Rethink Identity
With "RETHINK IDENTITY" we celebrate the diversity of our society and explore different facets of identity with you.
What does it take to finally unlearn patriarchy together? What does porn have to do with sexual self-determination and feminism? What do non-white, queer voices have to say about current social discourses? What about mental health in the music industry and what do AI-generated artworks show that tell the biographical stories of homeless people in Hamburg?
We want to explore this and much more with you in readings, talks, exhibitions, live podcasts, and screenings with the following artists and programme items:
Anyone active on social media these days is more than familiar with the tweets of this guy – either as a signed-up follower or just by reading his spot-on reposts. Because Sebastian Hotz, better known as “El Hotzo”, has over 1.5 million people daily checking out his Instagram and Twitter posts that mix sharp humour with social critique. And just to show that his talent for entertaining can stretch to more than just a handful of characters at a time, his debut novel “Mindset” was released in April 2023 by Kiwi publishers. The best-seller deals with “men who have neither the time nor the interest in doubting their own mediocrity, and a society that is forced to somehow cope with their evasiveness.
Linus Giese & Naomi Ryland | Unlearn Patriarchy
Patriarchy rules - to this day. How the hell can this be? And what can we all do personally to recognise the often unconscious toxic structures and take a stand against them? The "Unlearn Patriarchy" anthology seeks to provide answers to these questions - from the perspective of well-known authors. The anthology is based on the realisation of how damn difficult it is to stand up to patriarchy in day-to-day life. Even declared feminists fall into the same traps time and again.
“What do you feel like doing today? And what don't you want? These were the questions Paulita Pappel got asked the first time she was on a porn set. Born in Spain, she fled to Berlin as soon as she could to indulge her sexual appetite. While studying literature, she started to act in porn, which financed not only her studies but also her hedonistic life. Her work in front of the camera, naked, has taught her to love her body. In her book “Pornopositiv”, Paulita Pappel shows how we can free ourselves from our internalised fears and shame and live a self-determined sexuality. These days she actually spends more time behind the camera - and she's on our stage for the premiere reading of her debut.
One topic constantly forcing its way to the front of feminist discourse is that of allyship, female comradeship and empowerment. Because it is mainly men who need to break down patriarchal structures of society. Fikri Anıl Altıntaş treads precisely this path, as an expert on topics such as (toxic) masculinity, role models and gender equality. And these causes are why he is actively engaged as the UN Women Germany ambassador for the #HeForShe campaign. Now, in his literary debut “Im Morgen wächst ein Birnbaum” (A Pear Tree Grows in the Morning), Altıntaş embarks on a personal and genuine search for traces of his life as the son of Turkish parents in a small town in Hesse.
The event is being held in cooperation with the Goethe-Institut Hamburg (Centre for International Cultural Education).
Danke, gut. | Der Podcast über Pop und Psyche
"How are you?", " Fine, thanks". These are just the kind of superficial exchanges that Miriam Davoudvandi has declared war on. Because in her view, mental health is something that is talked about far too little - outside the music industry too, but especially within the music industry. Davoudvandi is a freelance journalist, presenter and DJ who goes by the pseudonym Cashmiri. Her main project and passion is her podcast “Danke, gut”, addressing mental health and pop culture on the WDR Cosmo radio station. As the host, she regularly talks to people in public (music) life about how they deal with mental illness.
BBQ | Der Black Brown Queere Podcast
Here we are in two thousand and twenty-three: and the perspectives of non-white and queer people still get insufficient attention in the German media. And that's something activist Zuher Jazmati and hip-hop party organiser Dominik Djialeu want to change. It's why they gather around the microphone at “BBQ - the Black Brown Queer Podcast” to chat to different guests every month. Be it presenter Tarik Tesfu or journalist and podcaster Miriam Davoudvandi, politician Aminata Touré, rapper Ebow or journalist and presenter Malcolm Ohanwe: a host of names come to the studio to share their angles.
It is a grossly cynical phenomenon: while money for the needy is scarce in hard times, other areas are booming. One example being: the art market. The disconnect between the thriving creative trade and the problems of Hinz&Kunzt vendors who sell their magazine every single day in all weathers led to the idea of the “Homeless Gallery”. Why not earn money through art? And do so, not with works by famous artists, but with the creations of people in Hamburg who are currently or were formerly homeless.
Cooperative, subversive, visionary: “Autodefensa” likes to shake things up. The Catalan indie series with its auteur-led stories represents an innovative contrast to the high-budget productions of the current series scene. Comparable to brilliant independent productions like "Fleabag" or "Rain Dogs", "Autodefensa" employs an original voice drawn from theatre, literature, music and art that sees film and series as another part of its artistic vision. Shuttling between ironic allusions to the construction and layering of identities on the one hand, and a frank exploration of gender roles, consent, mental health, sex and self-medication on the other, the series has no desire to be a "social" show