18 sept: Talk + Workshop - with Mary Coble

As part of the Umeå Pride program, The Centre for Arts and Education in collaboration with The Museum of Women´s History presents:

Artist talk: Gestures of Defience (18.00-18.45)

Artist Mary Coble will discuss queer strategies of resistance through artistic practice and activism.

Points of departure will come from Coble’s current research project Gestures of Defiance which looks at the power of the raised fist, the use of tactical frivolity (such as the use of glitter bombing or drag) and the reclaiming of iconic and advertisement images such as the gay male hero, which is present in Coble’s exhibition Still Deferred that will be on view at The Centre for Arts and Education.

Workshop: Raise your fist (19.00 - 21.00)

NOTE! Pre-registration required! Maximum 12 participants!
Please email as latest as september 14th to: info.vasterbotten@konstframjandet.se

Join us for an evening of talking, thinking and making centered around the image and power of the raised, clenched fist!

Artist Mary Coble will lead this workshop with considerations of how the raised fist is an iconic marker and gesture of defiance within minorities’ fights against oppression. The workshop will begin with an introduction to the history of the raised fist and contemporary examples of how the fist continues to be a relevant symbol.

The discussion will lead to shared reflections on the personal relevance of the raised fist for each of us with the undertaking of then creating our own fist flags. The idea is that we’ll march with them at the day after the workshop at the parade on Saturday 19th. (More info from where, will come soon).

What are nowadays most often referred to as “Pride Parades” originally grew from social activist movements with the urgent need to march for space, visibility and solidarity. While it is important to celebrate queer pride and progress for lgbtq rights, this workshop insists on making room for resistance to the normative mainstreaming and the dominating political and social culture, when it produces discrimination, exclusion and repression. The heteronormativity and homonationalism that can be experienced through much of the commercialization of Pride events today conceals that there is much work to be done.

Lets raise our fists in solidarity with those who do not yet have the rights that the privileged majority of our community has.

As a part of the project "The White House", "The Centre for Arts and Education" will collect donated flags from the participants in the workshop to "The Popular movement archive in Västerbotten". It is a county archive with the assignment to collect and store documents from associations and social movements in the county of Västerbotten. One of "The White House" aims is to add on visibility of lgbtq-activities to broaden the archives and state the existences of lgbtq-people in the history and the culture heritage.

+TIME AND PLACE

Friday 18th 2015 18:00-21.00
Kungsgatan 33

+COOPERATION PARTNERS
Konstfrämjandet i Västerbotten, Kvinnohistoriskt Museum och Queerförvaltningen. The arrangement is part of Umeå Pride 2015.

+THE MAIN FINANCIER
Kvinnohistoriskt Museum, Folkrörelsen Konstfrämjandet, Postkodslotteriets Kulturstiftelse och Konstfrämjandet i Västerbotten.

+MORE INFO
www.vasterbotten.konstframjandet.se Länk till annan webbplats.

+PHOTO
Tongyu Zhao