28/11/2023 | Writer: Selma Koçak
“Imagination Talks”, one of Kaos GL Magazine’s reader discussion events, took place on Thursday November 23rd in Istanbul. The event was hosted by Frankeştayn Bookstore.
Organized by Kaos GL Magazine and supported by Frankeştayn Bookstore, Imagination Talks took place last week, November 23rd in Istanbul. Umut Güven, editor of Kaos GL Magazine, interviewed the guests of the event, Berfu Şeker and İlker Hepkaner.
“We are going to respond to the cis-heteronormative system with our hopes and our imaginations.”
Speaking about the themes of Kaos GL Magazine, Umut Güven opened the event by talking about the importance of our imagination and hope, saying the following:
“2022 and 2023 have been years of increasing pressure on LGBTI+ people, human rights defenders and activists. Organized hatred has become more and more visible both in public spaces and in our private lives. Against all the odds, we have continued to produce words with the imagination of a world that is free and worth living for all, and we have continued our political struggle with strength. That is why we brought ‘imagination’, which means the ability of the mind to be creative or resourceful, up to discussion as a file within the scope of the first issue of Kaos GL Magazine in 2023. We have responded to the cis-heteronormative system with our hopes and imaginations till now, and we will continue to do so. It is evident that we live in a geography, where hope and courage are necessities for survival. Against all the odds, for some of us imagining another kind of world and perhaps following the traces of its possibilities is a fact that promotes the courage to continue.”
“Is it possible to construct today as a universe of the imagination?”
The conversation continued with Berfu Şeker’s presentation. Speaking about the One Day One Struggle (ODOS) Campaign held in 2022, Şeker continued as follows:
“Within the scope of the ODOS Campaign, which is organized by the Coalition for Sexual and Bodily Rights in Muslim Societies (CSBR) every year on November 9th, we organized a forum titled ‘Solidarity Keeps Us Alive’ together with Kaos GL and May 17 Association. In this forum, we discussed the effects of poverty on our lives, the pressure that strong family discourses exert on us, and our ideas and future visions. If we look from that day to the present day, is it possible to construct and transform today as a universe of the imagination by thinking together about our practices of struggle and the production of language as feminists and LGBTI+ activists in our history? Can we, by multiplying our spatial coexistence today as in the past, by discussing with each other, rethink our memories and transform our discourses, strategies and tools? I think we need spaces and debates where we can discuss this with each other.”
“Co-production strengthens our struggle for rights”
The discussion continued with İlker Hepkaner talking about spaces, freedom to speak and popular culture. In the following words, Hepkaner drew attention to the importance of artistic production and togetherness:
“Artistic production is always relegated to the bottom of the hierarchy of needs of the most vulnerable groups, and some may think: ‘Wait a minute, we are talking about much more serious things right now, literature and art can come later.’ On the one hand, I understand this concern, but on the other hand, I think that this hierarchy can be an obstacle to the expression of the most basic demands for the most basic rights. In other words, one aspect of our struggle for survival may be incomplete if we as LGBTI+s do not take our own art and literature further than where it is now. For instance, AIDS Coalition to Unleash Power (ACT UP) drew heavily on fashion, art and aesthetics during its activism in the late 1980s and early 1990s in the midst of the AIDS crisis. The designs of artist-activists made the visual language of the movement very effective, and artists continued to produce. They became even more visible when they added their artistic achievements to their rebellion. I would like us to keep this in mind.
Simultaneously, artists and writers should not feel alone in the production process. If we can manage to be together and produce together, perhaps we'll start to feel stronger about fighting for rights.”
Tags: women, arts and culture, life, hiv
