The scent of memory (our own and that of strangers)
Our work is based on the political ground of intersectional queer & trans feminism and antiracism. We stand for zero tolerance towards any kind of discrimination. Our mission as an awareness team is to prevent and counteract discrimination and violence, promoting consent, respect, responsibility and self awareness.
By offering a space to calm down and rest, we want to help Urbane Praxis create a safer space for everyone. You can approach us at any time if you should feel uncomfortable or unsafe: we are there to listen to you and support you in your needs without shame, judgement or the need for explanation. You can identify us by the pink vests! Feel free to contact us for any inquiries! We are available for work requests to help make your political event, club night, conference,(...) a safer space. You can reach us via mail: roses.of.care@proton.me Or on instagram: roc_awareness
Everyday things such as smells, sounds and images can evoke memories. In the diaspora, they connect us fleetingly but intensely with geographically distant places, even those that may no longer exist. In the queer diaspora, this uprooting, also known as dislocation, happens on multiple levels – not only in relation to origin, but also in relation to kinship, family, culture and history. This dislocation is painful, but offers the opportunity to develop knowledge and practices that help us to navigate this rupture. Individual and collective memories create spaces in the city that challenge existing dominant forms of power. These spaces of memory can manifest themselves materially, for example in the form of monuments, street signs or archives that honor individuals or resistances, but also through immaterial cultural practices or rituals. Here, remembrance becomes an urban practice and a form of urban design. Nevertheless, we recognize how fragile these spaces are, even after they have been created. For what and how we remember is influenced by limited notions of identity, home and selective memory culture. Spaces of memory are much more than erected monuments in the city – how can we expand our understanding of them? What is the significance of memory in the production of queer diasporic spaces? How can tensions and conflicts as well as the transience and fragility of these spaces be negotiated, even once they have been built?
This workshop invites collectives, initiatives and individuals to participate in a half-day session to negotiate queer diasporic memory in the city, collect, share and archive existing, emerging and disappearing practices and spaces in Berlin. It is an opportunity to make connections, network with collectives and individuals and form alliances. With two parallel workshops led by Sinthujan Varatharajah and Uriara Maciel from Comitê Marielle Franco Berlin. Following both workshops, we will address the questions that arose during the sessions and make connections between the practices of the respective groups and individuals. This session will be facilitated by Pepe Sánchez-Molero and Ana Bisbicus, while the entire workshop day will be facilitated by Sharmila Sharma. Awareness will be provided by the collective Roses of Care (R.O.C.). We invite collectives and individuals to bring an object, material or similar that documents your own practice or that you would like to share with us on the day.
WORKSHOP STRUCTURE
Moderation: Sharmila Sharma (she/her/hers/no pronoun) Sharmila Sharma (she/her/hers/no pronoun) develops and leads projects, curates and organizes events, moderates, writes texts and advises on discrimination-sensitive project work and concept development. Her aim is to connect with the movements in the spaces and on the streets of Berlin as well as with people’s experiences and feelings. Their practice is characterized by a constant examination of structural and social inequality, with the aim of creating spaces and platforms that are sensitive to discrimination and power. Critical questioning and open listening are just as important to her as addressing conflictual issues that many people often avoid. In addition to her freelance work at the interface of art, culture and the city in many different organizations, she has also served many a drink in the city’s bars, clubs, cafés and concert venues.
13:00 – 14:00 Arrival and Lunch
14:00 – 16:30 Workshops
Workshop A: Erinnerungen bauen (DE)
Was bedeutet räumliche Erinnerung in der Stadt? Wie kann diese für queere und rassifizierte Gruppen in der Stadt aussehen? Welche Rolle spielen Zeitlichkeiten für die Frage des Raumes? Und welches Spannungs- und Konfliktpotential kann in dem Prozess des Designs und der Errichtung sog. marginaler Erinnerungsstätten entstehen? In dem Workshop Erinnerungen bauen werden diese und weitere Fragen mit Hilfe von Beispielen aus der gelebten Welt kritisch erörtert, um sich schließlich der Frage zu nähern, ob es mehr Mahnmale benötigt und welche möglichen Fallstricken im Konzept der sogenannten “Erinnerungskultur” liegen.
