico ustaliti – tam, kjer sploh lahko živi človeka dostojno življenje.

Nenazadnje se upiramo poskusom poenotenja vstajniškega gibanja. Prepričane smo, da je zahteva po homogenizaciji nasilnejša in nevarnejša od posameznikov in skupin, ki jih precejšen del protestnikov, z mediji in oblastjo vred, skuša diskreditirati kot “nasilne” samo zato, ker vzklikajo: “Ograja mora pasti!”

V branje priporočamo:

Javno pismo Barbare Korun “Ni vse zlato, kar se sveti” (6. marec 2013)
Izjava Vstaniških socialnih delavk Ograja mora past? (Facebook, 20. 2. 2013)
Manifest skupine Nič brez nas!, naslovljen Nič več brez nas žensk! (30. 1. 2013)
Zbornik Feminizam – politika jednakosti za sve (uredila Jelena Petrović in Damir Arsenijević, izdal Fond B92, Beograd, 2011)

Zemljevid AKC Metelkova mesto

9. feb. 2013

Oddaja Sektor Ž: Vstaja traja!


Komentiramo skromno število žensk in feminističnih stališč na javni tribuni v organizaciji DSP 31. januarja v Cankarjevem domu in poslušamo svetli izjemi, govora Barbare Rajgelj in Darje Zaviršek, ki je govorila v imenu nove ženske iniciative Nič več brez nas žensk! Z vami bomo delile tudi svoje vtise z ustanovnega sestanka te skupine. Sledijo utrinki pogovora z umetnico Zvonko T. Simčič ob njenem novem projektu Tiha moč/Sledi, ob koncu oddaje pa poslušamo indijsko feministko, profesorico književnosti in pesnico Mamto Sagar. Govorila bo o okoliščinah nastanka njene pesmi Dharma/Adharma: o medverskih bojih, ki se v Indiji zanašajo na ginocidno taktiko; na skupinska posilstva in uboje žensk. Ob tem komentiramo pravkar sprejete strožje kazni za spolno nasilje in nadlegovanje v Indiji.

V soboto, 9. februarja 2013, ob 12.00 na Radiu Študent. Posnetek za zamudnice. 

1. feb. 2013

Performans Želeli ste, pojejte / Zardeli ste, povejte - drugič


Prva piratska feministična televizijska postaja v Sloveniji, ustanovljena maja 2012, se je decembra 2012 vrnila na Menzin oder. Njen nadaljevalni sladko-grenki program Želeli ste, pojejte / Zardeli ste, povejte (II. del) je potekal na benefitu za 14. festival Rdeče zore.

Voditeljici programa, ki smo ga pripravile v sodelovanju s KUD Transformator, sta v sporočilu za javnost zapisali: »Spoštovane gledalke in gledalci, če v tem trenutku še ne veste, kaj, kako in koliko lahko prispevate k feminističnemu TV programu, ne skrbite: naročnine ne pobiramo, gledanosti ne merimo, naša daljinska upravljalka pa je pametna, odzivna, univerzalna in v pravih – se pravi vaših – rokah!«

Nastopile smo BradAna, Darling Teese, Vida Fikfak, Breda Hengeduš, Anaya Ngaya in druge ad hoc igralke.

Napoved dogodka na blogu Rdečih zor.
Fotografije Anje Kocman na Facebook strani RZ.

Nastop sta posneli in zmontirali Ana Grobler in Ana Čigon.

25. jan. 2013

New issue of Apokalipsa journal


KUD Apokalipsa released Apokalipsa journal nr. 165-167 (2012/13), featuring English translations of poems by Barbara Korun, Esad Babačić, Stanislava Chrobakova Repar, Jure Novak, Primož Repar and Barbara Simoniti, prose by Iva Jevtić and Jurij Hudolin, and a series of essays on Soren Kierkegaard's philosophy

The Gender section includes essays by Ana M. Sobočan, Ana Makuc and Alenka Koželj, and A Megaphone, an extensive interview section dedicated to women writers from Slovakia and Slovenia who discuss their working conditions, relations between the writing of women, women's writing and feminisms, the role of institutional support for writers, and writers' self-organizing. It also features my interview with Stanislava Chrobakova Repar, herself a writer, the initiator of A Megaphone interviews and the editor of Apokalipsa's Gender section. The interview was conducted in 2011 as part of the "Grassroots Feminism: Transnational archives, resources and communities" project. It was originally published on the Grassroots Feminism website. 

