THE GARDEN: Nature Is not Natural. AIDS, Collectivity, Radioactivity

Talk + Screening

Talk: Marc Siegel in conversation with Bishnupriya Ghosh, Bhaskar Sarkar, Rehana Zaman and Ed Webb-Ingall (digital) on Viruses, Politics and Collectivity According to Derek Jarman. Host: Marc Siegel
Screening: Your Ecstatic Self, Rehana Zaman, 2019, UK, 32, HD video + I, I, I and I, Rehana Zaman, 2013, UK, 14', HD video + surprise video

Nature Is not Natural. AIDS, Collectivity, Radioactivity - Marc Siegel and international guests critically return to the local contexts of Derek Jarman's work and his film "The Garden" (1990) to work out their relevance to a contemporary global situation. The discussions take us from AIDS to COVID; from a threatening nuclear power plant hovering over queer performances taking place in and around a beautiful, barren garden, to the environmental disaster that is a dangerous horizon of our present; and from collectivity around AIDS activism to collaboration and collectivity in art and activism today. The discussions will take place in the bar of Betonhalle. Live visitors are also welcome.


Marc Siegel is Professor of Film Studies at the Johannes Gutenberg University in Mainz. His research focuses on queer studies and experimental film. His book A Gossip of Images is forthcoming from Duke University Press. He is co-founder of the Berlin-based artists' collective CHEAP and a Member of the Academy of World Cultures in Cologne.

Bishnupriya Ghosh is Professor of English and Global Studies at the University of California, Santa Barbara. She is currently completing a book called, The Virus Touch: Theorizing Epidemic Media, which considers how mediatic processes detect and compose epidemics as crises events. 

Bhaskar Sarkar is Professor for Film and Media Studies at the University of California, Santa Barbara. He is currently completing a book, Cosmoplastics: Bollywood’s Global Gesture and working on a second one on queer underground club cultures in millennial Los Angeles.

Rehana Zaman is an artist from Heckmondwike based in London. Her work speaks to the entanglement of personal experience and social life, where moments of intimacy are framed against cultural orthodoxies and state coercion. Conversation and cooperative methods sit at the heart of her practice. She is currently a board member of not/nowhere artist workers cooperative and Lux Moving Image, who also distribute her films.

Ed Webb-Ingall is a filmmaker, researcher and senior lecturer on the BA Film and Screen Studies course at London College of Communication, University of the Arts. He collaborates with groups to explore under-represented historical moments and their relationship to contemporary life. He is currently working on a project looking into the role of video in response to housing struggles as well as a book, The Story of Video Activism.

silent green Betonhalle 
7.30pm
in English
Free admission; prior ticket booking and registration online necessary!
The talk will be in English and will also be live-streamed via YouTube