Modernity/Coloniality/Sexuality

This Think.Zone offers an introduction to sexual modernity/coloniality, drawing on approaches that are theoretical and historical, as well as political and aesthetic. The intention is to engage in a kind of collective detachment from “sexuality,” which will be considered not as a specific sexual identity or individualized erotic essence, but rather as the product of multiple power relations, embedded in the afterlives of 1492. Throughout the year, we will be working together to think about the epistemic and political, but also artistic and creative, processes that would allow us not to “liberate (our) sexuality” but rather to liberate ourselves from the episteme of “modern/colonial sexuality.”

Our starting point is the queer/trans feminist and decolonial perspectives developed in Abya Yala-Latin America, which describe “sexual modernity” as a Eurocentric fiction, inseparable from the sequence of genocide, colonialism, and slavery that began in 1492. This theoretical radicalism is inseparable from the aesthetic and political creativity specific to cuir-queer and travesti-trans communities and struggles. During the first semester, we will alternate between reading classic texts (notably by Sylvia Wynter and María Lugones) and analyzing artistic processes: from the opening of a Museo Travesti in Peru to the musical universe of Brazilian singer Linn Da Quebrada, via the TransInflable sculpture displayed at demonstrations in Colombia and the performances of Argentinian poet Susy Shock.

In the second semester, we will turn our attention to the Global North, the hegemonic point of reference for sexual and gender norms, to examine its whiteness, Westernness, and Europeanity. Critical race studies, queer and trans of color critiques, and black transfeminism will serve as our starting points for questioning the dominant sexual categories, identities, and cultures in Europe. This second part of the Think.Zone will take the form of a collective and collaborative investigation aimed at discussing several artistic attempts to address contemporary sex-racial issues. For example, we may explore themes such as sexual migration, pinkwashing, and the eroticism of fascism.

The Think.Zone may be conducted in English and/or French and will also incorporate numerous Spanish-language sources (with translations into English or French available).

Appetizers

Red Communitaria Trans, “Transinflable requiem”
https://redcomunitariatrans.org/transinfable-requiem
Jota Mombaça, “Can a mestizo asshole speak?”
https://www.artseverywhere.ca/can-a-mestizo-asshole-speak/
María Lugones, “The Coloniality of Gender”
https://journals.openedition.org/cedref/1196

Image:

Image :
Transinflable project (2018-2019). A project carried out by: La Red Comunitaria Trans in cooperation with Tomás Espinosa and Artúr van Balen.
Direction : Juan David Cotés
Text: Daniela Maldonado and Tomas Espinosa