Post-migrant drag persona, Polish-German culture of remembrance and queer whispers: with PASKUDNIK, Tubi Malcharzik & team search for a gap in family memory; for the word that often left the grandfather’s lips to call the grandchild. There is no clear translation of ‘Paskudnik’. Between the dining table of an Upper Silesian family celebration and the surface of a dating app, the performance touches on questions of gender roles and sexuality, anti-Slavism and queerness.
‘Paskudnik’ is a post-migrant drag persona who got lost during the crossing of the border between Germany and Poland, between the past and the future. ‘Paskudnik’ is a word that was often used by the grandfather to address the grandchild. In memory, it is located somewhere between dining table, soccer match, parasite, and disgust. There is no unambiguous translation. What the term means exactly remains unclear. With the performance PASKUDNIK, Tubi Malcharzik takes a queer view on the own German-Polish family history and sets off on a search for this familiar yet undecipherable hole in the collective family memory.
One hundred years after the referendum in the border region of Upper Silesia, around fifty years after Willy Brandt’s genuflection and the arrival of the family at the immigrant transit camp Friedland in the Federal Republic of Germany, Malcharzik and an interdisciplinary team take ‘Paskudnik’ as the starting point of a performance which rolls up migration history backwards. Immersive soundscapes, narrative fragments and imagination open a queer and post-migrant space of memory.
The team invites the audience to the dining table of an Upper Silesian family festivity and to the interface of a dating app until these places connect for the duration of a song. Based on a red velvet dress, myths of high cheekbones and songs by t.A.T.u. and Peter Alexander, the performance touches on themes of gender roles, sexuality, queerness and anti-Slavism as well as Polish-German remembrance culture.
Additional information The performances on Fri, 18 & Sat, 19 October will take place in English with Polish surtitles. The performances on Mon, 21 & Tue, 22 October will take place in German with Polish surtitles.
Tubi Malcharzik (no pronouns, they/them) lives and works as a performer, dramaturge and DJ in Vienna and Hanover. Based on autobiographical experiences, Malcharzik deals with queer memory, German-Polish migration history and seemingly impossible duets in performances, video works and audio pieces – both in solo performances and in the form of collective works. These works have been shown at venues including Schwankhalle (Bremen), HAU (Berlin), PACT Zollverein (Essen), Pawilon (Poznań), Queer Art Spaces Vienna (Kunsthalle Exnergasse) and dotdotdot Festival (Vienna). In addition to their artistic work, Tubi feels at home at the dancefloor, is a founding member of the queer-feminist DJ collective soft spot and has performed as aua&angst at Hyperreality Festival (Vienna), SISTERS+ (Vienna), transmediale (Berlin) and dyke* night (Witten), among others.
Concept and Performance Tubi Malcharzik Dramaturgy Isabelle Edi Musicand Sound Luyu Zou, (mohammad) adika Rahman Costume Anna Schall Artistic cooperation and surtitles Julia Kostka, Natalie Pielok (Grupa Mauczka) Production management and artistic collaboration Marten Flegel aka Marty Damour Polish translation Agnieszka Kozłowska English translation Desz Debreceni Stage design collaboration Amelie Sabbagh Lighting Josephine Mielke Counselling Marie-Christin RissingerThanks toZuzanna Zając, Paweł Świerczek, LaQuèfa, Magdalene Gööck, Paweł Matusz
A project by Tubi Malcharzik & team, produced by Die Soziale Fiktion, in co-production with brut Wien, NFT –Netzwerk Freier Theater, Schwankhalle Bremen and LOFFT – DAS THEATER Leipzig. NFT is funded by the Federal Government Commissioner for Culture and Media as part of the Federal Association of Independent Performing Arts' “Verbindungen fördern” programme. The project is funded by the City of Vienna's Department of Culture (MA 7), the Ministry of Science and Culture of Lower Saxony, the Performing Arts Fund with funds from the Federal Government Commissioner for Culture and the Media and the City of Leipzig's Department of Culture.
The performances on Fri, 18 & Sat, 19 October will take place in English with Polish surtitles. The performances on Mon, 21 & Tue, 22 October will take place in German with Polish surtitles.
The performance on Mon, 21 October will be followed by an artist talk (moderated by Katarzyna Winiecka)
studio brut
Zieglergasse 25, 1070 Wien
accessible
Nordwestbahnstraße 8-10, 1200 Vienna
Subway: U1, U2 (Praterstern), U4 (Friedensbrücke), U6 (Dresdnerstraße) Tram: 5 (Nordwestbahnstraße) Bus: 5A (Wasnergasse)
not accessible
Zieglergasse 25, 1070 Wien
Subway: U3 (Zieglergasse), Tram: 49 (Westbahnstraße / Zieglergasse)
Eschenbachgasse 11 / Ecke Getreidemarkt, 1010 Vienna
U-Bahn: U4, U1 (Karlsplatz), Tram: 1, 2, D, 71 (Burgring), Bus: 57A (Getreidemarkt)