BODEN

The feminist activist and author Silvia Federici describes how the era of the European witch hunts brought about a fundamental shift in attitudes towards land, community, property and territory. Communal land was increasingly privatised, social structures were dismantled and new forms of ownership and control were established. For Federici, the persecution and murder of women as witches is linked to an era of violence, dispossession and displacement.

“BODEN” traces these historical interconnections and explores how the German nation and its understanding of national identity took shape – and, with them, the construction of a “non-German” figure, denied a sense of belonging and the right to exist on German soil. From a Black German perspective, the artists Sophie Yukiko and ZOE engage with these themes through the figure of the witch. Using voguing, a dance form from queer ballroom culture, they reclaim the witch as a figure of resistance and turn their attention to dispossession, exclusion and the question of who owns land, history and a sense of belonging.

Sophie Yukiko is a German-American artist working in film and theatre. In her work, she explores the concept of ritual and club culture – themes she addresses through dance and text. During her professional career as a dancer, she became part of the ballroom scene and has since devoted herself to contexts of political art.

ZOE is an interdisciplinary performance artist and curator from Düsseldorf. In her work, she reflects on rehabilitation, transformation and the (re)appropriation of the body and space, as well as the relationship between power and marginalisation. For her, art is a language of resistance that questions narratives, fills voids and expands stories: to bring into focus the perspective, visibility and sovereignty of structurally discriminated-against realities and communities. ZOE belongs to the first generation of ballroom culture in Germany and is regarded as one of the leading figures in this culture across the German-speaking world.

IN GERMAN / ENGLISH