queeringborders | Copenhagen Landscapes
curated by Xavier de Sousa and An*
LISTEN: https://performingborders.live/2019/10/14/queeringborders-copenhagen-landscapes/
This instalment of performingborders series’ queeringborders, which we called Copenhagen Landscapes, emerged from a research residency between artists Xavier de Sousa and An* at Warehouse9, in Copenhagen, on the lead up to the city’s 24th Pride Parade in August 2019.
The volume is composed of four self-contained interviews with artists and activists from Copenhagen’s queer and live-art communities and was first exhibited in video-form as part of QueerLands, a community-focused alternative to the hyper-commodified Copenhagen Pride. They are now published digitally, in audio format, as a podcast made in collaboration between the artists (UK/PT), Warehouse9 (DK) and performingborders (UK).
These conversations call for a nourishing of (hyper-)locality whilst maintaining a global focus, for knowing our histories of resistance and of protest and of acknowledging our position, our privileges, and our complacency, within the different political forces and shifts that affect our surroundings.
During these four 30 minute-long interviews we discuss Pride and co-option, racism and racial inequality in the arts and queer communities and the artists working and living conditions as well as how those reflect and relate with the city’s developments and current political situation. From various angles and perspectives, with the interviewees’ experiences at the core, we speak about the importance of preserving arts and community-focused venues, of DIY initiatives for making and collaborating, of intersectionality and interlinking struggles and of fighting for spaces for gathering outside of consumerism.
The podcasts find artists Sara Hamming & Lukas Raki fighting against rapid gentrification around the Astrid Noak Atelier which threatens the local community and their ability to continue to hold that space in the Nørrebro area of the city.
Filmmaker and visual artist Lasse Lau explores the commodification of Pride across the West, and the differences between queer communities in Copenhagen, Beirut and Tijuana.
Visual and Performance Artist Jupiter Child discusses their journey from Mozambique to Denmark and the difficulties accessing and navigating the art world in the west as a Queer Black person.
We end with our hosts Jørgen Callesen and Emma Møller reminiscing on the beginnings of Warehouse9, the importance of having a venue in central Copenhagen with a focus on live-art and queer practices, the intersections of art and activism, and how important it is to understand and support ones surroundings.