Hamamness - Don't B/Other Me

“Othering,” as a practice of exclusion, is not only tested but also exercised here. Slowly and relaxedly, we lean back and watch as our selective reality evaporates. The time of othering is over. The Berlin-based activist and famous soothsayer Sabuha Salaam brings her tea leaves to Vienna and queerly reads what will come to pass. Post the future!Theorist Dina El-Najjar unmasks orientalism and opens deconstruction strategies.Hengameh Yaghoobifarah, editor at Germany’s Missy Magazine, talks about fat activism, fat acceptance, self-love, and space-taking. In this way, body politics are subject to a progressive reinterpretation. Body-positivity rules. Relax the pain away!

Hamamness is a 140-square-metre room, consisting of three domes, in which the centuries-old hamam culture meets postcolonial discourse. The installation is simultaneously a pre-enactment and a progressive simulation. In the inflatable structure, you proceed from the relaxation area into the wash zones. At 45° C and high humidity, your pores open and your senses are stimulated. Physiotherapists, tellaks, and natırs (hamam bathing staff) pamper you, while the performers turn one or other established certainty on its head, and the discourse guests sweat out their knowledge in this new cultural climate. The dualities of body/mind, man/woman, migrant/non-migrant are softened and scrubbed. Hamamness mediates new understandings of the body through the production of collective intimacies. Open your pores, your heart, and your mind. Relax. Let your head and feet be washed. Sign up and immerse yourself in the heterotopy of post-identity realities.

With four different theme-blocs, Hamamness invites you to visit several times. For this, we recommend buying a season ticket!

Language
German, English

Duration
6 pm until 10 pm (latest admission 8.30 pm). Plan at least two hours for the entire procedure. Anything less would be a pity.

Please note
Swimsuit, bathing suit, bikini, burkini, or whatever you would like to wear underneath may be brought along – and don’t forget your bathing shoes or flip-flops. Individualized pestemals (hamam towels) are provided before entry. Please wrap yours around you and keep it with you.

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Artistic Team
Curator: Nuray Demir
Curatorial Consultant: Ahmet Sitki Demir

With Sabuha Salaam, Dina El-Najjar, Hengameh Yaghoobifarah, Leyla Jagiella, NIC KAY, Ahmet Sitki Demir, Amani Abuzahra, Ismahan Wayah, Sara Mikolai, Eisa Jocson, Gürsoy Dogtas , Hiba Shammout, Sakîna, AmIrani, EsRap, Betül Seyma Küpeli, Sylvia Michalke