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| Ibai Gorriti in studio. |
Ibai lives in Barcelona and came all the way to Winnipeg
(among other travels between Canada and the United States) for the DIS Summer
Institute. We are so pleased to have them here!
Ibai has been following the work of DIS for a while now, so they were extremely excited to be participating in the seminar. Ibai thinks that DIS is very smart in addressing the ideas that DIS presents and framing these problematics in “edutainment.” Ibai says, “Gender, which I will focus on [during the DIS Summer Institute], is clinically and culturally enforced but also any other “truth”, or any form of consciousness, is produced socially in politics, in science, in education…or the market, media, parliament, school, museum…thus, the so-called sovereign subject (the voter, the elector, the consumer…) becomes more of a historical object whose agency seems to be in crisis.”
Ibai is informed by visual/material culture and the ideas
surrounding it. In particular, they embrace Aesthetics, a branch of philosophy
that has historically dealt with “art” with a strong interest in authors linked to Marxism such as Hegel, Tatarkiewicz, Deleuze, Danto, Foster, Groys, etc. Ibai would like to note that they aren’t
interested in using grandiose terms or framing themselves as a
philosopher.
Ibai doesn't necessarily conform to the practical logic of "art", meaning that they don’t care for calling what they do a “practice”. Instead, they would like to critique “art” as a practice and the productive regime implied by having a so-called “art practice.” However, it makes sense for them to challenge "art" in these environments. They are actively working on the collapse of "binary," not only does it mean the gender binary, but any binary: good/bad; real/unreal; host/guest; artist/curator; etc. Likewise, Ibai embraces "theory as praxis" as a mode of operating beyond binary (https://www.facebook.com/theoryismypraxis/).
Ibai seizes the tools offered by academia (cultural, media, queer, performative, post-colonial, gender/feminist studies, critical theory, etc) and attempts to activate them in real life. This can take on the forms of writing, public speaking, curating, organizing, advising, consulting, supporting, sabotaging, performing, etc.
Ibai doesn't necessarily conform to the practical logic of "art", meaning that they don’t care for calling what they do a “practice”. Instead, they would like to critique “art” as a practice and the productive regime implied by having a so-called “art practice.” However, it makes sense for them to challenge "art" in these environments. They are actively working on the collapse of "binary," not only does it mean the gender binary, but any binary: good/bad; real/unreal; host/guest; artist/curator; etc. Likewise, Ibai embraces "theory as praxis" as a mode of operating beyond binary (https://www.facebook.com/theoryismypraxis/).
Ibai seizes the tools offered by academia (cultural, media, queer, performative, post-colonial, gender/feminist studies, critical theory, etc) and attempts to activate them in real life. This can take on the forms of writing, public speaking, curating, organizing, advising, consulting, supporting, sabotaging, performing, etc.
At the DIS Summer Institute, Ibai had come across the story of
David Reimer, a major case in gender studies, psychology, and contemporary
medicine that turns out to have happened in Winnipeg. Ibai is working on
deconstructing Reimer's experience in order to unpack the invention of gender/sex
(the use of XX and XY as the only legal chromosome combinations) by the child
psychiatrist who was working with what science considers "intersex"
bodies (Ibai speculates that perhaps the invention of gender began in Winnipeg
with the case of David Reimer, and the child psychiatrist that was treating
him). Ibai is also seeking to unpack the political engineering of the national
body and the ways it manifests itself (gendered, healthy, lawful, mechanical, productive
and reproductive) along with the birth of the hospital and the state.
Ibai will be performing a lecture that fuses the the look-and-feel of
political protests with corporate lexicon, leveraging how both worlds use the word, "revolution". Ibai will be blending narratives from trans and queer activism, D.I.Y. biohacking, and more speculative post-human, cyborg, biotechnological imaginaries. This is done as an intervention in front of the toilets on the main floor exploring how not only
gender, but many other binary constructions/fictions force us to live in
what Ibai refers to as "low-resolution" world. Ibai describes this as being limited to embody simplified fictions and binaries. The intervention titled, Pitch for Somatech™ Revolution, is paired with their bathroom
manifesto, Soft Architectures.
Along with those works, Ibai has also set up an installation made up of a
documentary, books, and files that can be accessed titled, Dr. Money and the Boy with No Penis.
The DIS Summer Institute has been very intensive and packed with
thrilling content. Ibai wishes that there had been more time for them to dwell
in it, but they are very happy with what they got out of it. For them
personally, it was truly a wonderful experience getting to know Winnipeg and
meet all the participating artists and thinkers. Ibai can't stress enough how
thankful they are for everyone who contributed to the Summer Institute.
Thanks so much for the mini revolution and the revelations about
the potential invention of gender in Winnipeg :•0 !
Website: http://ibaigorriti.com/
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| Ibai Gorriti in studio. |
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