Invitation to War

we went to voina with guns

On Friday, the 16th of March 2012, the artist activist group Voina (Russian: „war”) had a public presentation at the National Museum for Contemporary Art situated in the House of People in Bucharest. Each person attending this event had to pass through a control of his/hers belongings and a body control through a metal detector, including the Voina artists. They were even longer and more thoroughly searched. The reason for this is that the building is a military objective. A space totally dedicated to State authorities, it hosts various institutions of „national importance” like the Parliament.

We consider the event a invitation to war.

The war is against today's form of the Romanian State, a police state that has progressively straighten its repressive character in the last six months. The fundamental right to protest and contest state authority has been and still is seriously broken. Too many activists and not only have been picked up and fined abusively and even physically assaulted by the military arm of the State, the privileged Jandarmeria.

Inside the House of People, the war can only be symbolic, a representation of that real war through which the protest is, as each day passes, domesticized and annihilated. We have come to war in the only way we can: with toy guns. Just as freedom of speech is just a toy and protest just a simulacra in the eyes of the authorities. We played the role of harmless harlequins, toy-terrorists, a role that the same authorities attribute to artists. Responding to a symbolic war invitation, we try to push the limits of security and surveillance at the security check of the Museum.

The toy guns are confiscated at the entrance, the art gesture is amputated in the hallway of the Great House. The reason: with toy guns one can threaten and create panic. In the space that the State dedicated to contemporary art, contemporary artists are not welcome if they undermine its authority. Two pistols out of five manage to get across the tough security check. Throughout the presentation, anyone could observe the other guns left next to the metal detector.

At the first floor of the Museum, the Voina presentation is about to begin. At this moment, we place ourselves in front of the obedient audience, two of us holding our guns at sight. The others are wearing the message: „I came to Voina, but this plastic gun had to stay at the security check of the Museum”. Although we threaten the audience with our guns, nobody panics. We are perfectly safe in the most guarded building in Romania. The limits of security and surveillance seem unreachable.
A threatening as a simulacra and the neutralization of any conflict, this is the only Voina possible at the House of People.

Arnold Schlachter
Bogdan Draganescu
Mihail Bumbes
Mihai Lukács
Veda Popovici

Fascist reunion under the BMW logo in Bucharest

On March 14, the Christian Democratic Foundation led by the ex-Minister of External Affairs, Teodor Baconschi, organized jointly with the Organization of Women of PD-L, the Hanns Seidel Foundation and two ultraconservative groups (the Pro-Life Foundation and the Family Alliance), a conference called "family and life ethics" under the patronage of Bavaria Motors and the big BMW logo.

A big moral dilemma for the speakers. What would BMW do? 

The discussion between various religious  fundamentalists and conservative politicians had many fascist aspects: a strong nationalist discourse, the anti-choice radical view, homophobic statements, the social eugenics project of a woman MP (Ms. Turcan), the "good"example of the new Hungarian constitution, the presence of a fascist leader that was using "classic" nazi citations to make his argument.  All under the German brotherly support of the Hanns Seidel Foundation, whose representative used his time to explain that "abortion is murder".

Bogdan Stanciu, the Pro-Vita representative, made a presentation in which he praised the current Constitution of Hungary, emphasizing its focus on Christianity, nation, anti-choice and anti-gay marriage. Baconschi congratulated his presentation by using the words "articulate, coherent and true", adding that Stanciu's references are also "our references" (the Goebbels reference also, I assume).

The old cliche of the "liberal holocaust" that destroys the greatness of the Romanian nation, together with demographic fears and the apocalypse-to-come, was connected again to the disappearance of the conservative family and religious beliefs.

As a sort of conclusion to the anti-women-anti-gay-anti-poor talk, Baconschi closed the hateful monologues by stating the alliance between the ruling party (which he represents as vice-president) and the ultraconservative group Pro-Vita, whose president comes also from the New Right fascist organization. He also mentioned that those who look for tolerance can go to a brothel (a pun in Romanian, the expression "tolerance house" means brothel).


Nevertheless, the audience was allowed to comment for the last 10 minutes when several feminist voices attacked this event harshly and they encountered an unexpected support from the crowd, most of the audience was cheering their in-your-face comments. 




thanks to Medusa for her coverage and here is the page of the event [both in Romanian].

Queercore @ subRahova

Queercore 

One person show 

In English 

After Jet Moon & Queer Beograd Collective 

With Cătălin Jugravu 

By Mihai Lukacs 

Saturday, January 14, 2012
7:00pm until 10:00pm

subRahova, Sergent Nutu Ion, nr.2, Bucharest, Romania

+ deBate on the round table about Queer Artivism/Activism with the most special guests Working on this performance we had the revelation that is not enough to stage and act a queer show when no one knows what queer is. The plan is not to give you another closet, but to move beyond the idea of rights and freedom of sexual expression. Our work focuses on a different politick. We politicize and localize queer to provide a space to explore and challenge militarism, capitalism, gender, homophobia and nationalism. Of course, the question is why do we want to connect all politics together through theatre conventions? Why do we want to go out of the identity box politics? How can we relate queer to our local context – not just some Western taken-for-granted idea? There are so many questions to be asked but this is also a way to create a safe social space where we can move away from the sterile discussions to the change that we want to see happening. We want to show how these issues connect by bringing on stage those lives that don’t fit into neat categories and clear boundaries. Queercore is a space to start the important conversations that we all wanted so much to have, to build a base to continue these conversations and to begin to get to know each other. subRahova, str. Sergent Nutu Ion, nr.2/ Strada Mihail Sebastian 112, the RECOM building. For taxi, ask for Strada Mihail Sebastian 112. *please reserve a ticket at the following address: corequeer@gmail.com we are using the "pay-as-you-wish" system. facebook event: http://www.facebook.com/events/162905153812828/

Revolutionary conduct: the musical

bash back from Sweden:  "The film encourages and gives suggestions for ways to respond to gender-and hetero-fascists and their constant repetition of for example, are you a guy or girl?
A movie for all of us who are faced with sexism, trans / homophobia and guitar guys on everyday occasions and at parties."


