The Magic Closet and the Dream Machine Archive

September 2023

Queer and Russian Art?

While the topic of queer sexuality in imperial Russia and the Soviet Union has been investigated for decades by scholars working in the fields of sociology, history, literary studies, and musicology, it has yet to be studied in any comprehensive or systematic way by those working in the visual arts. Queer(ing) Russian Art: Realism, Revolution, Performance is meant to address this lacuna by providing a platform for new scholarship that connects “Russian” art with queerness in a variety of ways. Situated at the intersection of Visual Studies and Queer Studies and working from different theoretical and disciplinary perspectives, the contributors expose and explore the queer imagery and sensibilities in works of visual art produced in pre-Soviet, Soviet and post-Soviet contexts and beneath the surface of conventional histories of Russian and Soviet art.

Article

Katharina Wiedlack, Masha Godovannaya In: Queer(ing) Russian Art: Realism, Revolution, Performance. Academic Studies Press.

September 2023

The Backlash against Feminist Body Positive Activism in Russia, Kyrgyzstan and Kazakhstan: a Transnational post-Soviet Trend?

Katharina Wiedlack, Iain Zabolotny In: Global Perspectives on Anti-Femnism: Far-Right and Religious Attacks on Equality and Diversity. Edinburgh University Press

June 2023

Race, whiteness, Russianness and the discourses on the ‘Black Lives Matter’ movement and Manizha

Article

Katharina Wiedlack, Iain Zabolotny. In:The Routledge International Handbook of New Critical Race and Whiteness Studies. Routledge

March – June 2023

Queer (in) Form: Examining In_Visibility through Theory and Art production

Course

Katharina Wiedlack, Anna T., University of Vienna

Sascha Zaitseva, Academy of Applied Arts

Through a theoretical overview of the potency of notions of opacity and invisibility, visibility and transparency etc. as used in Gender, Queer, and Postcolonial Studies the students become familiar with the multitude of ways these methods have been used by minorities, artists, theorists in modern and contemporary culture.

Through the artistic practice component students get the chance to experiment with clay and other materials and creatively approach the topics discussed in the theoretical part of the seminar.

May 2023

In/Visibility and the (post-soviet) ‘queer closet’

Article

Katharina Wiedlack

In: Journal of Gender Studies

May 2023

Queer(ing) Solidarity? Some Thoughts on Representation and Identity, Difference and Privilege

Article

Katharina Wiedlack, Masha Neufeld. In: Queer, Migration, and Belonging: INtersections and Assemblages

Exploring the interface between sexuality, queerness, migration,and belonging, this volume addresses constructions of sexual and queer identities within global processes of bordering, colonization, globalization, capitalism, nationalism, and the recent ‘crisis of migration.’ The topics covered in this volume range from biopolitics and homonationalism to the (de)construction
of sexual borders and to queer solidarity and coalition building.

April 2023

Gender Doltulation
Дольтуляция Гендера

Gender doltulation is a bug in the running of artificial intelligence, a mistake in Google Translate. It’s an abyss into which we masterfully fall and brashly plunge. It’s conscious consent to unconscious actions. Gender doltulation is a political utopia, a cherished, unknown land, a place that exists (between us).
The film was created as a development of ideas that emerged during the Vienna Dream Machine workshop in August 2020.
Together with Nastia Lapina, Lunio Skorykh, Kogot’, Tess, Semyon, Jessica, Rebeka Pushkar, Koivo and Daria Vorujubivaeva.

Film

Masha Godovannaya, Nastia Lapina, Lunio Skorykh, Kogot’, Tess, Semyon, Jessica, Rebeka Pushkar, Koivo and Daria Vorujubivaeva

Vienna

March 2023

Dream Machine workshop

Ruthia Jenrbekova

Berlin

The workshop was in the framework of “Өмә” exhibition at Kunstraum Kreuzberg Bethanien, that examined Russian colonialism and anticolonial resistance. Most of the participants shared their experiences of living in Ukraine, Belarus, Armenia and Russia. Poetry pieces, drawings, and paper have been produced during the workshop, and are included into the archive.

January 2023

The Magic Closet and the Dream Machine: Post-Soviet Queer Knowledge Production in Times of increased Trans- and Homophobia

Article

Katharina Wiedlack, Masha Godovannaya, Ruthia Jenrbekova, Iain Zabolotny,

Connections Journal

October 2022 –

January 2023

Methodologies of In_visibility: Gender & Sexuality, Art & Theory

Course

Katharina Wiedlack, Anna T., University of Vienna

In the seminar students explored how invisibilities and visibilities are informed and inform agency and empowerment for minoritarian subjects, and developed an extensive vocabulary of theoretical terms from the four main disciplines (Gender, Queer, Postcolonial Studies, and Arts & Culture).