ID-CLASH by Angie Hiesl + Roland Kaiser

An intercultural performance

and installation project

on trans identity

by

Angie Hiesl + Roland Kaiser

Performers

Annonya (Bangladesh)

Katha (Bangladesh)

Melissa Marie Garcia Noriega (Cuba-Germany)

Michelle Niwicho (Germany)

Greta Pimenta (Brazil-Germany)

Male?Female?Other?

Transgender people do not conform to the expectations of the gender

role assigned to them at birth because they cannot relate to it. They

feel they are in the "wrong body" and often experience a sense of

dislocation. While their subjective sense of their own gender identity

often provokes confusion in society, it is gaining increasing acceptance.

ID-CLASH throws the exclusive nature of the gender binary into

question. As soon as one moves away from a strictly binary system

of gender, countless possibilities and models of gender self-definition

present themselves.The project focuses on different concepts for

living and stages of transformation.

In ID-CLASH transgender performers from Europe and Latin America

encounter with representatives of the "third gender", the hijra culture

from Bangladesh.

In Europe, the individual livestyles of transgender people are shaped

by opposing social attitudes that range from tolerance to rejection,

tabooisation and prejudice. In the course of the public debate about

equality and social acceptance, niches and safe havens have emerged.

The lifestyle of the hijras in southern Asia follows a centuries-old

mythological tradition. Genetically speaking, hijras are generally men

who have the outward appearence of women but who do not feel as

if they belong to either of the two sexes. They call themselves the

"third gender".

In ID-CLASH, which is performed in the grounds of the Municipal

Nursery in Cologne, the audience encounter people who do not

identify with gender-role standards.

Video produced by Basa Vujin-Stein

http://www.bvs-videodocumentation.de