சிந்துஜன் வரதராஜா (Sinthujan Varatharajah) ist als Essayist*in und politische Geograf*in tätig. Nach jahrelanger politischer Arbeit zum Schutz von asylsuchenden und staatenlosen Menschen, sowie der Forschungsarbeit zur strafrechtlichen Verfolgung von Génocidaires, erschien 2022 வரதராஜா erstes Buch an alle orte, die hinter uns liegen im Hanser Verlag. Ihr*Sein zweiter Gesprächsband mit der Künstlerin Moshtari Hilal, Hierarchien der Solidarität, erscheint im November 2024 bei Wirklichkeit Books.
Workshop B: Planting Marielle’s Seed: Fostering Inclusion and Representation in Berlin (EN)
Workshop building on the appreciation of Marielle Franco’s legacy and the need to create spaces of representation for bodies that are often marginalized and impacted by the struggles she stood for, this workshop will explore critical questions. Guided by questions such as, “Why is it important to plant the Marielle Franco seed in Berlin?”,”Who cares about honoring the memory of a Latin American, Black, peripheral, and lesbian activist in the capital of a major European city?” and “Which figures are we still missing?” participants will be invited and encouraged to envision an image of the city that welcomes and represents them.
Uriara Maciel was born in Bahia, northeastern Brazil. She currently lives in Berlin and works as a theater maker and actress. She is dedicated to researching and staging texts with a decolonial vision and feminist themes. As an activist and cultural promoter, she co-created the Gira Resistance Festival and organizes Berlin’s annual celebration of the International Day of Black Latin American and Caribbean Women. Since 2019, she has also been a member of the Comitê Marielle Franco Berlin.
Comitê Marielle Franco Berlin
From a place of grief, thousands of women worldwide rose up. Personalities, organizations, and social movements in Brazil and beyond demand justice, asking who ordered Marielle Franco’s murder and why. This has turned her into a global human rights symbol, with her name immortalized on streets and squares. In 2019, a series of events called “Temporary Streets and Squares” was held in Berlin, renaming public spaces after Marielle Franco. Cultural activities and activism commemorated her and her driver, aiming to amplify international pressure on Brazil to investigate human rights murders seriously. On September 8, 2019, as part of the Gira Festival of Resistance, Marielle-Franco-Platz was symbolically inaugurated in Berlin-Kreuzberg, with plaques that remained for two years, serving as a point of resistance for the Brazilian community. In 2021, these plaques were attacked by anonymous vandals, but the community responded by replacing them, further strengthening their stance. With support from the Marielle Franco Institute, a dossier was translated to advocate for officially renaming the square in front of the Brazilian Embassy in Berlin. Now, with sufficient time elapsed since Marielle’s death, efforts are underway to formalize Marielle Franco Square in Berlin, with plans to eventually install a sculpture of her as a symbol of global human rights.
Pause 15 min.
16:45 – 18:30 (105 min.) Gathering experiences, wishes, questions mit Pepe Sánchez-Molero und Ana Bisbicus (DE/EN), Moderated by Sharmila Sharma
Moderated and visually documented through graphic recording, this session aims to capture the qualities and processes of initiatives in Berlin that honor queer and/or migrant histories. Rather than focusing on quantitative data or mapping, the workshop encourages participants to collectively envision the spaces, infrastructures, and services necessary for their stories to be recognized as integral to the city’s fabric. Guided discussions will address themes such as immediate needs, challenges to expression and archiving, and the act of reclaiming. Participants will explore the significance of memory in the production of queer diasporic spaces and discuss how to negotiate the tensions and conflicts that arise. The workshop will conclude with self-reflection and will provide visual documentation of insights and next steps for fostering queer and migrant narratives.
Pepe Sánchez-Molero (they/them) is pursuing a PhD at Dublin City University researching spatial productions by queer migrant communities. As a spatial researcher and designer, they work in the fields of urban planning, scenography, curatorial work and activism. Pepe holds a M.Sc. in Architecture with a focus on urban development and architectural theory. Their research project ‘QUEERingAACHEN‘ maps queer spatial production in Aachen during 1970-2020. Pepe’s main research interests are the social construction of space by minorities (specifically the queering of space). Born and raised on the east coast of Spain, Pepe has studied and worked in Germany, UK and Ireland for the past decade.
Ana Bisbicus (they/them) studied architecture at the Berlin University of the Arts and the Glasgow School of Art. Ana lives and works between Berlin and Cali, Colombia. Their work is positioned at the intersection of artistic research, education, and the curation and design of spaces. Together with Sarah Naira Hachem Herfurth, they founded Habi Practice حبي this year (2024). Together, they develop educational programs for spatial planning that critically address racism and colonialism. From 2019 to 2024, Ana was a member of the fem_arc collective in Berlin.