Rena Onat
Rena Onat
>> Dissertation project: "Strategies of resistance, empowerment and survival in the works of queer artists of colour in the German context"
With my dissertation, I would like to explore the question of how queer artists[1] of colour[2] in Germany use art to decolonise and queer both the art context and society, which specific artistic practices they use and develop and how these work. The field of the visual has historically played an important role in the legitimisation of colonialism, the construction of human "races", for practices of "othering" and images of the "other" as well as for the creation of stereotypes. It is therefore obvious that interventions, criticism and subversions of power relations also take place in the visual realm. Queers of colour are structurally affected by both racism and homophobia/transphobia, have to deal with multiple discrimination and move in a field of tension between the greatest possible invisibility on the one hand and a great interest in queers of colour/us as "hyper-oppressed" and thus as "victims" incapable of acting on the other.[3] Against this background, it is important for my research project to focus on creativity, strategies of resistance and scope for action despite marginality and multi-layered experiences of discrimination, without romanticising them. What strategies emerge from the combination of queer desire and queer performativities with experiences of racism and anti-racist resistance? How can heterosexist and racist norms, among other things, be made visible and broken down through art? I assume that racism functions in a specific way in Germany, for example in the form of a dethematisation of racism and colonialism. The associated consequences for anti-racist and queer strategies as well as effects on artistic productions will be analysed in my work on the basis of selected works. Theoretically and methodologically, the work is located in the transdisciplinary field of visual cultural studies and refers to approaches from queer studies, postcolonial theory, critical race studies, feminist theory and intermediality research. The work sees itself as a contribution to an emerging Queer of Colour Critique and benefits greatly from academic, activist and artistic work from People of Color/Queer of Color networks.
[1]The underscore leaves a symbolic space for people who are represented neither by the female nor the male form and is intended to make visible in the typeface that there are more than just two genders. The spelling is also known as the "gender gap" and goes back to Steffen Kitty Hermann. To date, it has mainly been used in queer theory. See Steffen Kitty Hermann, Performing the Gap - Queere Gestalten und geschlechtliche Aneignung, in: Arranca! issue 28, November 2003, pp. 22-26.
[2] People of Colour: The term is a self-designation by and for people with experiences of racism. The term is a political term that attempts to connect people with different experiences of racism in order to effectively defend themselves against racism. The focus is not only on experiences of injury and discrimination, but also on experiences of resistance. It is therefore not about "biological" similarities such as skin colour, etc. What is also important about the term is that it is a self-designation, in contrast to racist and/or colonial foreign designations. See also: Jasmin Dean, People of Colour, in: Susan Arndt and Nadja Ofuatey-Alazard (eds.), Wie Rassismus aus Wörtern spricht. (K)Erben des Kolonialismus im Wissensarchiv deutsche Sprache : ein kritisches Nachschlagewerk, Münster 2011, p. 597; Kien Nghi Ha, People of Colour - Koloniale Ambivalenzen und historische Kämpfe, in: Kien Nghi Ha, Nicola Lauré al-Samarai, Sheila Mysoreka (eds.), Re /Visionen. Postcolonial Perspectives of People of Colour on Racism, Cultural Politics and Resistance in Germany, Münster 2007, pp. 31-40.
[3]Jin Haritaworn, Tamsila Taquir, Esra Erdem. Queer-Imperialism: An Intervention in the Debate on "Muslim Homophobia, in: Kien Nghi Ha, Nicola Lauré al-Samarai, Sheila Mysoreka (eds.), Re /Visions. Postcolonial Perspectives of People of Colour on Racism, Cultural Politics and Resistance in Germany, Münster 2007, p. 190
>> Research interests
Queer Studies, Postcolonial Theories, Visual Cultural Studies, Women of Colour Feminism, Feminist Art Studies
>> Study
2010 - 2012 Master of Arts in Art and Media Studies at the University of Oldenburg
2006 - 2010 Bachelor of Arts Art Education extracurricular, Gender Studies at of the University Bremen
2008 - 2013 Study scholarship from the Rosa Luxemburg Foundation
>> Teaching
WiSe 2014/2015 Institute of Art and Visual Culture, BA / BA Gender Studies
No_Body is here... Body images, identities and invisibilities in art and visual culture|
Winter term 2013/2014 Lectureship HfK Bremen, BA Integrated Design
Queer positions and (dis)identifications in contemporary art and visual culture
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winter term 2014/2015 | Institute of Art and Visual Culture, BA / BA Gender Studies, University of Oldenburg No_Body is here... Body images, identities and invisibilities in art and visual culture |
Winter term 2013/2014 | Lectureship HfK Bremen BA Integrated Design: "Queerpositions and (dis)identifications in contemporary art and visual culture" |
2011/2012 | Tutor at the Centre for Interdisciplinary Women's and Gender Studies (ZFG) |
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>> Publication
together with Micossé-Aikins, Sandrine; Rage, Raju. Queering and Decolonising Art and Visual Culture. A Roundtable Discussion. In: Paul, Barbara; Hoenes, Josch; Beyer, Ina; Frankenberg, Natascha; Onat, Rena; (eds). PerverseStructures. Queering heteronormative orders inter/medially. Berlin: Revolver, in preparation.
