Call for Participants! Unicorn Research Labs: “Space Is the Place” Workshop

Call for Participants!
Unicorn Research Labs: “Space Is the Place” Workshop
Theatre Academy of the University of the Arts Helsinki
21-22 and 24 April, 2015

Consider the paradoxical nature of the unicorn as a queer symbol. On the one hand, the unicorn is mythical – it does not exist – but on the other it is also a magical being, and serves as a powerful symbol of queerness. Can we imagine the possibility of some magical excess emerging from invisibility and erasure in queer performance – something not previously known or knowable? Can absence itself be thought of as a queer kind of presence and appropriated as a queer performance strategy?

Unicorn Research Labs are a series of workshops focused around the issue of queer presence in performance. Is presence a question of technique? How can we approach this question from a queer perspective? How can we challenge what it means to be present, queering the dichotomy between presence and absence? There will be three in total, each dealing with some relation to absence not as a lack, but as part of a spectrum of possible ways of be(com)ing.

“Space Is the Place” is the final workshop in this series, exploring these questions in relation to space. It is happening on 21-22 and 24 April, from 1-5pm at the Theatre Academy of the University of the Arts Helsinki. It is open to anyone, whether or not they identify as queer. Participants may sign up for the entire workshop or one or two afternoons. The language used will be English.

Please email david.frankovich@uniarts.fi to register, or if you have any questions.

What: Unicorn Research Labs: “Space Is the Place” Workshop
Where: Theatre Academy of the University of the Arts Helsinki, Haapaniemenkatu 6, Helsinki
When: 21-22 and 24 April (1-5pm)
Cost: FREE

photo by Monika Sobczak
photo by Monika Sobczak