Bagdam Espace lesbien
6th International Conference of Lesbian Studies
April 10-13 2009 - Toulouse, France
L’arme du rire/Larmes de rire*
*Laughter as a Weapon/Tears of Laughter
If I don't laugh, I am going to cry.
Hail Hilaria, Mother Wit,
We can't stand all this shit.
Haggle, gaggle, wiggle, and wag,
Bless us with a joke or a gag.
in Morgan Grey et Julia Penelope, Found Goddesses.
Before the Second World War, Hitler was the subject of a lot of laughter in the cabarets of Berlin. (Before. They laughed at him, before.)
This is the way it is; when a situation is on the point of becoming terrifying, and in fact already is, we need to laugh, and to laugh about IT.
You have surely noticed that certain traces of a rotten past waft through our era as well; bad air from a bad era. Locally, oh there is not a real hitler, that would be impossible.** There are only pathetic local bosses, who are nonetheless worrying. And everywhere, from north to south, from east to west, a large selection of bloody potentates, global mafias and an overly powerful financial oligarchy protected by the equally over-equipped police, a moral order only too happy to spread their theocratic, and thus gynocidal terrorism.
Questions to consider: If laughter has the function of relieving the tension that weighs against our diaphragms, does it also have a revolutionary function? Can we overcome tyranny and it's agents solely by the power of our mirth and excoriating irreverence?
(Later, Hitler was not the subject of laughter.)
Let's come back to the here and now, in France or with our Italian neighbors for example, we have never laughed so much at our respective heads of state. However they have come to power, and they are decidedly there, though we won't mention their names for hygienic reasons! Our laughter did not vanquish them. Hilarity did nothing to stop their rise to power. In London, it was even said that it was the humor of the horrific and xenophobic new mayor that led to his election. Because 'good jokes' are likely to be injurious, sexist, racist, lesbophobe and homophobe. They do wonders to crush the oppressed and they enrich the self satisfied laughter of brutish shitheads the world over. It is time then to re-establish in our favor the balance of power between the ability of their attacks to reach us and the effectiveness of our own attacks.
'…E la nostra risata vi seppellirà !'
'...But our explosion of laughter will annihilate you!'
Yes or No?
Is there something to laugh about?
Lesbian history (and the women's herstoric movement), having attained TWO generations in its contemporary political phase, can now turn its gaze back on itself. This occasions and at the same time requires an analytical distance towards his/herstorical, philosophical, sociological and artistic questions, a distance that we obviously did not have in the early years of the movement.
Humor is life lived + time.
As was seen in the thousands of jokes which circulated in the ex-soviet bloc, in skewering a reality that is generally disastrous, laughter testifies to communal experience of a common destiny. It creates a sentiment with desperation at its base but, an oh how agreeable, even vital complicity and superiority of spirit in the face of the adversaries superior force. It warms the heart, if not the body.
Satires, caricatures, jokes and pamphlets are therefore the essential links for the creation of the collective consciousness of a community around a common enemy. This solidarity in humor, including the darkest of humor, takes its strength from a shared recognition of the coming or current disaster. It also feeds upon the need to feel alive and more than ever resistant to this common destiny which overwhelms us but we dream of defeating.
However, derision once sure of its attitude of impertinence, unfolds its wings and brings along its subtle companion... self-irony.
Laughing at the enemy and at oneself, a winning combination! Who can stop these two? Their strengths are complimentary. Because, once acquired, the capacity to SEE CLEARLY through the deadly and laughable game of the gynolesbophobes, we posses in principle the conceptual and creative tools to CRACK UP and crack the dominating forces. For the same price, we can (finally!) place the certainty of our inalienable self knowledge in our took kit, the sign and signature of a liberty that we have decreed for ourselves. Even if this liberty to be, to think and to act is surrounded by ever renewable threats of a 'non-liberty' to act.
The clandestine nature of laughter and the fact that it is prohibited has never stopped its spread and, more important than the debatable notions of 'happiness' and 'social well-being' (cf. dreams of integration in heteroland), laughter, the perfect analgesic, is THE ideal marker of our independence.
Nota Bene: The essential aim of this conference is essentially our pleasure, be it intellectual, physical, or aesthetic. This is why we do not wish to enlarge the theme of laughter to include that of our enemies laughter against us.
Call for Submissions
1 Papers and Presentations
The questions that we are posing in this, the 6th Conference in Toulouse are numerous, perturbing and captivating.
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What are or will be our 'Caricatures of Mohamed' against the religions and the heterosexual fundamentalists who wish for us a political, symbolic or social 'nonexistence'?
