Ruthia Jenrbekova: Live in Your Head: How to Tell What’s Real from What’s Really Real?

In the moderated lecture performance Live in Your Head: How to Tell What’s Real from What’s Really Real?, guest artist Ruthia Jenrbekova navigates phantom institutions, immaterial labor, and spell-casting to ask whether the boundary between fiction and reality can ever be redrawn, moderated by Fellow Olia Sosnovskaya.

Ruthia’s primary interests lie in the field of the unreal and inexistent. This area of research does not look serious — rather childish, frivolous and ignorant of the sufferings of the world. Therefore Ruthia keeps seeking the possibility to connect the realm of the unreal with the shared social reality as we all know it—that is, frightful and sometimes unbearable. These attempts to connect the unconnectable do not help—if anything, they only make things worse. However, they also bring about the realisation that the boundary between reality and fiction should not be taken for granted and can sometimes even be redrawn. In her performative talk Ruthia will share her experience of being a queer artist in a patriarchal country: working in an imaginary art institution, setting up a phantom office, receiving immaterial wage, dealing with ghostly matters and practising spell-casting. Looming in the background of these stories will be the question of uncertainty and (dis)belief during times of war. Why do art and poetry seem out of place amid the violence of the 2020s? How can we navigate between the cruel queer optimism (Laurent Berlant) and the even crueller trans pessimism (Eva Hayward). And what does it mean for an artist to fail — in the face of their own social irrelevance?

Text: Olia Sosnovskaya

Accessibility:
On-site:
Unfortunately, the venue in Innsbruck is not wheelchair accessible. We cordially invite wheelchair users and people with hearing impairments to participate in the event via Zoom. The Zoom broadcast offers the option to enable subtitles. The restrooms are marked as gender-neutral. Seating with backrests and armrests is available, as well as the option to sit on the floor. Additionally, there is sufficient space to accommodate mobility aids of all kinds.

Online:
The event is hybrid and will be held in English. You can either attend in person at the Künstler*innenhaus Büchsenhausen or follow the event online via Zoom. To participate via Zoom, please send an email with the subject line “Zoom Link: Olia” to office@buchsenhausen.at. You will receive the Zoom link via email approximately one hour before the event begins.

Ruthia Jenrbekova is an intermedia artist and researcher from Central Asia, born in Almaty, Kazakhstan.  She has worked since 2012 in the para-institution named Krёlex zentre. Her field of interests include: material semiotics, art-based methodologies, performance art. She is currently a PhD-in-practice candidate at the Academy of Fine Arts Vienna. She lives in Almaty and Vienna.