TransArts: Mai Ling

Artist Collective and Association, Vienna

Der Vortrag wird in englischer Sprache abgehalten / The lecture will be held in english

Expanding upon the concept of stickiness, Mai Ling will share insights on the evolution of some of our recent projects through transdisciplinary and collective artistic processes. Spanning processes of fermentation to germination, this artist talk connects our collaborative practice to broader questions of art, activism and community-building. We will focus on how we ‘digest’ stickiness in terms of racism, colonialism, invasiveness and otherness, versus ‘stickiness’ as pleasure, conviviality, and the complex entanglements of migration and diaspora experiences.

Mai Ling, founded in Vienna in 2019, is an anonymous artist collective and association committed to fostering dialogues on racism, sexism, homophobia, and prejudice with a focus on FLINTA (women, lesbian, inter, non-binary, trans, and agender) of Asian descent diaspora and migrants.

The collective name, Mai Ling, refers to an eponymous German television sketch from 1979 that showcases sexist and racial stereotypes against Asian women, which are still embedded in German-speaking society. Challenging the Western heteropatriarchal gaze and racist fantasies that keep reproducing stereotypes about “Asia,” the collective amplifies multi-layered voices to reclaim agency through collective resistance and pleasure. Mai Ling engages in various forms of artistic practice and activism, including videos, audio installations, cooking performances, community gatherings, public interventions, and protests.