Chris Kraus, Wencke Mühleisen, Constance Tenvik
Karmaklubb* Talks & screenings (on various forms of queerness)—part 4
Saturday 08.06.19
Saturday 08.06.19
Karmaklubb* is proud to announce the fourth part of the "Talks & screenings"-program with a conversation between the writers and thinkers Chris Kraus and Wencke Mühleisen. Moderated by artist Constance Tenvik, the discussion will focus on communities, social practices, and the potential thereof. Tickets can be booked here.
The work of both Chris Kraus and Wencke Mühleisen have emerged out of radical artistic practices. Kraus made her mark as an experimental film maker and video artist, Mühleisen as a groundbreaking performance artist, inside and outside of the Friedrichshof-collective (AAO) in Austria in the 1970s and ‘80s. Both their careers have later followed critical and/or literary paths: As an editor of the independent publishing house Semiotext(e) Kraus explored the intersection between critical theory and radical poetry, while Mühleisen came to hold a professorship in gender studies. In addition to having shared their discoveries to a larger audience through relevant books and active participation in public discourse, they’ve also reflected critically upon their own experiences and the structures they’ve encountered within the arts, attacking issues such as power dynamics, gender and politics.
In this conversation, we want to explore how one can come together with agency, diving into both the possibilities and the limitations that may occur. We’re also interested in the role of the artist—do we define ourselves as inside or outside the norms of society? Do we separate art and life, or do we allow them to merge? What are our responsibilities?
About the participants
Chris Kraus (b. 1955, New York) is the authour of four novels, two books of art and cultural criticism, and more recently,After Kathy Acker: A Litterary Biography (2017). She received CAA’s Frank Jewett Mather Award in Art Criticism in 2008 and a Warhol Foundation Art Writing grant in 2011. She lives in Los Angeles.
Wencke Mühleisen (b. 1953, Dale) is an independent researcher and currently writer, until recently she worked at the Centre for Gender Research and media at the University of Oslo, focusing on Queer Theory, Sexuality, and Media. As a performance artist, writer, and researcher Mühleisen has worked with our cultural and media-formed understanding of sex and sexuality for decades. She has published several books related to her research as well as novels, among them Kanskje det ennå finnes en åpen plass I verden (2015), and Jeg skulle ha løftet deg varsomt over (2011).
Constance Tenvik (1990, Oslo) is an artist based in Berlin and Oslo. Tenvik received her MFA from the Yale University in 2016. She has held solo exhibitions at venues including Prosjektrom Normanns in Stavanger ("Helpless as Tortoises"), UKS and Kunstnernes Hus in Oslo ("Soft Armour"), and Loyal Gallery in Stockholm ("Gesamtkunst With Myself").
About Karmaklubb*
Karmaklubb* is a nomadic queer club concept and discursive platform. Among other things the program consists of club nights, open conversations and meetings, wine tastings and sometimes food, screenings, artist talks, panels, concerts, performance, and it has also launched its own ale. Karmaklubb* is about creating hybrid social spaces for conversations and meetings—thought and pleasure—across categories. * Girls and such. All welcome.
"Talks & screenings" are a series of discoursive events in cooperation with Kunstnernes Hus and Lofthus Samvirkelag (2018–2019). The seminar has included artists, curators, institutions, musicians and scholars such as Tony Cokes (US), Tyler Matthew Oyer (US), Malene Dam (DK), Eva Rowson (UK), Natalie Hope O’Donnell ("Munchmuseet on the Move"), Fadlabi (Khartoum Contemporary Art Center), Resis’Dance (UK), Konsept X, Geir Haraldseth (The National Museum), Telepathe (US), amongst others.
This conversation is initiated by Constance Tenvik. Realized with the appreciated support from the Freedom of Expression Foundation, and the City of Oslo, Agency of Cultural Affairs.
Recommended reading: Chris Kraus’ Social Practices (2018) & Kanskje det ennå finnes en åpen plass i verden (2015) by Wencke Mühleisen.
