Difficult times demand willful solutions. Solutions that are strategies. Strategies that fuel social interaction and clashes and are based on exchange and alternative ways of participating or living in a community. In other words: we want social poetics*. social poetics* that turn the public space into a place to protest, to act, to confront and for civil disobedience but also for dialogue and participation. We want social poetics* that destabilize existing structures – to rethink them – and call for action rather than preserve structures that exclude and limit, and that are therefore imprecise, unstable, and fragile. social poetics* with an *, to speak of the hidden, the indeterminate and the marginalized. And for us to deprive immediate recognition and to resist closed categorization and fixed identity. social poetics* that invite to imaginative militancy, in solidarity with the social environment; social poetics* as a representation of the real and the intimate.

The project social poetics* is dedicated to the collaboration between the artist Tomás Espinosa and the Red Comunitaria Trans, a community of sex workers* from Bogotá / Colombia, who develop performances, video works and sculptures in collective work processes that reflect the social and political struggle of the women*, as well as their protest against them. At the same time, the artistic work of Tomás Espinosa is at the center of the exhibition. The artist explores the interface between ‘private’ and ‘public’, his works are in a constant state of flux between collectivity, intimacy and solitude.

Tomás Espinosa (*1985 / Bogotá, COL) studied fine arts in Bogotá and Berlin and has participated in the “Institute for Spatial Experiments” program, among others. Espinosa has conducted performances and workshops internationally and has participated in numerous exhibitions, e.g. in Dresden, Frankfurt, Prague, and Singapore. Since 2015, Espinosa has been collaborating with Red Comunitaria Trans, developing workshops, interventions and performances in public space together with the community with the aim of increasing the visibility of the trans* community and supporting them in the fight for equality.

The Red Comunitaria Trans was founded in 2012 in Bogotá by transsexual sex workers* as a trans*feminist organization. Its goal is to advocate for the lives and rights of trans* people and to raise awareness of and overcome the disadvantage and discrimination experienced by this community. As part of its long and dedicated work, Red Comunitaria Trans also collaborates time and again with artists, such as Tomás Espinosa, combining the means of art with activism and social and political protest.

social poetics* is a cooperation between the Red Comunitaria Trans, Kuir-Festival Bogotá, EL PARCHE Artist Residency and Kunstverein Göttingen.

The exhibition will be shown at the Alte Rathaus in cooperation with the Fachdienst Kultur der Stadt Göttingen.
We thank our funding partners:

Funded by the Visual Arts Project Fund of the Goethe-Institut.