Bodie / KINO MANHATTAN
Ezra Šimek
Ezra Šimek
“The trans* body is the epistemology of sexual difference what American continents were to the Spanish empire: a place of such richness and culture that it beggared the imperial imagination. A place of mining and extermination of life. Our trans* organs are to the heteropatriarchal system what Potosí silver mines were to the patriarchal-colonial unconscious. The silver is extracted from the earth and the miner is buried in the shaft. Our organs are Amazonian rubber and the gold of the Sierras. Our organs are the oil that the normative sexual machine requires in order to function. Everywhere, the trans* body is hated, and, at the same time, fantasized, desired and consumed.”
Paul B. Preciado: Can The Monster Speak?
The Trans* Vagabond embarked on an uncertain journey and there is no saying where and how their adventure ends. They used to have their life quite neatly organized. The Sun has always been there as a compass and as a clock. But what are time and directions good for when your insides burn with a flame of desire to be truly yourself?
The first steps on a mysterious quest that takes you to old abandoned and long forgotten mining towns of the old Wild West, where land is scourged and only your curiosity can temporarily quench that horrifying thirst, and maybe the Lone Ranger himself will hand you a wear-down mug filled with notions challenging your original perceptions of the place. And suddenly it seems, that there is nothing to grasp, that there’s no way to find new bearings - where the Trans* Vagabond should go next… Yet there is always hope, there are always some hidden markings and almost vanished footsteps on the mudpath in front of you, and so the Trans* Vagabond continues with their journey and you’re invited to follow…
Paul B. Preciado: Can The Monster Speak?
The Trans* Vagabond embarked on an uncertain journey and there is no saying where and how their adventure ends. They used to have their life quite neatly organized. The Sun has always been there as a compass and as a clock. But what are time and directions good for when your insides burn with a flame of desire to be truly yourself?
The first steps on a mysterious quest that takes you to old abandoned and long forgotten mining towns of the old Wild West, where land is scourged and only your curiosity can temporarily quench that horrifying thirst, and maybe the Lone Ranger himself will hand you a wear-down mug filled with notions challenging your original perceptions of the place. And suddenly it seems, that there is nothing to grasp, that there’s no way to find new bearings - where the Trans* Vagabond should go next… Yet there is always hope, there are always some hidden markings and almost vanished footsteps on the mudpath in front of you, and so the Trans* Vagabond continues with their journey and you’re invited to follow…
16.03.23—29.04.23
GIANNI MANHATTAN, Wassergasse 14, 1030 Vienna
> Installation views
“The trans* body is the epistemology of sexual difference what American continents were to the Spanish empire: a place of such richness and culture that it beggared the imperial imagination. A place of mining and extermination of life. Our trans* organs are to the heteropatriarchal system what Potosí silver mines were to the patriarchal-colonial unconscious. The silver is extracted from the earth and the miner is buried in the shaft. Our organs are Amazonian rubber and the gold of the Sierras. Our organs are the oil that the normative sexual machine requires in order to function. Everywhere, the trans* body is hated, and, at the same time, fantasized, desired and consumed.”
Paul B. Preciado: Can The Monster Speak?
The Trans* Vagabond embarked on an uncertain journey and there is no saying where and how their adventure ends. They used to have their life quite neatly organized. The Sun has always been there as a compass and as a clock. But what are time and directions good for when your insides burn with a flame of desire to be truly yourself?
The first steps on a mysterious quest that takes you to old abandoned and long forgotten mining towns of the old Wild West, where land is scourged and only your curiosity can temporarily quench that horrifying thirst, and maybe the Lone Ranger himself will hand you a wear-down mug filled with notions challenging your original perceptions of the place. And suddenly it seems, that there is nothing to grasp, that there’s no way to find new bearings - where the Trans* Vagabond should go next… Yet there is always hope, there are always some hidden markings and almost vanished footsteps on the mudpath in front of you, and so the Trans* Vagabond continues with their journey and you’re invited to follow…
Paul B. Preciado: Can The Monster Speak?
The Trans* Vagabond embarked on an uncertain journey and there is no saying where and how their adventure ends. They used to have their life quite neatly organized. The Sun has always been there as a compass and as a clock. But what are time and directions good for when your insides burn with a flame of desire to be truly yourself?
The first steps on a mysterious quest that takes you to old abandoned and long forgotten mining towns of the old Wild West, where land is scourged and only your curiosity can temporarily quench that horrifying thirst, and maybe the Lone Ranger himself will hand you a wear-down mug filled with notions challenging your original perceptions of the place. And suddenly it seems, that there is nothing to grasp, that there’s no way to find new bearings - where the Trans* Vagabond should go next… Yet there is always hope, there are always some hidden markings and almost vanished footsteps on the mudpath in front of you, and so the Trans* Vagabond continues with their journey and you’re invited to follow…
Bodie is a mid chapter in a trilogy following adventures of the Trans*Vagabond, leading from baroque opulence of the streets of Salzburg hiding injustices of the witch trials, through the American west, to finally reach a point of cathartic self-discovery somewhere in the woods of the Czech highlands.
The conceptual backbone of the trilogy lies within attempts on deconstruction and queering of known and trusted archetypes borrowed from popular culture and the complexities of history, now involving learning from the history of Europe’s witch hunt and its cultural representation and stereotypization through popular media, from literature to film and TV entertainment, combined with the deconstruction of the pop-cultural archetype of the cowboy, the ultimate image of masculinity. The Trans* Cowboy goes through the process of gender transition, establishing a new trans* visibility and overcoming the weight of the assumption of “heroism” and strength.
Bodie is constructed through a sequence of digitalized analog photographs taken in the present state of the historic mining town Bodie in the Sierra Nevada Mountains, California. Reminiscent of Chris Marker’s approach in La Jetée, the images are telling their own specific story, while a voiceover adds an additional content layer unearthing silenced and suppressed histories of the original cowboys of all genders and origins.
Music: Omar El-Sadek
The conceptual backbone of the trilogy lies within attempts on deconstruction and queering of known and trusted archetypes borrowed from popular culture and the complexities of history, now involving learning from the history of Europe’s witch hunt and its cultural representation and stereotypization through popular media, from literature to film and TV entertainment, combined with the deconstruction of the pop-cultural archetype of the cowboy, the ultimate image of masculinity. The Trans* Cowboy goes through the process of gender transition, establishing a new trans* visibility and overcoming the weight of the assumption of “heroism” and strength.
Bodie is constructed through a sequence of digitalized analog photographs taken in the present state of the historic mining town Bodie in the Sierra Nevada Mountains, California. Reminiscent of Chris Marker’s approach in La Jetée, the images are telling their own specific story, while a voiceover adds an additional content layer unearthing silenced and suppressed histories of the original cowboys of all genders and origins.
Music: Omar El-Sadek