The journal can be ordered directly from KUD Apokalipsa: revija@kud-apokalipsa.si

23. jan. 2013

Simpozij 'Humalga: Injektiranje' - odzivi in fotografije

Prirodoslovni muzej Slovenije

Na simpoziju Humalga: Injektiranje sem na povabilo Špele Petrič in Robertine Šebljanič, avtoric istoimenskega umetniškega projekta, v začetku januarja 2013 v Prirodoslovnem muzeju Slovenije z dr. Petrom Trontljem in zelo angažirano publiko debatirala o makroevoluciji in konceptu narave v humanistiki in evolucijski biologiji. Zaključni dan simpozija sem v Tivolskem rastlinjaku govorila o transvrstah v feministični znanstveni fantastiki.

Recenzijo predavanja Krajine prihodnosti - transvrste lahko preberete na spletni strani Radia Študent (Simona Jerala: Humalge v rastlinjaku, oddaja Fine umetnosti, 16. 1. 2013).

Pogovor o feministični znanstveni fantastiki se je nadaljeval nekaj dni kasneje, 22. januarja, v oddaji Partija čaja. Intervjuval me je Ivan Cepanec, posnetek pa naj bi bil v bližnji prihodnosti objavljen na tej povezavi.

Drugi medijski odzivi:
Kultura ob 22h, TV Slovenija, 10. 1. 2013 (od 02:24 dalje, takoj za Davidom Bowiejem:)
Petkov poudarek, Radio Slovenija, Program Ars, 11. 1. 2013
Kako bi človeka spremenila njegova sestrska vrsta? Siol.net, 11. 1. 2013
Kulturne novičke, Radio Študent 9.1. 2013

Fotografije je posnel Miha Fras.

Biotehna












Prirodoslovni muzej Slovenije














Biobanka popkovnične krvi



Biobanka popkovnične krvi

Biobanka popkovnične krvi - hladilnica

Biobanka popkovnične krvi - laboratorij

Robertina Šebjanič in Špela Petrič

Robertina Šebjanič in Špela Petrič


15. jan. 2013

Stiff Smiles

In December 2012, LifeTouch: Perspectives & Reflections, an online journal produced during Maribor's status as the European Capital of Culture (or rather, European Culture of Capital) came to a close. UMco published a selection of columns from the journal in a book entitled The State of Matters: Anthology of Perspectives & Reflections.


The anthology includes the (unauthorized) English translation of my last column written for them. The Slovene version, Togi nasmehi, was included in Stanje stvari: Antologija Perspektiv & refleksij (Ljubljana: UMco, 2012, pp. 82-85), the one in English can be read below.


Stiff Smiles 
Two years ago at a flea market, I bought a journal published in honor of the 35th anniversary of the establishment of the Iskra Kranj work organization. As it often happens to occasional publishers, they forgot to equip the booklet with the year, but I had no difficulty in guessing that the journal stemmed from socialist times. A modest cover, socialist self-management language, grainy photographs: everything had the aroma of age. I spent the majority of the time staring at photographs of the work collectives. There were dozens of them with a group of twenty, thirty workers in work robes awkwardly posing under the neon lights. The bulk of their bodies blocked the view of the conveyer belt in the background of a large hall.

It reminded me how long it has been since I saw a group photograph of work. I can verify that there are none in the daily newspapers. These days, the pages dedicated to careers and employment mostly show independent entrepreneurs, usually ones that started from nothing or created a new market niche. Team work is represented by photographs of three or four people sitting behind their laptops smiling sweetly. They are dressed in a business manner: no blue robes, no workman’s shoes. And no one is over thirty. I thought, I do not have any group photos from my workplace, even though I have gone through many – if the term workplace is even suitable for short-term project jobs that are paid through a student order form or a copyright contract.

The fact that photographs of working collectives have been replaced by images of project teams really should not surprise me. With whom are you to be photographed, if you are a contractual worker and jobs (even that word does not seem appropriate) come and go? With whom, if your co-workers are constantly changing? And with whom, if you work from the employer’s home or even in your own room? When I am not working alone, I am jumping between projects, which are usually so intense that there is no time for informal socializing with co-workers and if there is any spare time, I do not really want to spend it with them. They are interesting, but with every project I wonder: why keep meeting always new people that will go their separate ways after the work is done and the group has dissolved. If we ever meet again, the circumstances will most likely be just as intense. We will ask each other, what is new without knowing the prequel, without knowing what was old. This superficiality, new beginnings, this running in place: it is exhausting.

