The desire for being many

To kick-off the project The desire for being many, the curators of Neun Kelche and alpha nova & galerie futura and artist Lillian Morrissey will be hosting the panel discussion The desire for being many - Strategies of Weak Resistance in cooperation with the Gunda-Werner-Institut, featuring cultural theorist Ewa Majewska, artists Alexandra Ivanciu and Jolanta Nowaczyk and political and social scientist Tarek Shukrallah. 

Moderated by Sandra Ho, advisor on antifeminism at the Gunda-Werner-Institut, the panel will explore pertinent questions on how to safeguard gender progress and defend the rights of women, lesbian, inter/non-binary/trans/agender people* and queer communities in the face of rising neo-patriarchal aggression. What forms of subtle or ‘weak’ resistance can we employ within our lives and professions? How can we foster alliances across disciplines, movements, and lived experiences to form active counter-publics and to strengthen mutual support?

Bringing together interdisciplinary perspectives from across a spectrum of art, activism, and critical discourse, each speaker will offer insight into strategies of resilience, coalition-building, and radical care during times of regressive political backlash. 

The desire for being many is a collaborative project consisting of three exhibitions that will take place in Berlin project spaces alpha nova & galerie futura, Neun Kelche and Solaris. Multiple events will accompany the joint exhibition from October to December 2025, platforming intersectional women, lesbian, inter/non-binary/trans/agender people* artistic and discursive voices against the current anti-feminist, LGBTQI-phobic far-right backlash. The event is a cooperation with the projekt 'The desire of being many'.

With:

• Alexandra Ivanciu (no pronouns/they) is an artist and cultural worker based in Leipzig. Alexandra mainly focuses on collaborative practices based on solidarity and artistic friendship. With an art practice informed by intersectional feminism, queer and decolonial theory, Alexandra aims to overcome the boundaries of the art space in order to actively contribute to society’s needs.
• Ewa Majewska (she) is a feminist theorist of culture and associate professor at SWPS University in Warsaw. Her research focuses on queer-feminist critical theory, antifascism, and archival studies Majewska is the author of several books, including Feminist Antifascism (Verso, 2021), and links academic work with feminist and queer political struggles.
• Jolanta Nowaczyk (she/her) is a Prague-based pro-abortion activist and artist. She co-created the collective Ciocia Czesia, which helps people from Poland obtain legal and safe abortions in the Czech Republic, and co-founded the first organization focused on reproductive justice in the Czech Republic: A.S.A.P. (Abortion Support Alliance Prague).
• Tarek Shukrallah (they/them) is a political and social scientist, community organizer, and writer. Their work focuses on Queer of Color critique, queer movement histories, intersectionality in Germany, and sexual politics in North Africa. As co-editor of Nicht die Ersten. Bewegungsgeschichten von Queers of Color in Deutschland, Shukrallah connects academic analysis with activist practice and publishing.

Moderated: Sandra Ho (she/her) is an advisor for antifeminism at Gunda-Werner-Institute who has previously worked on (anti)feminism, anti-racism, gender, intersectionality and media.

As part of the artistic project “Exercising Collective Disobedience” by Alexandra Ivanciu und Jolanta Nowaczyk, the event offers the option to donate emergency contraception (the morning-after pill) as a gesture of solidarity toward reproductive justice.
 

Contact:
Sandra Ho, Referentin Antifeminismus
E Sandra.Ho@boell.de

» Participation on site
at the the Heinrich-Böll-Stiftung Conference Center, Schumannstr. 8, 10117 Berlin

Please register in advance. Unfortunately, the number of seats for this event are limited. If we are at capacity, the conversation will be transmitted via video to other rooms.

» Towards Greater Accessibility
At the Heinrich Böll Foundation, we are constantly striving to remove barriers. Whether in our building, in the release of publications or at online events. All information on this can be found under the following link: https://www.boell.de/de/auf-dem-weg-zur-barrierefreiheit