Tanzquartier Wien

Eva Egermann’s work creates contexts for defiant acts in the form of various art projects. Crip Magazine and projects like exhibitions, film screenings, symposia and workshops have enhanced the visibility of a scene of disabled artists and activists both in Austria and internationally. The physical and emotional labour (of inclusion) is what queer theorist Sara Ahmed calls ‘banging your head against a brick wall’. In the TQW Research Affiliation framework, Egermann will look at socially engaged artistic long-term research practices and explore what helps us stay attuned.

19th-century freak show performer Julia Pastrana exemplifies how disabled subjects have been embalmed as specimens of otherness, exoticised and exhibited for centuries. Artist Laura Anderson Barbata had the chutzpah to take on the Norwegian authorities and set the restitution of Julia Pastrana in motion, a process that took over ten years. Crip Magazine is another project that has been evolving for over ten years. We will discuss plans with the collective to continue its production on a broader and sustainable basis. Finally – along with film material from C-TV [2023, co-produced with Cordula Thym] – we will talk about theoretical ideas and artistic methodologies in connection with these projects, such as speculative fiction, a methodology suggested by the feminist Chicana author Gloria Anzaldúa, to study how things can change.