“The stories I tell demonstrate the constructed nature of gender as a social phenomenon, rather than a biological imperative” - Kris Grey is a New York City based gender-queer artist whose cultural work includes curatorial projects, performance, writing, and studio production. They perform, teach, and exhibit work internationally. In addition to their individual practice, Grey collaborates with Maya Ciarrocchi under the moniker Gender/Power.
Body Dialectics is a performance that Rijeka audience will be able to see this Thursday, May 17th at 8 pm in Filodrammatica, Korzo 28, as part of this year's Smoqua, festival of queer and feminist culture in Rijeka. It is an evolving performance piece based on their personal experiences of navigating a binary world as a gender-queer person with a transgender body. Because their identity is somewhere in between male and female, they fall outside of that binary altogether. They find itself at odds with the social organization of the world and the systems of power that seek to control our bodies. Gender differentiation based on male/female binary touches all of our lives, resulting in inequality and human rights violations. It informs which bathrooms we use, what sports programs we are able to participate in, and what kind of employment we seek. The dominant narrative of trans experience conforms to this false binary by insisting that “transition” is about going from one static binary gender to another. Grey’s trans experience, however, is not about conforming to a binary but rather about crafting a queer body with which to challenge the system.
Find out more about artist here.
Photo: Kris Grey, Body Dialectic, 2017, Warehouse9 IPAF, image courtesy the artist with Jacob Tekiela
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Smoqua is a part of flagship Kitchen, Rijeka 2020 - European Capital of Culture.
Organisers: LORI + PaRiter, From the Citizens to Their City, Centar za ženske studije pri Filozofskom fakultetu u Rijeci
Smoqua is financially supported by: Rijeka 2020 – European Capital of Culture / Grad Rijeka / Primorje-Gorski Kotar county / Ministarstvo kulture Republike Hrvatske / Europska komisija / Musagetes
Sponsors: Adria print and Bordel La Grotta
Media sponsor: Novi list