With the Iskra journal in my hands, I tried to imagine the image capturing my work experience. As it appeared before my eyes, I saw the perfect flexible worker. In it, I was alone, sitting at my computer, which, together with my cellphone and an old-fashioned paper notebook, represents my mobile office. I was surrounded by unrecognizable traces of people, rushing through the shot. The prints of those who stopped for a chat for a moment were clearer, but still looked like ghosts from emails, accidentally finding themselves in real space.

Sociologist Richard Sennett states that one the characteristics of flexible forms of work that started establishing themselves in the west during the seventies and in the early nineties in post-socialist countries is a short-term orientation (instead of a long-term one), encouraging competitiveness (instead of solidarity) and social exclusion (instead of inclusion). In places where people are still sharing a work space, the teams are smaller and the sense of community is weaker due to the constant rotation of workers. It simply takes time to develop mutual trust, loyalty and firmer bonds. The fact that workers perform the same work under different conditions and for different pay in the same company only further diminishes the possibility of a collective forming that would join forces to resist the pressures with more ease. It is not difficult to imagine that it is easiest to manipulate with unconnected workers, who, on top of everything else, compete among each other.

Sennett lists a variety of reasons why the term collective has been replaced in manager manuals with terminology (but not ethics as well), characteristic of group sports, where there the used term is team. The main reason is, of course, ideological, as the declared wish for collaboration and cooperation is merely a front, behind which the demand for rivalry is hidden. Instead of workers defending their interests to their bosses, they fight against each other. Even the control over the effectiveness and discipline of the co-workers (similar to our own diligence) is of late being done by ourselves as well.

So, what kind of co-worker or team player do flexible work teams require? They expect a person with distance who is aware that the work is of a temporary nature and therefore concentrates only on it and not on the co-workers, with which the worker could form certain kinds of relations. A flexible teammate cannot afford to feel mutual affection, least any grudges, betrayal or jealousy. Since the person cultivates a certain ironic distance towards everyone and everything, they can work with anyone and can immediately join a new team. They will listen and with a smile advise every teammate who plays by the set rules. They move between the projects, teams and individuals like between the windows on a computer screen. Since only the present counts, only the visible results of a recently completed work, a good teammate does not cite past experience. If they do, they risk ridicule: experience means someone must be inflexible – and old.

The only skill a flexible player must master is transitive: they must be able to play anywhere, anytime and with whom ever in accordance with the declared sport ethics. During this, they must bear the mask of cooperativeness and the mask of egalitarianism, which are to conceal the actual balance of power between the workers and their subordination to the boss. The latter no longer commands, but only “directs” the work process. If the directors used to use the argument of power, the project managers and coaches now claim that “we are all in the same boat”. When the boat starts sinking, right before splitting, the most cynical among them dare to say that they were equally hurt by the storm as their workers. The worker, who only lethargically shrugs the shoulders upon hearing this and starts looking for a new job, embodies the ideal of flexibility. May he be bent over and over, he will always bounce back. This kind of player is a player in the theatrical, not a sport sense. He wears a convincing mask, a bright smile and—most importantly—shuts up.

I do not know what kind of terminology was used to substantiate the work discipline in socialism, but the fact remains that the long-term employment ensured a high level of trust and solidarity among the workers, as it offered them safety and social inclusion. People could be proud of their experience, because the company would reward a job well done, even if a person advanced to higher paying levels more slowly – or did not advance at all. Since the moral prestige of work was so great, your loved ones would respect you no matter if you were content with your work or not. Since your time was organized by institutions that seemed immortal, you could string your own life story it them, given meaning by the permanent social relations.

Nowadays, the role of the character test is represented by the willingness to take risks. Even though you realize that the chances of you being selected from the hundreds of candidates, who applied to the same position, are very minute, everyone keeps encouraging you to keep trying. Every time I turned down an offer for a project job that was more prestigious than the job I was currently doing, but the promised pay for it was less and was less reliable, some or other well-meaning acquaintance would pop up to say in amazement: “You could have at least tried it, you deserve more!” I tried to explain to her to no avail that they were offering me a sham, that it was pure lottery. It was more important that I “move on”, even though that would mean consenting to worse working conditions. Clinging to work, perceived as poorly paid or boring, means you must be a bore and an idiot who does not want change and success. The thought of someone being content with what they have is unacceptable.

While leafing through the Iskra journal, everything stated above made it difficult to resist the urge to idealize the working conditions in socialism. You cannot choose a better place for that than the flea market. What do I look for there, if not for patches for my nostalgia? Well, it was somewhat more difficult to romanticize the price the workers had to pay in the state socialism for their long-term safety: Sennett claims it involved sacrificing either their freedom or their individuality; that the “iron cast” of the large, complex and rigid institutions were simultaneously a prison and a home.



