Placement und Gender im öffentlichen Raum: Vulnerabilität als Widerstand

Abstract

This article discusses selected art projects by Tanja Ostojic´ and Anna Jermolaeva. In Tanja Ostojic´’s performance series Mis(s)placed Women? (2009–2022), participants unpack luggage at transit locations to draw attention to the lived experiences of women and queer people in the context of migration, professional mobility, and homelessness. The artist describes her approach as feminist methodology (Ostojic´, 2022), and the title refers to the intertwining of aspects of placement and gender in public spaces. The article discusses the potential of art projects to intervene in the constitution of respective public spaces from marginalised positions and shows how performers appropriate public spaces. Particular attention is paid to the interactions between spatial and gender orders. Which individuals are assigned or denied certain places in public spaces depends on attributions of race, class, gender, ability, and more. The central thesis, based on Judith Butler’s conception of vulnerability and resistance (2016), is that the artistic actions use their dependence on infrastructural conditions and the mutual interdependence of their bodies to “assert a plural and performative right to appear” (Butler, 2016a).