Nov 28 2021 to Nov 28 2021 7:30 p.m.

EVENT HAS ENDED

Where

Goethe-Institut Bangalore

716, Chinmaya Mission Hospital Rd, First Stage, Defence Colony, Indiranagar 560038

Event Description

n assortment of thoughts on gender and sexuality.

It all started when a friend asked, “Why can’t he just rinse the glass?”.

                               2020 was a year of reckoning.

Women were forced to deal with homes, work, children, health and more.

Transgender sex workers who walked the streets were locked in without income, food or even covid related health support.

Migrant women walking with their families cooked on roadsides, wondering where they could safely relieve themselves.

People were stuck in abusive relationships and toxic environments in spaces they would never choose to be during the most difficult times.

In the end all stories are gender stories, even the one where a man jokes about his wife’s smile (on instagram, where else?).

The global pandemic showed us very quickly how different people had different coping mechanisms during the crisis. After a year, devoid of meetings and greetings, we, like numerous others, (including our partners at Goethe-Institut / Max Mueller Bhavan) felt the need for something tangible, where we could talk about how gender plays out in daily life, in small ways and big, we felt the need to  connect, if not in person, then at least by passing the parcels and notes, in this case journals. That’s how  The Gender Chronicles project was born-we wanted a  safe space where we could rest our thoughts and ideas. These books have travelled across the length and breadth of Bangalore and come back with many a tale, some wonderful thoughts, introspections, ideas, and art. For six months these journals were passed from home to home in Bangalore, sometimes they got stuck in homes that contracted covid, stayed a while before restarting their journey. Some were kept in living rooms, some were hidden in closets and drawers, some people chose to write their names, others didn’t want anyone to know what they had written. These journals have had quite a journey and would tell us some amazing backstage stories if they could talk.

After half a year on the road, Rest Your Thoughts Here: The Gender Chronicles is now ready to culminate as an ongoing repository of reflections on gender and sexuality. 2021 started with the idea of notebooks and artbooks making their way to people’s homes. Boxes with books, stickers and stationery that people used to create their art, jot down their thought, sometimes rant and rave, sometimes reflect and introspect on everything that constituted gender stories.

Many contributors poured their heart out to the gender journals that went around town collecting little nuggets of our collective experiences.

Join us as we open up the online exhibit curating all these stories together.

The  artwork and stories will be on display and can be viewed online.  The launch will also feature a live event with Hindi poetry by Kavita Malviya and artist Avril Stormy Unger will perform her artwork contributed to the Gender journal. Multi-disciplinary artist and curator of the project Deepikah Bharadwaj will walk you  through the online exhibition.