Third of #31Bienal's symposiums, Trans-(religion/gender) program aims to create knowledge and share experiences of religious manifestations understood as dynamic and hybrid (trans?) phenomena that embraces a large array of issues, from the regulation of sexual behavior to the construction of new narratives and economic powers. Co-organised with Carlos Gutierrez and Projeto Nova Jersualem/Digital Art Lab, the program brings together academics, artists and representatives of the creeds under discussion to explore the possibility of a symmetrical anthropology in public debate. The first part (Saturday) analyzes religion and its participation in the sundry spheres of life. The second (Sunday), with the participation of LGBT-movement leaders, looks at the issue of gender politics and the emergence of a queer theology. The program as whole is constantly reshaped by COMO_clube. From the 3rd of November to the 10th, the COMO_clube builds up situations, mediates conversations, interferes and intervenes in time and space.
Trans-(religion/gender)
November 8, Saturday
Religion as a transphenomena
12h-13h Religion, Laicity and Secularism in Brasil, Paula Monteiro
Religions have always posed political problems that are key to the constitution of modern States. The question of laicity and secularism was fundamental in defining democratic political models. We aim to outline, in broad strokes, how this problematic is configured in contemporary Brazil and the manner in which it engages the Brazilian academic debate on religion, taking into consideration the specificities of our social-historical construction of laicity and secularism.
13h Lunch
15h-20h New Jerusalem Project
Introduction and Mediation: Eyal Danon and Benjamin Seroussi
This open-ended and research-based project brings artists, researchers and curators together to reflect on new religious movements. It aims at creating knowledge through the realisation of works, publications and seminars. Two works commissioned in the context of this project are part of the 31st Bienal: Counting the Stars by Nurit Sharett and Inferno by Yael Bartana. Whereas two other projects are discussed in the Program in Time, in this symposium: one by Efrat Shvily and another one by Dias & Riedweg.
15h15-16h Power Engineering, governability and controversies invovling the Universal Church of the Kingdom of God, Carlos Gutierrez
The platform for this analysis is the complex ‘power engineering’ created by the UCKG, which mixes media, politics, assistance and culture focused on ‘governability’, that is, on people management through pastoral power – a Foucaultian concept that covers the regulation of everyday life by a pedagogical logic, i.e., the logic of the ego. While this formative endeavor influences all walks of life, we focus on two particular spheres: the political and the professional. There is a clear attempt to knead the congregation into a body that is at once docile, and subject to political action, and entrepreneurial, driven by a prosperity theology that envisages wealthy, educated, political and market-ready citizens.
16h30-18h Creating the Jerusalem Experience, project of Efrat Shvili with Joerg Bader and Alona Nitzan-Shiftan
The panel revolves around Efrat Shvily's photographic tour of selected sites which are set to create an experience of historical Jerusalem in varying degrees of intervetion and manipulation. The tour simultaneously departs from the fences surrounding the City of David in Jerusalem and those surrounding the construction site of the Third Temple of Solomon in Sao Paulo. Shvily leads us through the draining channels under the Jerusalem Temple Mt., the festivals of knights and lights, the spiritual market place of the São Paulo Temple of Solomon and the Temple Institute workshop building the vessles for the Third Temple in Jerusalem, all the way to the Holy of Holies (the replica, the reconstruct, the real and the fake). Along this photographic tour Nitzan-Shiftan will address the political uses of archeological sites and Joerg Bader will talk aobut the way documentary photography blurs the frontier between model and the fake. More information on the Jerusalem Experience here.
18h30-20h No land is holly, nor human, Dias & Riedweg and Peter Pál Pelbart The screening of a 30 minutes video presenting excerpts from Corpo Santo (2012), by Dias & Riedweg in collaboration with the patients and doctors of IPUT (Psychatric Institute of the Federal University of Rio de Janeiro), will be be followed by a round table with the artists and philosopher Peter Pál Pelbart. The conversation will start from the excerpt of the video in order to formulate a new project by Dias & Riedweg, in a stage of development – Cities of God – built around the ‘Jerusalem syndrome’, a mental phenomena characterized by religious obsessions triggerd by visiting Jerusalem. In both project, the thin line that separates faith from madness appears as a possibility to create new divisions within psychological and political territories. Jerusalem is no longer seen as a spot on the map but as a construction of the mind.