The workers in the group photos did appear uniform and stiff. At first I only perceived a cluster of bodies, robbed of their individuality and intimacy. After I started looking for these, I of course found them. At first, I noticed two workers on a photograph from the spinnery (Iskra was a textile factory up to World War II, employing mostly women). They must be close: they are casually sitting on the floor, leaning on each other. Another photograph of the same department is diagonally crossed by a long look. Two workers on each end are silently sharing a titillating secret. A photograph of the weaving room surprised me because of the girls with their proto-punkish hairstyles. They are staring at the photographer so proudly and angrily that I had to avert my eyes. A woman in the first row stands out from a photograph with at least fifty people. She is pointing her finger at a serious-looking man beside her, laughing cheekily at him. On another photograph, I noticed the difference between the women, sitting with their legs squeezed together, their hand folded in their laps, and the worker, sitting next to her co-workers in a mannish manner. There is another girl who has snuck into the shot: while the collective diligently poses, she is peaking from behind some contraption and making grimaces. Another girl appears to be so unhappy that I wish someone could take her out of the factory and pay her college tuition, so that as a grown woman she could afford the nylons that are running away from her now: she works on a conveyer belt in the synthetics spinnery. A skinny looking boy is standing beside her, trying to look manlier, standing up straight, with spread legs and his hands placed on his narrow hips.

The longer I stared at the photographs, the more details I noticed, the more stories and connections between the unknown faces. There were no details on my fictitious photographs of my work experience. Not even a background. You, I decided at the flea market, will be my historical memory, my background for the group photo I am unable to take. If I ever feel truly bad, I will cut my face from a photograph with no background and glue it among your faces. I will make a black-and-white photograph, so that my colorful face blends in with yours.

I asked the lady selling the journal about its price. It was not cheap, she wanted five euro for it. I started haggling, saying I would cut it up for collages anyway. She did not like that prospect at all. She said it was not just any booklet; it contained a picture of her father, who worked at Iskra his entire life. I tried to rescue myself from this embarrassment by asking her to show me his picture. I expected that the journal would automatically open on the right page, but the lady had to look for it for a while. Her father was not posing in a collective; he was alone in the picture. He was not actually posing; he was photographed during his work with the machine, which was the second most common type of portraits that only started to appear in the second half of the journal, dedicated to the seventies and the ushering of new technologies. If the workers abandoned their work on the older photos to pose in a group photo, the newer photographs depicted the workers while working – from the back or from the side. I am not sure whether that was because photographing had become so commonplace by then and the work process was not allowed to stop for every trifle, but the moment the lady showed me the photograph of her father, his machine looked back at me instead of him; the same machine that in a few years made him redundant as a “technological excess”.

I did not have the heart to start haggling again. Or the courage to turn down something so personal. Only after I was home, did I think how strange it was that the lady was selling the book at all. If she were truly attached to the booklet, she would not be selling it. She obviously had a mountain of extra copies left. Of was she proud of the fact that her father, a manual laborer, appeared in a real book? The more I thought about it, the more I realized that I actually purchased a patch for my own nostalgia. The lady set the price to my, not her emotions. From that aspect, I convinced myself, that the book was actually quite inexpensive.

A short while ago, while reading Sennett's The Culture of the New Capitalism (2008), the Iskra journal found its way into my hands again. This time I decided the lady must not have insisted on the relatively high price because of her own attachment to the journal or her father, but the meaning he ascribed to his work identity. The work identity corresponded to the best character features in his time; it included responsibility and sacrifice, care for others, solidarity to the co-workers, loyalty to the company and the ability of planning a person’s own future. I thought how unlikely it was that his fifty year-old daughter can combine the listed values, if they even are values to her, with the demands of her work environment. The flexible job, if she even has one, dictates her sloppiness, distance, risk, mobility. Therefore, when she wishes for safety, she feels old. When she wishes or permanent relationships and stability, she feels like a coward. When she commits herself to her work completely, she is regarded as naive, when she tries more than necessary, she gets the feeling of being foolish. When she tries to construct her own life story from countless fragments, she feels like she has nothing to lean on. Sometimes she feels like she does not even exist. How is she to face all this uncertainty? Should she take to intimacy? I wonder whether the lady from the flea market has to try not to idealize those photographs either, even if they seem more restrictive than they seemed to the people on the photographs.


Translated by Živa Malovrh.
First published on the LifeTouch portal on October 2nd 2012.