This experimental art/research workshop explores questions related to sexual and gender politics in Finnish and Russian societies. The course consists of pre-readings, short lectures, group discussions and joint practical art-making workshops. The participants learn to make short videos and to edit them. No previous experience of making videos or practicing art is required.
The workshop is intended to function as a space of cross-cultural and cross-sectoral knowledge production. We critically explore a variety of borders that relate to the politics of gender and sexuality, e.g. the East-West divide or the boundary between academic research and artistic practice. We explore the limits of established and conventionalized ways of knowledge production within academia, discuss forms of sexual nationalism as well as try to identify new kinds of solutions to problems related to the politics of gender & sexuality both in Finland and in Russia.
The point of departure of the workshop is the idea that while questions related to sexual and gender politics are differently structured in Finnish and Russian societies, much is also shared. The workshop will explore the following types of questions:
(1) What kinds of meanings do gender and sexuality acquire in different cultural-political contexts? How are these meanings contested and questioned in Finland and in Russia?
(2) How do politics of gender and sexuality articulate conceptions of social justice and equality in Finnish and Russian societies? What kind of practices of power, marginalization and exclusion are associated with these conceptions, and how can they be countered?
(3) What kinds of cultural translations does the joint exploration of sexuality and gender bring to the fore? How can these acts of translation inform us about the cultural articulations concerning politics of gender and sexuality in Finland and Russia?
(4) What kind of cultural and social ‘infrastructure’ is there in the past and present of the Russian and Finnish societies that would enable identifying solutions to the social issues related to politics of gender and sexuality?
Comments