Gestures & Nods #2: Performance, Drag and Pedagogy
September 26th - 29th, 2025
as "public space" with Asterisk* by Kaeto Sweeney and QCC by Ina Vietha
A collaboration between Gestures and Nods, Sappho’s Friends and Asterisk Bergen.
From drag to education and pedagogy, from films to the club scene, from performance to conversations with queer organizations in Norway.
For this edition, creative people will gather to show their ongoing projects, works in progress, and reflections aloud on topics around queerness, embodied practices and its interactions with the space(s), either “private” or public. Bodies in collective for social movements, and bodies in movement crossing borders -geographical, of gender, among others.
This programme is for those who are hungry of non-Europatriacal, anti-racist, and non-comformig content.
Programme:
Friday 26th September at Bergen Kjøtt
11:00 - 15:00 Workshop on PeDRAGogy by Benjamín Martínez (lunch will be provided).
Clinic on drag and artistic activism where drag functions as a device for performative writing of various social demands by LGBTIQ+ communities.
15:00 - 16:00 Open conversation on the pedagogy of the party and the queer club scene as "public space" with Asterisk* by Kaeto Sweeney and QCC by Ina Vietha
Break
16:30 - 17:30 Asterisk* Filmklubb: conversation between Kaeto and guest artists Eliyah Mesayer, Ccsqule and Tine Adler
Break
18:00 - 20:00 Asterisk* Filmklubb presents ILLIYEEN
Eliyah Mesayer & Nanna Rebekka / Denmark / 2024 / Norway Premiere / 12 min
A lone rider from the imaginary state of Illiyeen crosses an empty landscape and their reflections unfold in a poetic meditation on identity and belonging.
‘Illiyeen’ is the result of a collaboration between filmmaker Nanna Rebekka and visual artist Eliyah Mesayer. A black and white film work from an imaginary state of the same name, in which a lone rider crosses an empty landscape in a meditation on identity and belonging. The Bedouin term ‘Illiyeen’ refers to a heavenly record or register where the deeds of the righteous are written down and protected. But here, Illiyeen is transformed into an allegorical ‘state of nowhere and nation of everywhere’ beyond geographical or national borders.
CCquele will perform part of the soundscape around the imaginary state.
Saturday 27th September at Bergen Kjøtt
11:00 - 15:00 Part II of workshop on PeDRAGogy by Benjamín Martínez
Clinic on drag and artistic activism where drag functions as a device for performative writing of various social demands by LGBTIQ+ communities.
15:00 - 16:00 Lunch
16:00 - 17:00 Performance with Saúl García López aka Saula with Cecilio Orozco and Waldane Walker. With dramaturgy by Mohammed Ellyas Lehry.
Break
18:00 - 19:00 Techno-opera-performance with Angelle Khachik, Ina Vietha, and Kiyoshi Yamamoto
19:00 - 20:00 Dj Ina Vietha
Sunday 28th September at venue TBD
11:00 - 15:00 Lunch with Gestures & Nods, Sappho’s Friends, Skeiv Verden, Inkluderende Feminisme, PKI Vest, Asterisk, and Asterisk Bergen.
Monday 29th September at KMD
10:00 - 12:00 Lecture ‘peDRAGgogy: Queer Pedagogies for Teaching Art History’
This lecture aims to share the findings of Professor Benjamín Martínez’ doctoral thesis, titled peDRAGogía: Art Education and Drag. The talk will be structured in three sections:
The first section presents Martínez’ personal genealogy of Drag, which includes references from the cultural industry (film and television), pop culture, the world of visual arts, and the nightlife scenes I frequent.
The second section will delve into pedagogical reflections on teaching art history from a
perspective of sexual dissidence. In this context, Drag operates as a teaching device
through which students design a character based on the aesthetic and visual values of an
artistic personality or movement.
Finally in the third section, styled as a ballroom, martínez will present the results and creative outputs of students who took Martínez’ Art History courses at the Faculty of Arts and Design in Mexico (UNAM) between 2017 and 2020.
Graphics: Itzel Esquivel
“Gestures and Nods #2: Performance, Drag and Pedagogy“ was supported by: