Kickstarter

Russian Queer Performance Art Project

LIEBEration / 1:175

June, 2012

Friends,

In June I will visit the Sachsenhausen Memorial outside Berlin to perform simple life routines, gestures and expressions in memoriam of the queer victims of the Nazi persecution. This performance art project will consist of naming, numbering, dedication, doing and documenting of 175 simple actions, an allusion to the infamous Paragraph 175 which criminalized homosexuality. For example: “One. Alexey. Smile.” The Sachsenhausen Concentration Camp held a large number of Pink Triangle prisoners and after the WWII served as Soviet military prison 1946-50. As a gay Russian artist today, I embody the totality of the Sachsenhausen Experience. This intentional celebration of the joys of being by a survivor across historic generational span transforms collective trauma into a valuable lesson for the future generations.

I need your support in ensuring the success and long term impact of this poignant project. Your contribution will go towards covering travel, lodging and equipment for my Italian colleague, the documenting artist Giada Cotugno, and me. It will also make possible creation and promotion of the commemorative website, a limited edition zine, and a traveling photo exhibition. The more funds are raised, the better quality prints and coverage will be available for display and education! Anthropologist Tom Driver writes about "the transformative power that great ritual performances have: they link our most 'advanced' ideas and aspirations with some of our most 'primitive' tendencies. They are profoundly integrative." By embodying and manifesting simple human (inter)actions alongside complex social constructs, I will draw attention to the often silenced and overlooked queer history of the Holocaust.

Please, join me in this undertaking!

Your contributions will be appreciated and rewarded!

Thank you for your support.

Love sets us free,

Alexey

Artist & Timing

Visiting Sachsenhausen in 2002 as a student was a homecoming of sorts. I felt it was my space and it called upon me to change. I became an activist at the intersection of sexuality, oppressions and the arts. Among other projects, I co-facilitated the Equality Rides across the USA, multiple workshops across Europe, and the first of its kind Equality Caravan in Kyrgyzstan. Our work was featured on MTV, CNN and other international media as well as subject of the award winning documentary "Equality U". After a decade of art and activism, I want to return to Berlin as a way to commemorate the struggle of previous generations and to honor all the people who face persecution on the grounds of sexual orientation today, including my self. This is a simple act of creative defiance during the traditional Pride season, especially in light of recent discriminatory laws against "propaganda of homosexuality" throughout Russia. Please, help me create a powerful example of anti-propaganda propaganda!

Additional Links

My 2002 Sachsenhausen exhibition at St. Lawrence University

Soulforce Equality Rides

Kyrgyzstan Equality Caravan

Thank you for your support.

Love sets us free,

Alexey