Dear visitor,
International queers often find themselves caught between two stools as they experience discrimination both from the white and cis-heteronormative majority society as well as from migrant communities and still predominantly white and German-influenced queer communities. Additionally, Black people, Indigenous people, and People of Color (BIPOC) are often assumed to be heterosexual and cisgender, which further renders queers invisible.
For Pain Pride Pose 15 international queers have come together to become visible and make a clear statement: We are here! What unites them is the rejection of boxes and one-dimensional categories, the fight against racism and discrimination, and the desire to give pride and strength to other international queers and to show: You are not alone!
This gave rise to the idea of a project, particularly supported and developed by Charlott Dahmen, a former employee of baraka. For one year, the participants embarked on a journey with baraka and ADB rubicon on an empowering process.
Communication during the times of Corona was a very complex challenge due to the need for both presence in the rubicon and the LGBTIQ* accommodation for refugees, online conferences with added telephone interpretation, one-on-one conversations via chat, email, phone, and instant messaging.
On the shared path of reflecting on identity, biography, and unjust social conditions, the participants developed their own picture collages,, wrote texts, were in exchange with each other, were photographed individually, and worked on their final text for the exhibition. The experiences of pain, the many facets of identity and belonging(s) in constant motion, the fragmented nature, the struggle to establish identity, self-confidence, and (self-)love shaped this process of engagement and self-empowerment.
All of this, along with the deep, participatory dialogue with Nora Hase, formed the basis for the creation of the exhibited picture collages by the photographer.
We are grateful that we were able to accompany this process.
Faisal, Gema and Tanya
(the project team at Rubicon)
Hard Facts
lesbian, gay, trans*, non-binary, genderfluid, queer...
Bengali, Chinese, German, English, Farsi, Macedonian, Punjabi, Russian, Somali, Sorani, Spanish
Argentina, Bangladesh, Germany, India, Iraq, Iran, Kyrgyzstan, Macedonia, Somalia, South Sudan, Taiwan, Venezuela
In Germany since
birth, decades, a few years, a few months
Status
German citizen, recognized refugee, visa, rejected asylum application, threatened with deportation
Realities
weitgehend akzeptiert, abgelehnt, kriminalisiert, permanenter Gewalt ausgesetzt, von Todesstrafe bedroht
The exhibits
Are you curious and do you want to support international queers and show them that they are not alone? 15 queers worked on this project for a year to make a clear statement against discrimination and racism. The empowerment process was challenging, but the participants worked with photographer Nora Hase to create their own picture collages, write texts, and empower themselves through exchange with each other. You can see their experiences of pain and fragmentation in the full exhibition.
