14 December 23, 9 pm

In English

Venue: Pogo Bar

Registration via pogobar@kw-berlin.de

you’re seeping into my bloodstream is an hour-long poetry reading, performative lecture and auto-theoretical essay on love ruled by disease, examining its sick and vampiric tendencies for subsistence. This performance delves into Youden’s continued exploration of chronic illness as near-death experience, or a “time of ‘non-death’”. As a term coined by Gruppo Di Nun in Revolutionary Demonology, “time of ‘non-death’ speaks of the mysterious presence of absence, a world populated by impersonal forces and entities, that although not alive, cannot be called dead”.  For Youden, the term becomes inextricably intertwined with the canon of lesbian vampire literature and its metaphors for disability, disease and queer Crip lust. In this realm of the undead, the terrifying angels of Rainer Maria Rilke co-exist with tragic heroines from meta-fictional K-dramas, relive 2015 psycho-thriller bimbo comedies, and sit through many a BPD girl dinner. Interwoven with Youden’s personal accounts of illness, limerence and immortal deviance, she threads together cross-generational fact and fiction, relating to forms of Crip collectivity and its underworld networks of care.

Lauryn Youden (b. 1989, Canada) is a poet, performance and installation artist based in Berlin, Germany. Her practice derives from her research in and navigation through the medical industrial complex, colonial medicine and traditional medicine for the treatment of her chronic illnesses and disabilities. By publicly presenting her personal experiences and re-evaluations of history, her work illuminates and advocates for repressed, marginalized and forgotten forms of radical care and Crip knowledge. 

She has performed and exhibited internationally at institutions including (selection): Stedelijk Museum, Amsterdam (NL), Museion Bolzano (IT), Tabakalera, San Sebastian (ES), Aargauer Kunsthaus, Aarau (CH), Frye Art Museum, Seattle (US), Laumeier Sculpture Park, St. Louis (USA), 11th Berlin Biennale, Berlin (DE), Manifesta 12, Palermo (IT), Shedhalle, Zurich (CH), Württembergischer Kunstverein, Stuttgart (DE), Volksbühne, Berlin (DE), Musik Installationen Nürnberg (DE) and Künstlerhaus Bethanien, Berlin (DE). This year her work has been included in exhibitions at Migros Museum, Zurich (CH), E-WERK Luckenwalde (DE), Kunsthalle Zurich (CH) and Rochester Art Center (USA) and she is currently in residence at E-WERK Luckenwalde. 

Accessibility Info

Time:

Doors are at 8.30pm. The performance will begin promptly at 9pm. 

The performance is an hour long, with two five-minute breaks in-between.

Seating:

The performance is set up for floor seating, but there will be a variety of seating provided, including folding chairs with backs, floor seating with cushions, and bean bag chairs. Please write in advance if you require a seat with a back – if not speak with the door staff upon arrival. 

For the hearing impaired: 

Printed texts in English will be provided at the performance for those with hearing impairments or anyone that requires a physical copy of the text to read along. Digital copy can be accessed via a QR-code on site.

Relaxed Listening performance:

The event is planned as a relaxed listening performance. This means that the performance will have a relaxed and comfortable atmosphere for people to listen together. There will be different seating and standing options. You can move around, leave, and come back anytime you want. Doors will open 30 mins before the event starts, so you’ll have time to get to know the space and choose where you want to sit.

Trigger Warning

explicit content/codependency/explicit sexual content/body horror/disease/terminal illness

Sensory Stimuli

The performance is an immersive sensory experience. There will be low lighting and loud music.

Further information on accessibility at KW can be found here.