Gender Bender 2016, the second edition of the phenomenally successful Gender Bender Project launched last year, is an initiative that invites a fresh, innovative concept of gender and gender equality. It will be held on September 3-4 in Bangalore, and this year, the event is to be co-curated by online magazine The Ladies Finger.
Last year, Goethe-Institut Bangalore and Sandbox Collective, Bangalore, set the ball rolling when they asked artists to come up with projects (ranging from fiction to non-fiction writing and theater to creative installations) that re-examine gender in a creative manner, without gender-bashing or clinical statistics.
The 2015 performances and exhibits ranged from the hard-hitting to the hilarious. Hina Siddiqui, for instance, jolted the mind with her solo act ‘Super Villain’, a woman’s remembrance of rapes, while Puja Sarup, Sheena Khalid, Rachel D’Souza, Ratnabali Bhattacharjee and Mukti Mohan celebrated the secretive world of drag kings and queens, uninhibitedly revelling in masculinity. Vikrant Dhote presented the journey of a boy who loves dolls and dress-up, exploring masculinity and queerness, making the audience question the age-old notions of gender.
This year, the project has expanded to a festival and is expected to be bigger and more diverse, stretching the gender boundaries beyond conventional stereotypes. The artists and projects include ‘The Good Girl|Bitch Please’ which is a series of video installations and artworks through which the artist questions the limitations women pose on themselves and other women, Photosynthesis by Moonlight, which is an adult enactment with puppetry, and, Kadak Collective, a collective of South Asian women who work with graphic storytelling.
For bold ideas that celebrate the individual, without the normative conventions about gender imposed by society, don’t miss Gender Bender 2016.
Keep track of new artists performing at the festival by checking the Gender Bender 2016 Facebook event page.
Featured image source: Goethe Institut
Written by Anisha Kashwani