20h FERVO_Fake Ritual, COMO_clube
What is FERVO? According to COMO_clube 'FERVO is a performative environment, a trans-choreography based on false realities, false rituals and therapies. FERVO evokes the perception of becoming, and leads our bodies to a resonant state. FERVO is a tropicaliente situation'.
November 9, Sunday
(Trans)gender, a Body Policy
11h-17h Fake Esoteric Auê_Care, COMO_clube
12h-13h Gender Politics and Narratives of (Trans)formation
12h-12h30 Sex, Drugs and Biopolitics in the Pornopharmaceutical Era, Peter Pál Pelbart
Beatriz Preciado is one of the most original thinkers of our time regarding the issue of gender, post-feminism and queer theory. By extending her analysis toward the functioning of contemporary society as a whole, she asks: ‘But what if, in reality, it was the insatiable bodies of the crowd, their dicks and their clitoris, their anus, their hormones, their neuro-sexual synapsis, what if the desire, the arousal, the sexuality, the seduction and pleasure of the crowd that were the engines of value creation in today's economy, what if the cooperation was a "masturbatory cooperation" and not simply a cooperation of brains?’
• Prelaunch of Manifesto Contrassexual – Práticas subversivas de identidade sexual, by Beatriz Preciado
First book of the Spanish philosopher is a small dynamite – its Portuguese translation comes out in early December by n-1 editions. With cover design by Laerte Coutinho and illustrations by the author herself, is one of the most compelling works of queer theory. To celebrate, n-1 editions prepared a prelaunch with free distribution of the Princípios da sociedade contrassexual. Everyone to sign the contrasexual contract will have 40% discount on the purchase of the book.
12h30-13h Queer Theology, Inclusive Churches and Transvestite Conversion Ministries, Eduardo Meinberg Maranhão
Transsexuals find themselves negotiating tensions that involve different transgender and transreligious spheres (genders and religions in transit). Within many ambits of religious and gender transit, with overtures toward both traditional and queer theologies, we find (neo)Pentecostal churches, Christian psychiatric collectives, Afro-Brazilian terreiros, LGBT-inclusive churches and transvestite-conversion ministries. In terms of religiosity and gender issues, how exactly do these people move in these environments? Could we speak of a Brazilian queer or trans theology? How do processes of (de)transition unfold? What are the intentions behind evangelical missions to (re/de)convert genders and religions?
13h30 Lunch
15h-17h Gender in Debate with Marcia Rocha, activist, co-founder of Transemprego Marcos Lord, preacher at ICM Betel (RJ) where he realized a “drag queen” performance, Alexya Salvador, transexual preacher at ICM Manancial in Mairiporã, Pastor Robson Staines, preacher who defines himself as ex-homosexual.
The conversation brings together LGBTs activits, preachers and priests, defending and promoting diverging gender politics to discuss together.
17h30 TRANS_FERVO, COMO_clube
What is FERVO? According to COMO_clube 'FERVO is a performative environment, a trans-choreography based on false realities, false rituals and therapies. FERVO evokes the perception of becoming, and leads our bodies to a resonant state. FERVO is a tropicaliente situation'.
_____
| image: ©Gustavo Saulle / COMO_clube
| The COMO_clube is composed of:
- trans-choreographer and Como_clubber: Thelma Bonavita
- trans-managers and Como_clubbers: Allyson Amaral, Ana Dupas, Caio, Eidglas Xavier, Gabi Vanzetta e Mavi Veloso.
- Como_clube guests and partners: Amilcar Packer, Karlla Girotto, Ad Ferrera, Emilija Skarnulte (Lituania), Gustavo Saulle, Gustavo Silvestre, Henrik Sørlid (Noway), Maryah Monteiro, Marsil Andjelov Al-Mahamid (Serbia), Matti Aiko (Norway), Nicolas Siepen (Germany), Tanya Busse (Canada) e Valentina Desideri (Italy/France).