"I speak so you don't speak for me". (Queer) of Color perspectives as a prerequisite for queering and decolonising art_science. In: Greve, Anna (ed.). Art and Whiteness. New postcolonial analyses. Vol. 17 of the yearbook "Art and Politics", Göttingen 2015. p. 101-116
Kestnerkids make art - Experiencing contemporary art with children. In: Kestnerchronik / Kestnergesellschaft Hannover. Book 3: [1997 - 2011]: / Görner, Veit (ed.). Hanover, 2012
>> Conferences
Conference (collaboration)
Perverse Structures. Queering heteronormative orders inter/medially.
International conference at the University of Oldenburg organised as part of the Helene Lange-Kolleg Queer Studies and Intermediality: Art - Music - Media Culture, 29-31 January 2015
Summer School (Participation)
Inside/Outside: Queer Networks in Transnational Perspective, Leibniz University Hannover, 12-16 September 2016
>> Lectures
the master's tools will never dismantle the master's house* - challenging power structures in the arts (*Audre Lorde) (together with Bahareh Sharifi) Symposium: "Art.School.Differences - Researching Inequalities and Normativities in the Field of Higher Education, ZHDK, Switzerland, 13-14 November 2016
Alternative Archives, Selfrepresentations as Counternarratives - Queer of Colour Visibilities and Opacities in Art (together with Raju Rage) Conference: Returning the Gaze II University of Innsbruck, Austria 3-4 November 2016
Making visible the knowledge archives of Black people and People of Color As part of the event series: Decolonisation of Art and Visual Culture, xart splitta e.V., Berlin 16.6.2016
"I speak so you don't speak for me". (Queer) of Color perspectives as a prerequisite for a queering and decolonisation of art_science, as part of the conference "New Postcolonial Methods of Analysis" Conference of the Guernica Society at the Staatliche Kunstsammlungen Dresden, 4-6 December 2014 (vol. 17 of the yearbook "Kunst und Politik", 2015)
"Art, Empowerment, Resistance: Presenting (Political) Artists of Colour" (with Stacie Graham), as part of the Femoco (Feminisms of Colour) Conference 2013, Berlin
"Queer Art: Deconstruction, Genderbending, Genderfuck", as part of the public series of lectures Perspektiven der Kritik:Genderforschung inter- und transdisziplinär, University of Oldenburg, 4 December 2013
"Looking back - resistant views of queer artists of colour. Intersectional food for thought on the occasion of International Women's (Struggle) Day", as part of the International Women's Day 2014 "Körper, Gender, Subjektivierung" organised by students of the MA Cultural Analysis, University of Oldenburg, 8.3.2014
"Subject/Object. Picasso and the model - the role of the muse from an art historical and feminist perspective", as part of the cooperation event of Mädchenhaus Bremen e.V. and Kunsthalle Bremen "Kunst und Psychologie im Dialog VI", Kunsthalle Bremen Normal, 18.3.2014
>> Moderation
Moderation of the closing panel of the event series Decolonize Art and Visual Culture, xart splitta e.V., Berlin, 18.11. 2016
Moderation at the conference Vernetzt euch! Strategies and Visions for an Art and Culture Scene Critical of Discrimination, Berlin University of the Arts, 10-11 October 2015
Moderation at the symposium Precarious Art - Protest and Resistance, Alpha Nova + Galerie Futura, Berlin 26 September 2015
>> Academic appointment
Since 2013 PhD student at the Helene Lange Centre for Queer Studies and Intermediality
Since 2011 member of the museum education team at the kestnergesellschaft hannover e.V.
2011/2012 Research assistant at the Centre for Interdisciplinary Women's and Gender Studies (ZFG)