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Stripping away the layers of virile domination, is it an exhausting or joyous exercise?
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Us poor sisyphean lesbians, is there any time left to make fun of ourselves?
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What function do our explosions of laughter serve among our explosions of anger (anger = a permanent state)?
Which brings us to the essential questions:
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Does a veritable lesbian humor already exist on an international level on the model of Jewish humor?
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Are lesbians ready to have a sense of humor about EVERYTHING, INCLUDING themselves?
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The Roméettes and Julios of opéra buffa 'lovers forever' are they already on the stage and in place to make us howl with laughter at our own follies?
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And reactionary humor, that of our enemies against us? This is a possible subject but, not one to be over done. Our time is precious and our masochism inexistent. (See the introduction)
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Last but not least: literature and theory:
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We hope for hilarious analyses on the use of humor, irony and their variants seen in the works of our writers and researchers. Examples such as the treatment in the texts of orgasms in particular, and desire in general, including love scenes and how they are dealt with, the characters and settings of literary archetypes as well as the subversion of literary norms seen in the work of Barnes, Causse, Stein, Wittig…
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Analysis of domination (heterosexual or gay) seen in lesbian and/or feminist theoretical texts such as those of Delphy, Le Doeuf, Guillaumin, Mathieu in France or among the Bagdam writers who appeal to you such as Boucheron and Julien. Basically, how do we use their literary, conceptual, and militant irony to support our resistance to the theorical constructs of domination and their resulting realities.
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Also welcome would be a study of the evolution of auto-irony of Lesbians dating from the beginning of the movement or possibly the era of Gertrude Stein. Were we already funny, before? Are we even funnier now? And tomorrow will we be more amusing than today? Why does approach of the queer movement seem to be still stuck in a purgatory of pontification? Is there a congenital seriousness in trans-gender studies? Why, on the other hand, do the historical texts of feminists and lesbians still make us laugh out loud? Is there a feminine humor to which lesbians are susceptible anyways?
> For the duration of the conference, conceptual questions on the theme of laughter, individual talks, group discussions and workshops will be presented in combination with 'comic labs' during which our guest actresses and performers will give us the pleasure to laugh until we cry or laugh about our tears.
> So, place of honor will be given to Hilaria, ‘Mother of Wit’ invoked at the opening of this call for submissions, and bringer of all our indomitable thoughts, our impertinence and our ability to SEE.
In brief:
The human comedy, as seen by lesbians.
It will not be SAD.
2 Performance arts (theater) --Fine Arts (exhibitions) --History of the movement (exhibitions)
The follolwing are called for:
> 'One Lesbian Shows', choreographers, theater companies, and the specialists in short improvisations
> But also videos or stories tracing the exploits of some of our notable bad grrrls such as, the Lesbian Avengers, Guerrilla Girls, and in France La Barbe or Elvira Banotti in Italy.
> Comic book artists, photographers, video artists, and fine artists who by their visual works manifest their irrepressible need to:
- Dive into the delights of auto-derision
- Dominate/transform and ultimately destroy a reality that is heterocratic, gynolesbophobic and which quite simply sucks.
We are also looking to draw upon your personal archives to enrich one of the exhibitions of the conference:
>The best tracts, postcards, flyers, and posters demonstrating feminist and lesbian humor.
- Provisional Title: Lesbian and Feminists – 40 Years of Humor on Show
Write to Bagdam at (bagdam@bagdam.org) and attach a PDF of the poster,
tract or press cover that you would like to exhibit and you will be
contacted by the commissioners of the exhibition.
3 Cinema
It goes without saying that the conference will make plenty of space for lesbian humor as seen in cinema be it short, medium or long films of fiction, social documentary, or experimental works. Evviva la commedia !
> The organizing committee is studying the possibility of extending the three days of the conference to six days with the goal of including a substantial cinematic program, otherwise known as a film festival!
If not, as we have done in previous years, the screenings will be concentrated on Friday night, the opening night of the conference and in the afternoons for the videos and short films, to be shown in parallel with the workshops.
Guidelines for Submissions
Deadline for proposals, November 20, 2008
Acceptance will be confirmed by email before December 15, 2008
1 Papers and Presentations
Guidelines: WORD format, texts of 10,000 letters maximum, including notes and bibliography. Send a summary and a bio in French and English, eight to fifteen lines each, with a complete address, email, home and mobile phone numbers and website if applicable. If possible, a letter presenting work currently being done or an extract of the article you are proposing.
To submit or for further information contact: bagdam@bagdam.org
Or by mail: Bagdam Espace Lesbien – 1 rue de la Fonderie – 31000 Toulouse – France
If your proposal is accepted, the complete article must be received before March 1, 2009.
