Post-Soviet Queerness, Archiving, and the Art of Resistance

The new interdisciplinary project brings together researchers and artists from Austria, Russia and Kazakhstan. It aims at creating recognition for queer lives and communities in post- Soviet spaces through the experimental artistic research forms called the Dream Machine and the Magic Closet The project is a reaction to the relatively recent rise in homo- and transphobia in post- Soviet countries. The existing research on the matter analyses the oppressive laws, structural and physical violence, damage/pain narratives of non-conforming people but pays little attention to the ways queer lives form communities, resist the pressure and continue life and love queerly despite of everything. Coming from different academic and activist backgrounds as well as artistic practices, the team members work together to bridge this research gap by documenting vitalizing images and narratives of queer people from post-Soviet spaces. Most importantly, the project will support queer post-Soviet individuals and groups to reclaim their agency, speak for themselves and create spaces to imagine different and better futures. Over the course of three years the team members will work with local queer communities and activists in Central Asia, the Baltic region, Eastern Europe, Siberia and the Caucasus. Together they will craft artistic artefacts that reflect peoples lived realities and dreams, and at the same time help to actively build communities across borders, local, national, ethnic, class, gender and sexual differences. The art-based research process called Dream Machine consists of the collective creation of a moving light device that will help the participants to focus on their personal experiences and ideas, while at the same time immersing them in a shared activity that facilitates queer bonds. This is followed by workshops, where all participants can translate their reflections on everyday life, as well as the new experiences of queer belonging into writing, filming and other artistic forms. The results of this process are later deposited in a queer multilingual online archive and presented at the exhibition called the Magic Closet. The Magic Closet will give important insights about queer lives in post-Soviet spaces without endangering their existence and avoiding the reproduction of pain narratives; it will let queer people share their experiences, feelings and dreams while staying anonymous and safe. Team members are the Gender, Queer and American Studies scholar Katharina Wiedlack (University of Vienna), the visual artist and experimental filmmaker Masha Godovannaya and the performance artist and writer Ruthia Jenrbekova (both from the Academy of Fine Arts Vienna), as well as the Gender and Health Studies scholar Masha Neufeld, and the translator and communications manager Tania Zabolotnaya (both from the University of Vienna).

The Magic Closet and the Dream Machine: Post-Soviet Queerness, Archiving, and the Art of Resistance 2020-2024, Vienna, St. Petersburg, Almaty, Yerevan, Tbilisi, Novosibirsk, Berlin The team consisted of Katharina Wiedlack, Anna T. and Iain Zabolotny (all University of Vienna), and Masha Godovannaya and Ruthia Jenrbekova (both Academy of Fine Arts Vienna). The project was a response to the rise of homo- and transphobia in post-Soviet countries. Existing research pays little attention to the ways queer lives form communities, resist pressures, continue to live and love queerly despite everything. This project bridges this research gap by documenting vitalizing images and narratives of queer people from post-Soviet spaces. Most importantly, the project supports queer post-Soviet individuals and groups to reclaim their agency, speak for themselves, and create spaces to imagine different and better futures. Over the course of the project, the team worked with local queer communities and activists in Central Asia, the Baltic region, Eastern Europe, Siberia and the Caucasus. Together they used the Dream Machine in a series of workshops to reflect people's lived realities and dreams, while helping to actively build communities across borders, local, national, ethnic, class, gender and sexual differences. The Dream Machine is a do-it-yourself stroboscopic flickering device developed by Brion Gysin between 1959 and 1962. The art-based research process began with the collective creation of a Dream Machine that helped participants focus on their personal experiences and ideas while immersing them in a shared activity that facilitates queer connections. Participants then took part in workshops where they were able to express their thoughts on everyday life and their experiences of queer belonging through writing, film, and other art forms. The results were later added to the online archive, the Magic Closet, which can be accessed at https://dreamagicloset.art/. The archive contains videos of talks, presentations, experimental film, poetry, and other creative writing, and academic articles about the lives of queer people in the post-Soviet space. The archive was presented at the international exhibition Close[t] Demonstrations: an exhibition on the multitudes of queer in_visibility (Semmelweisklinik Vienna, November 2023). This exhibition allowed the participats from the post-Soviet space to engage with artists from around the world, who imagine a new visual politics of queer representation and explore the connection between desires, ways of living and societal change in visible and/or invisible ways. The exhibition showcased artists from Kyiv, Berlin, Vienna, Hamburg, Helsinki, Athens, Erzurum, Dhaka, Dnipro, Mexico City, Johannesburg, Oaxaca, Almaty and London. Like its title, it playfully introduced elements of transparency, opacity, invisibility and visibility and their liminalities. Closets and the communities they hold were featured 'closely'; What it means to be public and to demonstrate for equality was reflected; And even monsters were '(de)monstrated'.