space matters: Zairong Xiang - Queers of Colour in the Dark(room)

Hörsaal 4 der Angewandten (Altbau, 1. Stock)
Zairong Xiang
Moderation: Kristina P. Hofer

Darkroom, a space of condensed multiplicity, is a promising queer space-time. More than just a place for anonymous sexual encounters, darkroom conjures up diverse and contradictory imageries.
The talk will lead us astray into the rich and complex cosmic darkness, to theorize its radical potential as a space-time in which racism as modern visual drama (especially for queers of colour) is rendered impossible. Can we imagine this space-time as both a return from the past and as a utopia that is yet to come, that is, before and beyond representation, racialization and identitarianism? Does the concept of ?queer of colour? make any sense in the invisible darkness?
The second part of the talk will critically examine the easily celebratory association of the darkroom with queer utopia. We will walk out of the darkness towards the illuminated borderland of sheer visibility. Through unfolding some ethnographical anecdotes and reflecting on the academic discipline of ?queer theory?, it will reflect on the paradoxical notion ?queer of colour? in relation to queer theory and its quasi-universal reliance on white male thinkers. Comparing the queer universal to the utopic darkroom, the talk dwells on the twilight zone of ethnic visibility to ponder how ?queers of colour? negotiate the paradox of ?enlightenment?: as both empowerment and trap, inclusion and exclusion.

Zairong Xiang is research Fellow at the ICI Berlin Institute for Cultural Inquiry. Fluent in Chinese, English, Spanish and French, he is a creative and provocative researcher, working at the intersection of feminism, queer studies, decolonial options and comparative literature in a transnational and multilingual setting. His research aims to problematize and think beyond the modern/colonial (hetero)normative regime of gender and sexuality.