Accepted work will be published in its entirety in the conference papers, Espace lesbien, n° 6, published by Bagdam, in 2009.
Nota Bene: We ask that you keep you titles short, with out long subtitles. Humorous titles, will of course be appreciated.
2 Performance arts, theater, dance, mime, impersonations, parody, improvisations....
1) Evening Shows
Five or Six performances (dance or theater) will be selected for the evening shows prior to the soirées on the nights of Saturday the 11th and Sunday the 12th of April. The sets must be easily and quickly installed. Lighting and other technical needs will be tested with the theater staff of the conference starting the morning of Friday April 10th.
The organizers of are planning for a show with an approximate total run time of 60 minutes. Thus the length of each performance must be between 20 and 30 minutes. If several short sketches are chosen, the number of performances per night will be expanded, within reasonable limits.
2) Shows and improvisations during the day and workshops in the afternoons
The goal is to punctuate the course of the 'spoken' conference with comic interruptions – which demand a good coordination between the artists involved and the conference staff.
It is possible that certain performances would use both the themes addressed in the afternoon workshops and any aspiring actresses in attendance who would like to sign up to participate.
The improvisations or comic interruptions will alternate with planned subjects such as video (see point 3), proclamations (individual or group), impersonations, parodies, or theater workshops.
3) Stories, performances, or actual actions in heteroland
Videos or public performances by groups such as the Guerrilla Girls, or recent actions by the french group La Barbe would be welcome. You are also welcome to propose stories about the hilarious 'happenings' and performances by those confirmed trouble makers and artists as Cécile Proust (France) – or Elvira Banotti (Italy) > who is extraordinarily apt to terrorize men even in their all male political party meetings.
Further advice: We would like to underline the necessity to really present how you propose to make us laugh! So we need a clearly illustrated proposal of what you intend to do.
Send us your bio (of 8 to 15 lines in both French and English) as well as an explanation of your performance and its title with internet links or 2 or 3 photos so we can visualize the show you propose. Specify clearly the technical support needed (the amount of material to be stored, sets, accessories, sound system, etc).
The conference schedule will be defined at a later date by the organizing committee. Your presence in Toulouse is required from the morning of Friday the 10th to coordinate with performance arts staff of the conference and with other artists.
Nota Bene: The possibilities of comedic theater to inspire lesbian laughter are infinite and of course will coincide with the themes announced above in the 'spoken' presentations of the conference. Please plan for minimal set up, not a 'Holiday on Ice.'
We are calling for French speaking artists, but artists from other countries are welcome in the measure that their talent as expressed in their language is comprehensible to all. In this way we are will explore in a real way, the fascinating question of the universality of our humor. It is a challenge!
3 Graphic arts, fine arts, multimedia, photography, postcards, videos, comics, fanzines, posters, press cuttings, tracts, caricatures, installations etc.
1) Exhibitions of photography, graphic arts and 3D works (sculptures or installations depending upon the space available!).
Send 2 to 3 photos, drawings or caricatures, the title, an explanation of the theme, a
bio of 5 to 10 lines each in both French and English.
2) Historic Exhibition
Your archives please! We are of course contacting the primary holders of lesbian archives in France and throughout Europe, and if possible in the 'rest' of the world! However, if you think that you possess a rare, amusing, impertinent or shocking document whether it is a tract, an invitation to a lesbian event, or a poster announcing a social or political event-- send us a photo and a description of the date, location, context and artist(s)/writer(s).
The provisional title of the exhibition: Lesbians and Feminists – 40 Years of Humor on Show (If we receive enough applicable material for periods prior to the last 40 years, we will extend the period under consideration by the exhibition).
4 Cinema
The program is under consideration pending our meetings and viewings in upcoming film festivals. The call for submissions in this domain will be specifically communicated in a separate document, before the end of 2008. In the meantime, more films will be coming out and we look forward to showing even more films that have yet to be screened in Toulouse.
Thank you for your attention, and to everybody the best of luck in their activist and artistic endeavors. Our conference is an important meeting for lesbians in the French speaking world and beyond. We need to support each other and to do that we need to passionately defend our thoughts, our art, our talents, our actions and our liberty. We are looking forward to reading your work and seeing you in Toulouse in 2009,
more than ever called La Ville Rose, Pink City.
Stay update to date by visiting the site bagdam.org
Or to subscribe to the Bagdam news list, write to: bagdam@bagdam.org
Or/and jacqueline.julien@wanadoo.fr
Postal Address : Bagdam Espace - 1, rue de la Fonderie - 31000 Toulouse - France