Moralists Instruction Musical: The Revolutionary Conduct from Consumedmind on Vimeo.

nevertheless, acab

Oh, the Places You'll Go!

a poem by Dr. Seuss

Congratulations!
Today is your day.
You're off to Great Places!
You're off and away!

You have brains in your head.
You have feet in your shoes.
You can steer yourself 
any direction you choose.
You're on your own. And you know what you know.
And YOU are the guy who'll decide where to go.

You'll look up and down streets. Look 'em over with care.
About some you will say, "I don't choose to go there."
With your head full of brains and your shoes full of feet, 
you're too smart to go down any not-so-good street.

And you may not find any
you'll want to go down.
In that case, of course,
you'll head straight out of town.

It's opener there
in the wide open air.

Out there things can happen
and frequently do
to people as brainy
and footsy as you.

And then things start to happen,
don't worry. Don't stew.
Just go right along.
You'll start happening too.

OH!
THE PLACES YOU'LL GO!

You'll be on y our way up!
You'll be seeing great sights!
You'll join the high fliers
who soar to high heights.

You won't lag behind, because you'll have the speed.
You'll pass the whole gang and you'll soon take the lead.
Wherever you fly, you'll be best of the best.
Wherever you go, you will top all the rest.

Except when you don't.
Because, sometimes, you won't.

I'm sorry to say so
but, sadly, it's true
that Bang-ups
and Hang-ups
can happen to you.

You can get all hung up
in a prickle-ly perch.
And your gang will fly on.
You'll be left in a Lurch.

You'll come down from the Lurch
with an unpleasant bump.
And the chances are, then,
that you'll be in a Slump.

And when you're in a Slump,
you're not in for much fun.
Un-slumping yourself
is not easily done.

You will come to a place where the streets are not marked.
Some windows are lighted. But mostly they're darked.
A place you could sprain both your elbow and chin!
Do you dare to stay out? Do you dare to go in?
How much can you lose? How much can you win?

And IF you go in, should you turn left or right...
or right-and-three-quarters? Or, maybe, not quite?
Or go around back and sneak in from behind?
Simple it's not, I'm afraid you will find,
for a mind-maker-upper to make up his mind.

You can get so confused
that you'll start in to race
down long wiggled roads at a break-necking pace
and grind on for miles cross weirdish wild space,
headed, I fear, toward a most useless place.
The Waiting Place...

...for people just waiting.
Waiting for a train to go
or a bus to come, or a plane to go
or the mail to come, or the rain to go
or the phone to ring, or the snow to snow
or the waiting around for a Yes or No
or waiting for their hair to grow.
Everyone is just waiting.

Waiting for the fish to bite
or waiting for the wind to fly a kite
or waiting around for Friday night
or waiting, perhaps, for their Uncle Jake
or a pot to boil, or a Better Break
or a string of pearls, or a pair of pants
or a wig with curls, or Another Chance.
Everyone is just waiting.

NO!
That's not for you!

Somehow you'll escape
all that waiting and staying
You'll find the bright places
where Boom Bands are playing.

With banner flip-flapping,
once more you'll ride high!
Ready for anything under the sky.
Ready because you're that kind of a guy!

Oh, the places you'll go! There is fun to be done!
There are points to be scored. There are games to be won.
And the magical things you can do with that ball
will make you the winning-est winner of all.
Fame! You'll be as famous as famous can be,
with the whole wide world watching you win on TV.

Except when they don't
Because, sometimes they won't.

I'm afraid that some times
you'll play lonely games too.
Games you can't win
'cause you'll play against you.

All Alone!
Whether you like it or not,
Alone will be something
you'll be quite a lot.

And when you're alone, there's a very good chance
you'll meet things that scare you right out of your pants.
There are some, down the road between hither and yon,
that can scare you so much you won't want to go on.

But on you will go
though the weather be foul.
On you will go
though your enemies prowl.
On you will go
though the Hakken-Kraks howl.
Onward up many
a frightening creek,
though your arms may get sore
and your sneakers may leak.

On and on you will hike,
And I know you'll hike far
and face up to your problems
whatever they are.

You'll get mixed up, of course,
as you already know.
You'll get mixed up 
with many strange birds as you go.
So be sure when you step.
Step with care and great tact
and remember that Life's 
a Great Balancing Act.
Just never foget to be dexterous and deft.
And never mix up your right foot with your left.

And will you succeed?
Yes! You will, indeed!
(98 and 3/4 percent guaranteed.)

KID, YOU'LL MOVE MOUNTAINS!

So...
be your name Buxbaum or Bixby or Bray
or Mordecai Ali Van Allen O'Shea,
You're off the Great Places!
Today is your day!
Your mountain is waiting.
So...get on your way!

never stop writing!

Eddy Crosby