EVS

İdil’s ESC Project: QV: Queer Visions – Queer Visibility

Dear All,

We are happy to share results with you the İdil’s ESC Project took place in Germany.

Idil Istanbul, Turkey

Supervisor: Ane;

Mentor: Eszter Kadar

Dates: 1.10.2019 – 30.09.2020

 

Hello, my name is Idil, 23 years old sociology student from Istanbul. I will be working on my project “Queer Visions – Queer Visibility (QV)” in Sonntags-Club.

My project focuses on the interactions of gender and queer visibility particularly in arts and music scene in Berlin.

My questions are:

  • Who is perceived with which sexual identity and expression in the scenes?
  • How can underrepresented groups in the queer community become more visible?
  • How are relationships build and maintained in queer communities?
  • How do queer artists influence their queer audiences and vice versa?
  • What mechanisms exist between the different movements and modes of art in a colorful city like Berlin?

 

Often, the way gender identity is portrayed plays a crucial role in their visibility. In this respect, art goes beyond the realm of personal interest. Attitudes, action routines, outfits, aesthetic habits, the repertoire of artistic action, musical taste, visual representations of all kinds and endless artistic movements are building blocks of the formation of many gender-specific identities that substantially take their shape around art and have their expressions in art.

Berlin is a multicultural city, where diverse sexual orientations and gender identities come together with diverse cultures, ethnicities, nationalities and customs. Berlin is also one of the European cultural capitals, where all sorts of cultural activities can be found thanks to a creative and free atmosphere on an international and multicultural level. An overview of the diversity of the Berlin (queer) art scene will be the starting point for the investigation of the visibility issues in arts and music scene in Berlin.

 

Sonntags-Club is located in the heart of the city and has been a stage of different sexual orientations and identities for more than 45 years by now. SC has been involved in the building of a queer community and will provide background and experience that is necessary for my project. So I will be able to observe the significance of the creation of such exclusive spaces beyond a dominating culture for hitherto barely visible gender communities.

 

 

Events in Sonntags-Club e.V within th frames of QV: Queer Visions – Queer Visibility

 

As the lockdown hit in early March, we had to be creative and invent activities that were in line with the aims of the project and yet suitable for online spaces too.

Idil came up with the idea to organize a poetry event, where young, queer, international artists would come together. They used some selected poems to reflect upon the impact of the lockdown and social isolation from a queer-feminist point of view. While exchanging their personal experiences, they also put the topics of quarantine, isolation and alienation to a wider social context.

In this online event more than 20 young people took part from different parts of Europe (Germany, UK, France, Turkey).

 


 

Name: Queer poetry night w/ open discussion (Online)

Date: 06.05.2020

Event Description:

What do young, queer artists do in social isolation? How do they stay connected and find their creativity in lockdown?
At the Sonntags-Club’s first, online poetry night, three young, queer artist Idil, Zeliha, and Elif are going to share their perspectives on the questions above. In order to dive deeper into the topics of quarantine, isolation, and alienation, they will open the evening by reading poems and offering their interpretations from a queer-feminist point of view. By guiding us through their interpretations, they will also invite the audience to participate in an open conversation that will happen online.
This event will be held in English and on Zoom.

Event Photos:

The project focuses on the interactions of gender and queer visibility particularly in arts and music scene in Berlin. In order to interactively disseminate the objectives of the project Idil facilitated a workshop for women* in which they had the opportunity to exchange knowledge about music production in a safe and inclusive environment.

 


 

Name: Ableton-Live: Workshop for beginners (flint* only)

Date: 12.07.2020

Number of participants: 6

Event Description: This workshop is about learning basic skills for producing music on your computer. You will learn how you can produce music with a digital audio workstation. In the first part you will get an introduction to the setup, interface, session, and arrangement view. Then the use of plug-ins, software instruments, audio and midi channels will be explained. In the third part we will deal with EQ-ing and sound effects.

Event Photos:

Stage photo taken before the workshop started on 12.07.2020

 


 

Name: Open Forum: Visibility of FLINT* in Electronic Music

Date: 22.08.2020

Event Description:

How person’s gender identity affects their own art, the community and the whole scene? What kind of advantages, possibilities, encouragements and inspirations come from living in a colorful city like Berlin and, also what are the disadvantages, discriminations, barriers they face even in the city of freedom?

Recently, there are more and more freshly emerging FLINT* artists, collectives and organizations in need of visibility and accountability in the still male-dominated electronic music scene. Hidden hierarchies, micro-aggressions resulting in the maintenance of non-equal opportunities, pay gaps, all-male line-ups, mobbing and fetishizing FLINT* need to be revealed and spoken louder. Sonntags-Club invites FLINT* people to an open forum in order to give voice to the people suffering from these oppressive structures, to create a platform for them to speak up, share experiences, find empowerment in supporting networks, gather and attract more attention of the public.

Due to COVID-19 restrictions max.21 people can participate as an audience in the event.
Free entry.
Language: English

An open forum within the ESC project funded by Erasmus+

Within the frames of this open forum, Idil gave a very comprehensive insight to the discriminatory structures that women* are suffering from in the (electronic) music industry. She presented the results of the most recent international studies dealing with the situation of women* in electronic music. Relying on the provided information the audience was invited to take part in an open discussion and exchange their experiences.

Event Photos:

Open forum: Visibility of flint* in electronic music (22.08.2020)

Not event-based activities

Apart from facilitating these events, Idil composed a jingle that you can hear in the beginning of the podcasts and Youtube videos of the Sonntags-Club.

See/listen to: here

 


 

Events where Idil represented the Sonntags-Club:

17.07.2020

On the occasion of the Pride Week in July 2020 the Sonntags-Club supported the action of the Deutscher Paritätischer Wohlfahrtsverband Landesverband Berlin e.V. for the visibility of LGBTQ+ people.

Source: Deutscher Paritätischer Wohlfahrtsverband Landesverband Berlin e.V.

https://www.facebook.com/ParitaetBerlin/photos/a.633850919996197/3022707561110509/

Idil represented the Sonntags-Club at the livestream of the CSD Berlin Pride on 24.07.2020 (from min. 41-52).

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