• Fri 13 09 2019 / 7 – 11 pm •
Me, Not Me, Us
On Negotiating the Objective and the Subjective Sides of our Political Hybridity
Introduced and moderated by MAX JORGE HINDERER CRUZ
With DANIELLE ALMEIDA, NELLI KAMBOURI, KARLA MENDONCA DOS SANTOS DANY, ADRIANA SCHNEIDER ALCURE, MARGARITA TSOMOU
Hybridity may be understood as a mixture, but that does not mean that it is not also about asymmetry. Hybridity is not least of all a question of perspective. In Latin America, for example, the concept of hybridity or mestizaje, that is, the supposed mingling or fusion of two or more cultures, usually serves, even in predominantly non-white societies, as a means of establishing an order from a white perspective – thus similar to the German ‘Leitkultur’-debate, which seeks to dictate what is eminently ‘German’. In the context of (post-)colonial societies, the definition of hybridity or mestizaje thus originates from the outside – from a white Eurocentric hegemony persisting in the postcolonial era.
The evening event titled Me, Not Me, Us conceived and moderated by cultural critic, author and curator Max Jorge Hinderer Cruz, aims at inverting such perspectives. In three parts, hybridity will not be debated as an external ascription, but performed as an act of self-determination. The negation of an externally defined identity harbors a collective subjectivity that can generate political efficacy.
The first part of Me, Not Me, Us will be organized by singer and educator Danielle Almeida and translator Karla Mendonca dos Santos Dany. Almeida deals with women protagonists in Afro-Latin music, a non-white hybrid form of music, that is rather unknown in Germany.
The second part will be conducted by Adriana Schneider Alcure, anthropologist and professor for theater at the Universidade Federal do Rio de Janeiro (UFRJ) and currently fellow of the Humboldt Foundation at the University of Bonn. She is interested in puppet theater and especially in the German Kasperletheater or Punch and Judy show. Applying a kind of ’whitenography‘ (ethnography of white culture), she sees Kasperl (Punch) from a Brazilian perspective as a quintessentially German hybrid character.
In the third part of the evening, Margarita Tsomou and Nelli Kambouri will discuss the ‘Ithagenia condition‘ – a way of understanding every political subject simultaneously as the absolute Other and as the absolute Self (the Greek term Ithagenia refers both to ‘indigenousness’ and ‘citizenship’). Margarita Tsomou is an author, curator, dramaturge and editor of the pop-feminist Missy Magazine; Nelli Kambouri works as a researcher on migration, politics, and gender topics.
Me, Not Me, Us, Akademie der Künste der Welt (Academy of the Arts of the World, ADKDW), 2019 | Fotos: Jan Kryszons
Languages: English | German | Portuguese
Box office: 3€ - 8€
Venue: Alte Feuerwache Köln / Halle, Melchiorstraße 3, 50670 Cologne
